Peacemaker Leymah Gbowee

This woman is amazing and makes me want to teach a class about peacemakers.

I had a professor in college who argued that women decide whether or not war is possible. He explained a theory, I'm not sure whose, that there are four types of women whose consent and collaboration are necessary for the prosecution of war: the faithful wife, the supportive mother, the prostitute away from home, and ____________________ (anyone know?).

Here is a case in which the faithful wife does not consent. Without her, the war effort cannot go on.

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Break out

Even though it's Friday, it's my last day of spring break ... Tomorrow at 8 a.m. I'm picking up 6 students and spending the weekend with them at a youth conference. Nothing like spending the last weekend of spring break with your teacher!

But we're psyched - we get to meet Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and show off our service project: an attempt to start up a peer mediation program. The kids will get to meet some other committed teens and I will try desperately not to freak out about the fact that I have 2 new courses starting up on Monday that I haven't planned yet. (Geography of World Conflict and Debate)

PeaceJam!

Finally getting around to posting about the PeaceJam Global Call to Action Conference that 4 of my students + myself went to on Sept. 11-13 in Los Angeles.

It was AWESOME.

First of all, if you are not familiar with PeaceJam, check out their website -- it is a great organization, and an awesome thing for kids to be involved in. Nobel Peace Laureates work with youth on service learning projects, and there is an excellent curriculum for the adult educators to help the kids develop their projects.

In their written reflections after the conference, my students said the most memorable part for them was seeing how other teenagers have developed projects to meet needs in their own communities. There were kids there from all over the world doing awesome things, and getting so much love from peace activist superstars.