PSCS - Great Peacemakers

Class #9 - 3/18/08

2008-03-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

We suffered again by having so few people in class so I focused on an abbreviated topic. We dug a little deeper in the spectrum concept I brought up last week, this time zeroing in on an *situation* that took place between Josh & Eric a week or so ago. Josh had left the room for a minute and when leaving told Eric not to take his chair. Playfully, Eric did just that, took Josh's chair, and upon Josh's return offered him the chair but not the same space Josh had meant. While not a big event in the grand scheme of things, I saw this as an opportunity to consider the story from a peacemaker standpoint.

Josh reviewed the exchange from a couple of perspectives, one being how he might have reacted a couple of years ago (with anger & violence, he said) compared to how he reacted this time (to separate and regroup). This got us discussing the concept of maturity and whether or not added life experience (maturity) is an important factor in being a peacemaker.

We also looked at the situation through one of my PSCS "talking points," the distinction between rules and principles. I suggested that PSCS is a school with few rules and a lot of important principles, and that key to everyone's success at school is when we honor the principles. I said that sometimes it's necessary to "honor the principle and break the rule."

I asked you to consider the Josh/Eric story from this standpoint, suggesting that when Eric gave Josh the chair he was technically following the "rule" but violating the "principle." This is the source of a lot of challenges in the world, and a big conflict in justice situations. I said that many of the peacemakers in the book honored principles but broke rules, sometimes going to jail or suffering personally for having done so.

You can consider this "Rules/Principles" thing even further here.

Summary of Homework Due on 3/25:
- Finish reading the 4 chapters in Part Five of the book and complete the journal entry.

Class #8 - 3/11/08

2008-03-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

For those students present (Eric & Josh, plus Aaron who sat in) we did a thorough review of Part 4 of the book. Students presented their journal entries which started some useful dialogue.

The bulk of our class was spent creating a spectrum of the peacemakers and their philosophies and trying to place them, starting with Schweitzer's concept of "Reverence for Life" and comparing it to the persecution of people in Nazi Germany during WWII. We ended up trying to place ourselves on this spectrum, as well as concepts like vegetarianism and veganism.

If you missed class, please do some additional research on each of the people featured in Part 4 and report back to me. To assist:
- Henry Salt
- Albert Schweitzer
- Astrid Lindgren
- Jane Goodall

Summary of Homework Due on 3/25:
- Finish reading the 4 chapters in Part Five of the book and complete the journal entry.

Class #7 - 2/26/08

2008-02-27T09:46:00.000-08:00

Hi Everybody!

It was great to be back in class after a week away. Too bad Gabi & Gracie were absent but we still had a good class.

We began class with Eric giving us a detailed review of his trip to Arizona and meeting Ken & Heather. I think Ken made a good impression on Eric. He described Ken as "a hoot" and told us about going to get terriyaki together. Sounds like a fun car ride, Ken! :)

The bulk of Eric's presentation was about the interview he conducted of Ken & Heather. He mentioned how Ken has regular conversations with Colman McCarthy and that Ken & Heather told him that Andreson Sa doesn't speak English. Ken also loaned Eric a copy of the Anderson Sa movie Favela Rising. I'm going to look into offering that as a Friday activity. Eric videotaped his interview and has loaned the tape to me to look at. I may show part of it in class as time allows. Let me know if you want to see it.

The remaining time in class was spent reviewing journal entries specific to Part 3 of the book. I think my favorite comment came from Josh who was quite taken by Desmond Tutu and said, "Desmond Tutu is insane." Obviously, insane in this context was a good thing. Good work was done here. Here are some additional links for you to consider as you further your studies:
Bruno Hussar - Oasis of Peace
Desmond Tutu Peace Centre
Riane Eisler - Partnership Education
Seeds of Compassion - The Dalai Lama in Seattle, April '08

Remember, no class next week due to intensives week so our next gathering is on March 11th. Including that class, we only have 3 sessions remaining.

Summary of Homework Due on 3/11:
- Finish reading the 4 chapters in Part Four of the book and complete the journal entry.

Class #6 - 2/12/08

2008-02-14T13:06:00.000-08:00

Please pardon the brief entry this week. It is consistent with my work-related theme for the week - very busy.

In fact, this *theme* impacted the Peacemakers class as I missed most of it due to an important phone call. Fortunately, the plan for this week's class didn't require a lot of facilitating. You all did a great job generating questions for Eric to take on his trip next week, a portion of which will be spent interviewing Ken & Heather.

Eric, if you can, consider posting the questions in the comments section of the blog or emailing them to me.

As a reminder, there is no class next week due to the week off.

Summary of Homework Due on 2/26:
- Finish reading the 4 chapters in Part Three of the book and complete the accompanying journal entry.

Class #5 - 2/5/08

2008-02-07T10:46:00.000-08:00

We reviewed the 4 peacemakers featured in part 2 of the book. Here are some additional resources to further your understanding:
- Mother Teresa - One of TIME Magazines 100 Most Important People of thge 20th Century
- Thich Nhat Hanh & Plum Village
- Solutions to Violence, an 8 session class developed by Colman McCarthy
- Oscar Arias Foundation For Peace & Human Progress

Next week we're going to put together questions for Eric to take to Heather & Ken since he's going to get to meet them over mid-winter break. And because of this break, you have until the 26th to read the chapters in part 3 of the book.

Summary of Homework Due on 2/26:
- Finish reading the 4 chapters in Part Three of the book and complete the journal entry.

Class #4 - 1/29/08

2008-02-01T11:29:00.000-08:00

We spent most of the class period reviewing the Study Guide's vocabulary words for Part 2: Ethics, Conscience, Stereotype (as a noun), Solidarity, Demilitarization. Although not required, I encouraged you to take what we did in class and write it up, personalize the words in some ways in order to "own" them.

We also had a good conversation on the topic of serving at the individual level rather than the societal level, focusing especially on Mother Teresa. She wanted to help individuals rather than address bigger concepts, believing that by helping specific people get fed she was addressing the bigger concept of hunger. Some criticized her for this. You may want to consider this issue in greater depth and see how it applies to other peacemakers, or even in your life. Clearly, if this topic interests you, you'll want to answer Question #1 from the Mother Teresa chapter.

Help me remember to start getting questions written down for Eric to take to Ken & Heather. As you know, he's going to get to meet them in February over mid-winter break. I think one question had to do with knowing how Ken & Heather chose Anderson Sa and whether they've had the chance to meet or talk with him.

Summary of Homework Due on 2/5:
- Finish reading the 4 chapters in Part Two of the book and complete the journal entry. This work must be done prior to the start of class. Be ready to talk about Part Two in class.

Class #3 - 1/22/08

2008-01-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

There seemed to be some moderate confusion over what is required in this class. The minimum homework requirements are to keep up with the reading and to complete the one page journal entry for each part of the book by the stated deadlines. Class time will be spent reviewing the reading and your journal entries, and include some of the other activities in the study guide. Meeting this minimum will earn you .25 credit in Social Studies. And please note that these assignments are due, on average, every other week.

IF you want to do additional work, I suggested you complete 2 of the 5 essay questions provided in the study guide for each chapter. Writing these essays is completely optional and therefore has no due date, although I encourage you to do this on pace with your reading. If you complete this work you will earn .25 credit in English.

Hopefully, that is clear now. :)

Regarding our discussion, I encourage you to learn even more about Anderson Sa. You may be interested in looking for the movie Favela Rising. I don't know much about it myself so if any of you take the time to get it and watch it, please let the rest of us know.

Summary of Homework Due on 2/5:
- Read the 4 chapters in Part Two of the book and complete the journal entry. This work must be done prior to the start of class.

Class #2 - 1/15/08

2008-01-15T19:30:00.000-08:00

What is a peacemaker?

This question formed the basis of the first half of our in-class dialogue today. After reviewing the work you need to do to earn Social Studies and English credit, I posed this question. Your initial responses, I think, were what you think you were "supposed" to say, people like Gandhi, King, etc. When I pushed your definitions to include people you know, the conversation really took off. Gracie talked about her dad's morning meditation practice, Gabi mentioned her mom's work at Gabi's former school, and Eric talked about his dad and the work he does around issues of fairness and diversity.

We looked at the study guide questions specific to Henry David Thoreau, focusing most of our attention on what it means to live deliberately. I encourage you to consider this idea in more detail as you do your reading this week.

Before I sign off, let me tell you a little bit about a movie starring Robin Williams that came out in the late 80's called "The Dead Poet's Society." He plays an English teacher with an unconventional teaching style in a very traditional all-boys boarding school. He uses this quote from Thoreau to inspire his students:

I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately,
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,
To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die
Discover that I had not lived.

I encourage you to see the movie during this term. As a teaser, enjoy this YouTube link.

Now it is time for you to think.

Summary of Homework Due on 1/22:
- Read the 4 chapters in Part One of the book and complete the journal entry. This work must be done prior to the start of class.

Class #1 - 1/8/08

2008-01-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

In the first class I introduced you to the book "Great Peacemakers" by Ken Beller & Heather Chase. I told you that I had been introduced to Ken by Eric's dad, Bill, and that Ken had shared an advanced reading copy of the book and an accompanying study guide with me, interested in getting my feedback.

We then spent time talking about Ken & Heather, using what we learned from the "About the Authors" page. I went into detail explaining what "linking values with the bottom line" meant, and we talked some about environmentally-conscious personal care products, based on Heather's work in that area.

We spent considerable time reviewing the work you need to do in order to earn high school credit. For .25 credit in social studies you'll need to read the book and complete the journal-style entries of the study guide. I will encourage you to complete other activities from the study guide but these will not be a required part of the credit-earning component, although they could provide you additional credit. For .25 credit in English you will need to write essay-style responses to 2 of the 5 questions provided in the study guide for each of the 20 peacemakers featured in the book. These essays need not be long but they need to be of high quality, demonstrating your ability to compose decent sentences and paragraphs, and show that you understand basic writing conventions (spelling, grammar, etc).

Since class ended I have been in contact with Bill and Ken. Bill has generously offered to purchase the books for you. Ken has already shipped them so we should have them by next week's class. I will copy for you the relevant pages from the study guide and have those for you next week.

Anyone interested in learning more about this book should visit this link.