They Stood Up for Peace: Learning from Peacemakers

They Stood Up for Peace: Learning from Peacemakers

  Objective: To learn that many people have had the courage to stand up for what they believe and bring change in the world. Grade Level: Grade 3 and up Preparation Go to Better World Peace Calendar. Open each month and select people for the class to research. Make a list with each person’s birth date. If […]

Poems & Quotes for Peace Lesson Plan: Let’s talk peace!

Poems & Quotes for Peace Lesson Plan: Let’s talk peace!

Poems & Quotes for Peace Lesson Plan This lesson is based on a contribution by Christine Pescatore Objective: To develop an understanding of peace and social injustice through the reading and discussion of poems and quotes. Grade Level: Elementary, Middle School and High School Procedure: Share these selection of poems focusing on peace and justice with your students […]

Peace Dove Lesson Plan: Let’s think about world peace

Peace Dove Lesson Plan: Let’s think about world peace

~ PEACE DOVE LESSON PLAN ~ Objective: To think about ways to obtain world peace Grade Level: Kindergarten through high school Introduction Peace begins in our hearts and our minds, but must be fostered by the actions we take. Young children need to know that adults value a peaceful world and are willing to work […]

Peace Tales Lesson Plan: Using folktales to talk about peace

Peace Tales Lesson Plan: Using folktales to talk about peace

PEACE TALES LESSON: WORLD FOLKTALES TO TALK ABOUT Objective: To introduce culturally different ways of thinking about peace and demonstrate ways people can make a difference. Grade level: Kindergarten and up Peace Tales is a marvelous collection of short folktales by Margaret Reed MacDonald, focusing on peace, collected from all over the world. The tales […]

Resources & Activities for International Peace Day

Resources & Activities for International Peace Day

What is International Peace Day?  The International Day of Peace, or as it is often titled, World Peace Day occurs on September 21st every year. This day is officially dedicated  to world peace, and the elimination of war and violence. The day was established in 1981 by the United Nations as a way to bring world attention […]

Have You Ever Heard of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland?

Have You Ever Heard of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland?

Many people played a role in the Civil Rights Movement. She Stood for Freedom is a brand new children’s book that tells the story of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland. Although raised in the South and surrounded by segregation, Joan was angered by the unfair treatment of people because of the color of their skin. In 1960, despite […]

Develop Empathy: Pathways Taken

Develop Empathy: Pathways Taken

How do we develop more empathy?  What does it look like? by Tim Wolcott Develop Empathy through Trust Empathy is grounded in mutual trust.  James Baldwin called for faith in the “evidence of things not seen”.  He believed we should live life with the assumption that a sense of decency might yet live in the […]

Empathy & the Politics of Tenderness

Empathy & the Politics of Tenderness

It is almost impossible to grow up.  Most people just get older — Maya Angelou An essay by Tim Wolcott Empathy can be crushed Rancor for the ‘other’ has long been an effective tool of the Right to mobilize supporters.  In their plans, empathy is to be avoided at all costs. Many adults, harboring unresolved anger and mistrust, […]

Remembering Hiroshima

Remembering Hiroshima

The Nuclear Threat Initiative sent me the following e-mail this morning: “Seventy-one years ago tomorrow, the city of Hiroshima was leveled by an awesome and gruesome new weapon: the atomic bomb. Three days later, Nagasaki faced the same fate. Today, the world has entered a new and potentially more dangerous era of nuclear risks. Consider […]

Words of love and peace everyone should hear

Words of love and peace everyone should hear

Grant is a six-year-year old boy who is one of the “little people.” He suffers from a form of dwarfism – DiastrophicDisplasia‬. He has a message that everyone should hear. To learn more about dwarfism and bullying visit Kids Health. To learn more about Grant visit his Facebook Page Please share Grant’s message and help fight […]

Why questions are more important than answers

Why questions are more important than answers

If someone told you, we learn more from asking questions than finding answers, would you believe them? According to the ideas of Socrates as passed down to us by Plato, it is only through continual questioning and refinement of our ideas and thoughts in discussion with others that we discover the true nature of what […]

The Rhythm of Compassion: A Book Review

The Rhythm of Compassion: A Book Review

       For most of my life I have felt uncomfortable ‘in my own skin’.  It seemed logical since I was raised in a family that encouraged non-conformist thinking.   Eventually, I realized that the root of the discomfort was an egotistical mindset that simultaneously created my personal alienation as I strove to ‘save the […]