I begin each Social Justice and Peacemaking course I teach at NYU by offering my students an opportunity to get an extra 10 points added to their final grade. "It's simple," I say, "all you have to do is tell me who these six people are and I'll give you the 10 points, and an 83 (B) becomes a 93 (A)."
The students sit up, their eyes grow a bit wider, and I find that I have their full attention. "I've never been able to give the points away," I add, "I'm hoping today is the day." My hope is genuine. I also share that a colleague, Colman McCarthy, former Washington Post columnist and founder of the Center for Teaching Peace, from whom I shamelessly stole this exercise, offers to give away a $100 bill. I share that on a teacher's salary, I don't have the cash to give away $100, but I can give the 10 points. I also tell them that Mr. McCarthy tells me that regrettably, he's never been able to give away the $100 just as I've never been able to give away the points.
And so I begin with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. All of the students can identify these individuals. I then mention Wangari Maathai, Mairead Maguire, Jodi Williams and Aung San Suu Kyi. Sadly, none of my students have ever heard of these living Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Not one. Their eager faces become blank stares. They look puzzled, eyes vacant and stunned, like deers in headlights. Some offer curious looks, like small children, full of curiosity but clearly bewildered and clueless. It's like I'm speaking a foreign language; and in some ways, I am. When I explain who these international peacemakers and Nobel laureates are, I can see their minds whirling and their eyes full of puzzlement and wonder. It's almost as if a light starts to go on and they begin to consider the simple, but profound question, "Why?" "Why have I never heard of these global peace prize winners and social justice advocates?"
I then invite them to consider a few more questions: "If we say we want peace, why have you never heard of these people?" "What does that say about our educational system?" I add, "If we have never heard of these Nobel laureates, who and what else have we never heard of?" "What else have we not been taught?" "What else don't we know?" "Why?" "How has our educational system served or failed us?" And, "What are we going to do about it?"
And so we begin our class with questions, questions that about our educational system, about what we have been taught and learned, and what we have not been taught, what we have not learned, questions about peace, what it is, how it can be achieved, and what voices and stories we need to examine as we work together to create a more peaceful and just global society. I then challenge my students to seek out this information and wrestle with these questions by diligently researching and searching for answers. I ask them to remain open to expanding their understanding of what it means to work for peace and justice in their own lives, in their local communities and in our world.
I seek to remain open myself, and teach my students to remain open, to the transformative power that Wangari's planting of trees, Mairead's work to heal and reconcile 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland, Jodi's effort ban landmines, and Aun San Suu Kyi's persistent effort to work for democracy in Burma (Myanmar) have to teach us about peace, justice, persistence, love, compassion and liberation. I invite you to ask similar questions, to study and learn about creative alternatives to violence in the pursuit of peace and justice, and to remain open to the transformative power of these people, their words and witness, and the principles that undergird their actions.
