570 Peace

	Over the years other teachers have suggested that I offer what they “balance” in my courses, that I give students “the other side.” … I can’t in conscience teach the other side. Students have already been saturated with it. No, I say, my course is the other side. Colman McCarthy (2003). Preface, xv-xvi. I'd Rather Teach Peace. NY: Orbis Books.
Why Peace Why not? I will not take a middle-road, I will not present the status quo, and I will not teach what surrounds you in the daily newspapers, television, and mainstream political airwaves. You have plenty of access and plenty of authority figures telling you how to interpret our current local, statewide, and national level issues. This course will focus on issues, individuals, and problems that may be troublesome for some students. I believe and depend on student input for class discussion, and I respect student-learning stages. I also expect students to be tolerant of their peers’ stages of learning development. Please take a look at the syllabus, specifically the readings, assignments, and student presentations. I will not tolerate intolerance in our learning environment, and I discourage arguments based solely on personal religious teachings. As you will use rhetorical theories (visual mostly), you are fully expected to develop rhetorical arguments, attack the idea and not the person, and to keep your goal at an idea-development stage. Although you are not expected to agree with all the assigned readings, I encourage and expect mature applications of the theory to your own work rather than spend a great amount of time poking holes in the theory, or looking for reasons to discredit the authors we read. Religion is not ruled out of the class discussions, but you must be prepared to use any religious teachings as support and not solely as truth. Religious texts in this course are texts and will be analyzed and challenged like any other secondary source. I will administratively drop any student who chooses to evangelize rather than participate in an academic setting. The purpose of this course is to share and develop ideas with the end goal of creating a project for a specific audience to experience, and to participate in an international gathering on the subject of peace. You will finish the course with a group project meant for the World Peace Forum held this summer, 2006, in Vancouver, B.C. Here is what the Communications Coordinator says about their forum's website: "We don't want to tell people what peace is. It's such a personal and broad concept that we would like to hear from people coming from different parts of the world to tell us what peace is for them. Young people could provide a very new and different view of what peace is for them depending on where they come from, of course." As a result, your parameters for the project is a bit open ended. You will arrive at a definition of peace, and present this definition in a multimedia format. Can you define peace? What does peace look like? Is it a nice concept but not really tangible, or are their manifestations and actions all around? What does it take to develop, to maintain, and to work a peaceful environment?

Over the years other teachers have suggested that I offer what they “balance” in my courses, that I give students “the other side.” … I can’t in conscience teach the other side. Students have already been saturated with it. No, I say, my course is the other side.

Colman McCarthy (2003). Preface, xv-xvi. I'd Rather Teach Peace. NY: Orbis Books.

Why Peace

Why not? I will not take a middle-road, I will not present the status quo, and I will not teach what surrounds you in the daily newspapers, television, and mainstream political airwaves. You have plenty of access and plenty of authority figures telling you how to interpret our current local, statewide, and national level issues. This course will focus on issues, individuals, and problems that may be troublesome for some students. I believe and depend on student input for class discussion, and I respect student-learning stages. I also expect students to be tolerant of their peers’ stages of learning development.

Please take a look at the syllabus, specifically the readings, assignments, and student presentations. I will not tolerate intolerance in our learning environment, and I discourage arguments based solely on personal religious teachings. As you will use rhetorical theories (visual mostly), you are fully expected to develop rhetorical arguments, attack the idea and not the person, and to keep your goal at an idea-development stage. Although you are not expected to agree with all the assigned readings, I encourage and expect mature applications of the theory to your own work rather than spend a great amount of time poking holes in the theory, or looking for reasons to discredit the authors we read.

Religion is not ruled out of the class discussions, but you must be prepared to use any religious teachings as support and not solely as truth. Religious texts in this course are texts and will be analyzed and challenged like any other secondary source. I will administratively drop any student who chooses to evangelize rather than participate in an academic setting. The purpose of this course is to share and develop ideas with the end goal of creating a project for a specific audience to experience, and to participate in an international gathering on the subject of peace.

You will finish the course with a group project meant for the World Peace Forum held this summer, 2006, in Vancouver, B.C. Here is what the Communications Coordinator says about their forum's website:

"We don't want to tell people what peace is. It's such a personal and broad concept that we would like to hear from people coming from different parts of the world to tell us what peace is for them. Young people could provide a very new and different view of what peace is for them depending on where they come from, of course."

As a result, your parameters for the project is a bit open ended. You will arrive at a definition of peace, and present this definition in a multimedia format. Can you define peace? What does peace look like? Is it a nice concept but not really tangible, or are their manifestations and actions all around? What does it take to develop, to maintain, and to work a peaceful environment?