Hollister
– The lessons were simple – things every kindergartner knows but
many forget by the time they enter the adult world. But the message
to students at San Benito High School was important: Promote peace
in your school and in the larger community.
Hollister – The lessons were simple – things every kindergartner knows but many forget by the time they enter the adult world. But the message to students at San Benito High School was important: Promote peace in your school and in the larger community.
Visual and performing arts teachers at San Benito High held a forum for their students Tuesday to discuss peace inside and outside the classroom. The students learned and practiced methods for dealing with conflict in their lives, and to prevent future violent tragedies in the schools.
The teachers held the forum in preparation for a yearlong project they are planning for next year that will explore peace through the arts.
“It’s so important to talk about peace at school,” ceramics teacher Louise Roy said. “It has to start with individuals. We’re a microcosm of what’s going on in the larger world. We need to start with teaching how to talk to each other.”
Speaking at the forum was Candice Carter, a professor of education at the University of North Florida who specializes in peaceful conflict resolution.
Carter presented methods of compassionate communication to the students, emphasizing reflecting before acting.
The students and their teachers performed improvisational skits, where they acted out scenes of conflict, and discussed methods of communicating their feelings.
Most of the scenes explored everyday conflicts – a friend wants to copy your homework, or a parent accuses you of lying. The students explored positive ways to deal with these problems, rather than letting the problems get out of hand.
Although the conflict during the daylong lesson was more applicable to daily life, Carter said that an underlying theme was related to school violence and the recent shootings at Virginia Tech. She said that even the everyday conflict should not exist in schools and because it can fester into larger physical acts of violence.
“On most people’s minds is the direct lethal violence. But long before school shootings there was a lack of peace in high schools,” Carter said. “There are a lot of ‘isms’ – racism, sexism, homophobia. And if you don’t deal with this on campus it’s going to accelerate in the real world.”
Besides being a lesson for students, the teachers also took part, exploring compassionate communication and conflict resolutions in their own lives. Juan Robledo, the activities director at SBHS, said he had learned a lot of ways to deal with conflict in the classroom.
The teachers were asked to explore what peace looked like to them in their school and their homes.
“I started writing down what peace is to me. I think one of the most important pieces of peace is being able to reflect on it,” Robledo said.
The students also echoed the fact that it was important to reflect on peace in their own lives, although many agreed that tragedies like the Virginia Tech massacre seemed far removed from their own world.
“I think more people should learn about this stuff so things like (Virginia Tech) don’t happen. But you don’t really think about it until it really does happen,” said Katheryn Sanchez, 15.
The high school’s visual and performing arts department hopes the forum will jump start the yearlong peace project and encourage positive thinking.
“Theater and the arts are just such a wonderful venue to explore peace,” Carter said.
Alice Joy covers education for the Free Lance. She can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 336 or at [email protected].
