Solutions
to Violence: DJPC’s New Education Initiative
by
Nancy Babbs
Faith
in the future and confidence in the efficacy of human strength are
the necessary antecedents for all energetic actions and all productive
plans.
José Enrique Rodó, Ariel
When two young
women who had spent extended time in Central America got together
last fall, they discovered they shared not only a passion for the
people of Latin America, but also the burning need to educate our
own young people about the philosophy of nonviolence as a solution
to personal as well as global conflict. Kareen Erbe was a CAMINOS
Accompanier in Guatemala, and Catherine Raveczky was with Witness
for Peace in Mexico and Guatemala, where they both worked with indigenous
groups to help them in their struggle with the intractable problems
of poverty, injustice, and violence. Now they are here in Denver
– Kareen is DJPC’s Program Coordinator and Catherine works with
migrant families in the Jefferson County Schools – and through discussions
with Richard Kruch and others, have energetically and productively
developed DJPC’s new Solutions to Violence Education Program.
DJPC has formed
a committee to work with them to develop a curriculum that they
can take into area schools and churches. Its focus will be to
define violence, conflict, and nonviolence; to highlight historical
figures such as Dorothy Day, Mahatma Ghandi, and Martin Luther King,
Jr.; and to develop an understanding of global links between economic
and military violence.
The Solutions
to Violence Program will offer 50-minute workshops specifically
on nonviolence, globalization issues, and current economic/military
policy in Latin America. A week-long unit will also be offered.
It will incorporate the above workshops to illustrate the structures
of violence and alternative approaches. For example, while doing
a workshop on free trade to understand policy issues, students will
be able to analyze information and problem solve from both corporate
and grassroots perspectives. Interactive activities, a speaker,
and follow-up activities—writing assignments, art projects—will
conclude the week-long unit. A semester-long curriculum is also
being planned that will incorporate materials from the Nuclear Age
Peace Foundation and Colman McCarthy’s Center for Teaching Peace.
DJPC is currently doing pilot teaching at the Rocky Mountain School
of Expeditionary Learning and JeffCo Open School.
DJPC has long
had a commitment to education. In this time of international crises,
the new Solutions to Violence Program will be an effective way to
inform our community, especially our young people, about alternatives
to violence and the consequences of global conflict, particularly
in Latin America. Fundraising will be key to the program’s success,
though the costs are minimal considering the importance of getting
out our message in this time of war and increasing corporate globalization.
The committee
needs volunteers to help with this project. It is looking for
people who are willing to help with curricular development and to
take our curriculum into the public forum, especially schools; for
contacts within schools and churches to further its outreach; and
for help with fundraising to support this critical venture.
Colman McCarthy
asked himself 20 years ago “Can peace be taught? Can peace be
learned?” He went into the schools as a volunteer teacher of peace
and discovered “students are hungry to learn nonviolence. They
understand it is much more than a noble ideal, it is also a basic
survival skill.” He exhorts us: “Let’s not give peace a chance,
let’s give it a place in the curriculum.” DJPC now has the program
to do just that.
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