Category: Peace Education Activities
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Take a Deep Breath: It’s Earth Day 2017
Step Outside. It’s Earth Day – It might have been renamed Sci Cli Day and the March for Science, but today is Earth Day 2017. Today we honor the earth. Our home. Our only home. There is no Planet B as some like to say. Today let’s forget what we are doing to our Earth. Let’s…
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Too Quick to Judge – A Video for Discussion
Making a Snap Judgment In the following video, two people assume they know what the other person is thinking. They make snap judgments about each other. When you make a snap judgement it means that you have taken a mental position such as right or wrong, good or bad before having all the facts. When…
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Sharing Kindness
Kindness: Pass it On This video shows ways we can help each other and spread caring and compassion by observing someone needing help and acting on it. Follow up viewing the video by creating a list of all the small things people did for each other in the video. Discussion Questions: Have you ever done any…
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Book Review – Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea
Solving Conflicts through Nonviolence Nonviolence seems like a harmless idea rooted in compassionate and peaceful interests. Why is it then that practitioners of nonviolence are often seen as enemies of the state? Mark Kurlansky’s book Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea illuminates that dark corner where economic, religious and state power often collude to…
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Eight Children’s Books about Name Calling
Addressing Name Calling Through Children’s Books Name calling does so much damage. It leads to hurt feelings, broken friendships, anger, and even war. The best way to address name calling is to develop our children’s empathy for those who are the victim and provide them with great examples. The following picture books contain empathetic characters and…
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Conflict Resolution Activity: Everyone Has a Point of View
A major cause of conflict between people and groups is misunderstanding each other. There are many reasons for this. Each of us has our own unique upbringing and belief system. We may speak different languages and have different value systems. We may even have different ideas about what makes something true. By understanding more about…
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Conflict Resolution Activity: Coming to a Consensus
Consensus is defined as finding the middle ground between total agreement and total disagreement. A consensus means that everyone has come together to agree on one thing. In a consensus, there are no winners or losers. Everyone accepts the final solution or decision and understands why that is the best decision for the conflict. It’s…
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Preventing Conflict Activity: Name Calling Hurts
You probably think name calling is something only children do. After all, name calling is one of the most common ways that conflict starts between children, especially on the playground out of the eye of the teacher. What child hasn’t been called a name? However, name calling doesn’t end on the playground. It pervades our…
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Conflict Resolution Activity: What Do I See? Identifying Stereotypes
One reason people have conflicts with others is that they have preconceived ideas about the people they disagree with. By facing their own stereotypes and then learning ways in which their opponents are similar to them, people who have disagreements can learn to work with people different from themselves to come to a compromise. This…
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Conflict Resolution Activity: Understanding Conflict
What is conflict? Before we can talk about resolving conflicts we need to define what we mean by conflict. Conflict Conflicts can take many forms. Sometimes only two people are involved. Other times, it may involve groups of nations and lead to war. Conflicts occur when: When people share different personal values. For example one…
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What Color is Your Skin? Choosing Color Names
Have you ever tried to describe the color of your skin? For fiction writers, especially those writing multicultural books and those for children, coming up with color names to describe skin is an ongoing challenge. Coming up with color names for skin often crops up with children’s lessons on racism and in literature classes, too. A teacher,…
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Martin Luther King’s Life & Writings
How many books by Martin Luther King, Jr. have you read? We talk about this great man and quote his words all the time, but to see deep inside him we need to read his books. The following three books are wonderful reading for high students and adults. Strength To Love by Martin Luther King, Jr.…