Realizing Democratic Ideals through Peace Education

1st PlaceRealizing Democratic Ideals through Peace Education
by Joanna Klonsky

I became convinced of the need for a Peace Education course while organizing a student walk-out at my high school to protest the then-impending war with Iraq. As 499 of my classmates and I walked out of second period on a snowy morning last March, I realized that this was the first experience of activism or civil disobedience that most of us had ever had. Our suburban environment kept us comfortably removed from the conflicts in the Middle East and even from the perpetual gang warfare just a few blocks away on the west side of Chicago. We rarely discussed contemporary world events in our classes, which for the most part, stuck closely to a standard course outline. Our chief exposure to current events came from watching televised coverage, which we recognized rarely provided an unbiased stance.

The overwhelming feeling among the protesting students that day was the desire for access to truth, and for our voices to be valued. Why did we have to cut class to learn the day's lessons? The students should have had access to media analysis, current events and knowledge of effective political action right in our classrooms. In the weeks before the outbreak of the war, young people sought not only peace, but the intellectual tools to analyze the conflict from all sides; to think critically, to form opinions based upon solid information and to discuss and debate in an atmosphere that encouraged exploration, rather than blind acceptance of prevailing sentiment.