Perspectives on Peace
Grade Levels: 8 - 12
| Excerpted lesson from: Making Choices About Conflict, Security, and Peacemaking by Carol Miller Lieber. |
PURPOSE: Students will read how writers, artists, political leaders, and citizens define and image peace.
LEARNING STRATEGIES: Critical reading and writing, class discussion
TIME: A few minutes or an entire class period
MATERIALS: Handouts - "What People Say About Peace," and "What Is Peace?"
SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONS:
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Pass out copies of "What People Say About Peace" and "What Is Peace?" or select several quotations to use separately. The quotations can be used as a springboard for the following activities:
- Ask students to read the quotations, selecting two or three that they like the best. Divide students into groups of five. Have students participate in "round robins," each taking a minute or two to discuss a quotation that most closely reflects his/her idea of peace.
- Identify several quotations that describe ideas and activities more closely associated with negative or positive concepts of peace.
- Make a list of the root causes – both attitudes and actions – of violence, war, and "non-peace" that are mentioned in the quotations.
- Choose any of the quotations to use as a premise or thesis for an extended essay that develops the ideas contained in the quotation.
- Read and discuss the quotations that specifically address the concept of non-violence (12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19) and explore the writings of these peacemakers.
- Find news clippings, cartoons, photographs, or articles that illustrate the main idea contained in the quotation.
Provided by Educators for Social Responsibility
