by Tim Wolcott Do you really know Gandhi or even Martin Luther King, Jr.? You may think you do, but I believe that in some cases, we need to demystify our heroes so that we can more easily support their actions. Recently TeachPeaceNow.org was given a little book What Gandhi Says About Nonviolence, Resistance And Courage by […]
Summer Reading That Makes You Think
“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you know, the further you’ll go.” Dr. Seuss Add these books to your child’s summer reading list and expand his or her thinking about fairness and justice. Psst…yours too. Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki Why do we play sports? A young Japanese American boy in […]
Building Bridges of Support
ONE stick – inconsequential… HUNDREDS of sticks – amazing! Last week we asked you to choose ONE thing you could do to make the world a better place. Did you choose one? Do you think it will make a difference? This Bridge of Support was built by elementary students at my school. After watching the PowerPoint […]
Do One Thing
What ONE thing can you do to make the world a better place? There’s an awful lot going on to be depressed about. Our last two rants addressed issues in education that will take concerted effort on the part of millions of us to effect change. Sometimes it seems so overwhelming, it seems easier to just […]
Occupy Education 102
Public education is under attack. We are told daily that there is a crisis in the classroom: Bad test scores they say. Bad teachers they say. But don’t worry. Corporations are coming to our rescue replacing public service with the free market. BEWARE When corporations get involved in the learning process everything becomes ‘commoditized’ or […]
Occupy Education 101
By Tim Wolcott We are all told that through hard work and applied learning, public education is the elevator to social and financial success. I believe not. There are two education systems in this state. Not public-private. One for the rich and one for the poor and they are both public systems. –Andrew Cuomo, October […]
Happy Mother’s Day of Peace
In response to horror of the Civil War and committed to abolishing war everywhere, Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, wrote a proclamation calling for women to rise up and declare themselves against war and for peace. She called it Mother’s Day of Peace and celebrated the day every June 2 as part […]
Students protest NYS “Pineapple” test
Students see the light as the blind lead the blind…by Tim Wolcott A sage once said “Life is 10% how you make it…and 90% how you take it.” Activist eighth graders from New York aren’t taking mistreatment by this year’s English Language Arts test sitting down. Hooray for them and us all! Effective this year, […]
The Hardwired Emotions
Eric Jensen in Teaching with Poverty in Mind says the emotions children are born with are SADNESS, JOY, DISGUST, ANGER, SURPRISE, and FEAR. What message does this send to teachers and peace educators? The first thing that strikes me is that overwhelmingly the basic emotions we are born with are negative. All the emotional responses […]
Making Beauty for the Earth
Caring for Mother Earth By Tim Wolcott of Teach Peace Now She is respectful, kind and quiet. She often asks before class how I’m doing and/or lingers after class to say goodbye. She isn’t consistent in her quiz or lab grades, and her organization definitely needs improvement. However, I’ve thought more than once how well […]
You Can’t Say You Can’t Play
In every classroom, in every school, in every community there are always insiders and outsiders. When you were in school which were you? In 1992 Vivian Gussin Paley set out to change the social order in her kindergarten classroom. She noticed, as most teachers do, that even when you outlaw hitting and ban name calling, […]
