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Engaging peace with the Peace Corps
By guest author Ellie Gutowski
The Peace Corps is an initiative of the U.S. government to promote peace and friendship among participating countries and the United States. It was started in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, who called for Americans to serve abroad. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger and in Malawi from 2010 to 2013.
The Peace Corps helped me to understand the world from a broader perspective. In Niger, I was a newcomer to a Muslim community where a family cared for me, listening patiently as I spoke in broken Hausa, pulling my water from a well that was over a football field deep, and sharing two meals per day of pounded millet and... Read more...
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Father Michael Lapsley addresses the healing of trauma
By guest author Dot Walsh
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Healing Of Memories
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"UBUNTU" in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are."
Trauma is an invisible wound. We have learned a lot about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and have identified it in individuals engaged in current wars. But soldiers who returned from Vietnam and Korea often remain victims of their pain and sometimes victimize others.
A recent visit, interview, and workshop with Father Michael Lapsley of South Africa gave me some insight into the effects of trauma and the possibility of healing. Father Lapsley is an Anglican priest from New Zealand who experienced his own trauma as a result...Read more...
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Prison and the just world fallacy
 | | Recreation of Dr. King's prison cell. National Civil Rights Museum |
By Dr. Kathie Malley-Morrison
Many Americans want to believe that anyone who is in prison deserves to be there. To differentiate themselves from people in prison, they cling to just world beliefs-i.e., the conviction that life is just, that good things happen to good people, and that bad things happen to bad people. Just world beliefs can give people a sense of stability and reassurance-a belief that sooner or later they will be rewarded for their inherent if not always obvious goodness. Just world beliefs can also be a barrier against empathy... Read more...
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 Featured comment on Engaging PeaceBy Jay
Sometimes the only response to the world and events in the world is utter speechlessness and amazement. "Why it is so risky to program robots to kill and then to turn them loose?" The fact that we need a campaign to craft a "very compelling case" against this is almost comical, so allow me to respond similarly: Have we not been making and watching movies for years about exactly ... Read more...
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Children and youth peace corner
The World Wise classroom
By Krista Lee Berardi
World Wise Schools is a curriculum developed by the Peace Corps that engages students of all grade levels in an interactive, global classroom experience based on Peace Corps members' experiences.
Teachers are provided with free lesson plans and resources that cater to all learning styles. Classes can even communicate with a current Peace Corps member about the experience of working in another country!
We live in a connected global community that requires all of us to have knowledge and awareness of other countries, cultures, and customs. The World Wise curriculum provides the pathway that brings the world to the classroom.
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