how do schools promote or dissuade the perpetuation of violence and war in society?

How do schools promote or dissuade the perpetuation of violence and war in society?

Picture given to class…Brainstorm…

Role play…

• World distribution activity

What are our students seeing and learning about war and violence in USA?

• Images • Media• Perspective…

What do students see and not see in the media….and how do they make sense of this..?

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves…

What is the “secret education” that students receive from cartoons, comics, and “industrially produced fiction”• What does the cartoon teach about

• the good guys and the bad guys• the role of the US military in the world• Arabs and Arab culture• men’s and women’s roles• violence• how conflict is resolved

Language and Symbols…(loaded words…)

• Terrorism • Freedom • Liberty• Patriotism• Unity

Woman led to safety after 911 attack…

Afghan refugee injured from U.S. led attacks in late October

Who is a terrorist?

• Terrorist• Osama Bin Laden

today

• Nelson Mandela- 1980’s

• Freedom fighter• Osama Bin Laden in

Afghanistan during Reagan days

• Nelson Mandela today

Define terrorism…

• Does terrorism have to be the killing of many people or can it affect just one?

• Does it have to be physical injury or can it be involve just property?

• Can governments commit acts of terrorism or does it exist only outside of the government?

• Does terrorism have to be people from one country attacking those from another?

• Does the motive make a difference?• Does terrorism have to be intentional?

Terrorist scenario (page 12, 13, 14)

• Break into groups of three• Share definitions of terrorism• Read scenarios • Who is the terrorist according to your

definition?• Explain

Violence against Arabs in US

• Teach children about racism• Teach peace…• Read excerpts of …(pg. 17)

USA had no problem with terrorism..?

• Bombed Libya• Attacked Granada• Attacked Panama• Shelled Lebanon• 1991 killed 100,000 men, women, and

children- cut off food and water..

Chapman- Through the enemy’s eyes

• I realized I do have a choice. Indeed, the freedom to choose how to respond may be the only total freedom we have. The world outside isn't within our control, but this freedom always is.

• When I began to see myself in others‑even in my enemies‑I found myself heading for Rumi's field. Here the game is not a game. No one wins unless and until everyone wins. The line between victim and perpetrator no longer runs between "I" and "Other." It now runs right through the center of my soul. I am both, as we are all both.

Visual manifestations of militarism

• National Guard calendars on the walls in the guidance office

• “Go Army” lanyards holding the faculty bathroom keys

• Large cut-out military figures in the hallway

• Junior reserve Officer Training Corps displays with pictures and trophies

• Marine Corps insignia on the preschool dedication photo in the school office

America’s Army videogameSponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense

America’s Army and video games

• Violent• Avoid graphic details of death• Sanitized• Overmatch- “few soldiers, certain

victory”

No Child Left Unrecruited…..

• NCLB grants military recruiters access to student records and school grounds

• Military recruiters have a greater degree of access to the schools than any other outside group or agency

Student voicesClass of 2010

The next generation of soldiers

If in smothering dreams you too could paceBehind the wagon that we flung him in,And watch the white eyes writing in his face,His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;If you could hear, at every jolt, the bloodCome gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cudOf vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-My friend, you would not tell with such high zestTo children ardent for some desperate glory,The Lie: Dolce et decorum estPro Patria moriWilfred OwenDolce et decorum est

Who benefits……?

Who suffers…?

Education should…

• Question the official story• Not speak in dichotomies• Widen circles of care

• What really matters now is love. Strength, love, courage, love, kindness, love. That is what really matters. There has always been evil, and there will always be evil, but there has always been good, and there is good now. – Maya Angelou, poet and author, September 2001

Web of goodness

Deeds of Peace and goodness

• The challenge for social justice movements is to connect economic inequality with the security concerns that now grip us all-insisting that justice and equality are the most sustainable strategies against violence and fundamentalism. -Naomi Klein, author