June 2018 P.E.A.C.E. News

Action Alerts!

War?         All of us, including the children we care for, are facing unprecedented perils and opportunities as the President’s war-oriented foreign policy team is moving toward negotiations with North Korea and disruption of the multilateral agreement to keep Iran from producing nuclear weapons.  At the same time the U.S. Senate is beginning to consider a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) Resolution, which would only require the President to consult Congress on future uses of our military forces apart from the war on terror.

Iran and Korea:        We do need to join in protests against the Administration’s plan to impose sanctions on Iran.  We need to join in with the voices hoping for a multilateral agreement with North Korea to end the Korean War and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

War Powers:        At the same time we need to contact our Senators to ask them to support amendments to the Corker/Kaine draft AUMF Resolution, to reassert Congress’ Constitutional authority to decide on U.S. use of military force in all cases, not just being consulted.

Support Child Care Funding!          Please ask your Senators and Representative to fulfill the promise of the bipartisan budget deal in the FY19 Appropriations, and fund CCDBG at the agreed-upon $5.8 billion over two years.

Register and Vote!
VOTE in your primary election!  Support candidates who will understand the importance of reducing military budgets and instead support children and families.  PLEASE encourage everyone to vote.
Finally, we all need to work on getting out the vote this year, including our own votes on the primary and general elections.  Whether we and our friends vote or not this year will have a major impact on how our country and our communities behave in the following two years, peacefully or otherwise.  Child care centers should do what they can to encourage registration and voting among both employees and parents.

PROTECT CHILDREN, NOT GUNS

Check in with us at http://peaceeducators.org/take-action/ regularly to keep up to date with our action alerts.

CREATING PEACEFUL ENVIRONMENTS; INDOORS AND OUT
by Donna Satterlee, Barbara Garrett, Flora Gee, Christina Lopez, and Michelle Lenski
          Helping children to develop the dispositions of a peaceful, caring community is the theme we initiated as we worked toward creating a safe place in the classrooms in three centers. We received funding for this project from P.E.A.C.E. to buy some parts and pieces to enhance these classrooms. According to our observations it made a difference. One center focused on literacy, creating a comfy corner and providing books that enhance a peaceful environment. Another center focused on being comfortable in an outdoor setting in a place to converse, read with friends and create a peaceful herb garden. The third center focuses on teaching inner peace, breathing techniques and peaceful time spent together. All of the centers helped the children learn to self-regulate, solve problems and respect their fellow classmates.
We will be presenting our strategies and the resources we used on June 11, 2018 at 2:00 in room 303/304 RDS at the NAEYC Professional Learning Institute in Austin, Texas. In this session, we will explore the theoretical underpinnings of creating peaceful classrooms from three perspectives.
PEACE STARTS WITH ME
by Olive Chukwuanu, Malden MA
         This P.E.A.C.E. project was implemented in three home-based family child care programs serving 30 children aged 16 months through 5 years of age.  Using books including Children Around the World and Learning to Get Along children explored themes of commonality and diversity such as the language, food, clothing and daily life of their region.  Children also explored important values such as empathy, respect, cooperation, and kindness.  Parents and educators reported children using words and phrases such as: respect, harmony, peace, togetherness, and caring.  One educator commented “We are the foundation, the children come to us when they are little, and we must sew a seed of PEACE in them, now is the right time to start.”

Moving Forward:  You’re Important to Us!

As P.E.A.C.E. moves forward, we need your help and your input. Please contact 1peaceeducators@gmail.com if you’d like to become more active and engaged in P.E.A.C.E.’s work, especially if you have submitted a proposal for a peace education-related session at NAEYC’s Annual Conference in Washington, DC November 14-17.
Please remember that you can be kept up to date by joining our Action list serve, actforpeace@googlegroups.com, either directly through Googlegroups, or by an email to 1peaceeducators@gmail.com.  Please feel free to post there any peace-education related action requests that engage your enthusiasm.  And if any of our suggestions for action motivate you to tell your friends and colleagues about them, please do forward them.  Thank you!
Finally, we need to remind you that we don’t charge dues, as we value your participation more than your money.  But we do have expenses that are needed to keep us going, so we always welcome your donations through our website.

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