Beyond Intractability Peacemaker Violence Prevention Lesson Plans and Education K-12 The PeaceMakers curriculum is a proven-effective K-12 public school-based program developed by the FreeWay Project in 1996. It has been field-tested in hundreds of Missouri classrooms. The curriculum is based on the concept that violence begins with attitudes of mind, progresses through angry speech, and results in hostile actions. It uses dozens of interactive games and activities to teach students to speak courteously and treat others politely, with dignity and respect . . . the same way they would like to be spoken to and treated. PeaceMakers curriculum uses fresh lesson plans and challenging learning activities to teach three fundamental principles: 1. 2. 3. The curriculum is user-friendly. Click here to view a sample activity (Anger) In a 2001 study of 957 students in 14 schools, violent behavior was reduced significantly by the teaching of PeaceMakers curriculum. Click here for order form or you may call in your orders toll-free:
CRInfo - Counterterrorism and the English Language The New York Times is finally calling torture by its name. Why did it wait so long? Alex Torrenegra/Flickr The announcement that the New York Times will now refer to Bush Administration torture by its proper name is welcome news, tempered only by Executive Editor Dean Baquet's unfortunate attempt to rationalize the old policy. "When the first revelations emerged a decade ago, the situation was murky," he wrote. But every torturing government insists that its interrogations are not, in fact, illegal torture. All that has been known for years! Then Baquet wrote: Meanwhile, the Justice Department, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, has made clear that it will not prosecute in connection with the interrogation program. This seems perilously close to declaring that whether torture is the most accurate way to describe waterboarding depends on whether any Bush Administration officials remain in jeopardy of being prosecuted and imprisoned for it. There are other possibilities.
The Peace Wheel - Culture There are many ways each and every one of us can be part of the peace movement. You don't need to make radical life changes in order to affect change in the world. Look at the following eight pathways, which one speaks to you? Governance/Law/Security Imagine that everyone in the world, the Earth and all its inhabitants and land masses, are protected in a positive, loving manner. Writing a letter or e-mail to an elected official to support positive legislature and government practices.Participating in a march or celebration for peace or other positive cause.Voting in elections.Education/Media Imagine education and literacy for all. Calling a local news station to cover a positive and "feel good" story. Imagine businesses striving to benefit the world and its inhabitants as a whole, not just its shareholders. Imagine people taking care of their bodies and relationships as they would a brand-new child - with love, peace, and tolerance.
Does Language Influence our View of the World? We use language to describe our subjective perception of the world. If I say “I feel cold”, then I use language to describe how I feel. This is nothing new. The interesting question now is: does it also work the other way around? The idea that that the language that we use can influence the way that we think is nothing new. People organize space and time based on the language that they use. Color perception is a second example (1), which demonstrates how language can influence cognitive ability. George Orwell’s book 1984 describes the language “Newspeak” which serves as a further example of the Saphir-Whorf-Hypothesis. The question that know ask myself is, if there is no word for a particular idea or concept, does it mean that the people are not aware of the existence of this concept at all? The consequence of the Sphir-Whorf-Hypothesis is far reaching. Here is my personal collection of words which exist in the German language but are difficult to translate into English. References:
Network of Spiritual Progressives — NSP members and leaders believe the progressive world needs a spiritual political movement. We use the word “spiritual” to include all those whose deepest values lead them to challenge the ethos of selfishness and mater PressThink - PressThink, a project of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, is written by Jay Rosen.
Incommunion The Future of the City Is Childless Read: The Steady Destruction of America’s Cities New York is the poster child of this urban renaissance. But as the city has attracted more wealth, housing prices have soared alongside the skyscrapers, and young families have found staying put with school-age children more difficult. Since 2011, the number of babies born in New York has declined 9 percent in the five boroughs and 15 percent in Manhattan. In high-density cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., no group is growing faster than rich college-educated whites without children, according to Census analysis by the economist Jed Kolko. Cities were once a place for families of all classes. The counties that make up Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia shed a combined 2 million domestic residents from 2010 to 2018. But if big cities are shedding people, they’re growing in other ways—specifically, in wealth and workism. Read: The Steady Destruction of America’s Cities