serendipityoucity

I was preparing a list of resources for a friend who is in the process of developing a new course on Peace for High School Students, and dang, it’s pretty good.  Mostly stuff i had kicking around the house, and stuff my television deprived children read (at least i am aware of my social engineering!).  It is totally incomplete so if you have good ideas, material and such, send em along!  The least we can do is share stuff!

a) Dear Canada Series - a diary series created from archival letters, books, notes & diaries of hyphenated Canadian children who came at the turn of the century.  Acadians, Chinese Canadians, the Bristish WWII Children, etc.  They include the day to day events of the lives of these children.  They are all almost about girls, but both my boys loved them.  An interesting exercise could be to send kids to the archives to  recreate stories.

b) The Kite Runner - Novel - Khaled Hosseini.

c) Parvana’s Journey, Mud City & The Breadwinner - Deborah Ellis  - short novels - I have given these out to many kids and they loved em.  Ellis manages to get the reader immersed into the Afghan context in excellent story telling prose.  Winner of the Governor Generals Literary Award.

d) Three Wishes - Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak - Deborah Ellis -  - Excellent short stories & reflections written by kids.  There are pictures of the kids, their context etc.

e) The Other Side of Truth - Beverley Naidoo - Novel -  - Children displaced from Nigeria to London.

f) We Just Want to Live Here - Amal Rifa’i, Odelia Ainbinder and Sylke Tempel -  - A Palestinian & Israeli Teenager meet at a student exchange program and maintain a relationship in letters after the Intifada broke out in 2000.  A very honest account of bridging worlds that seem so far apart.

g) The Long Walk to Freedom - Autobiography of Nelson Mandela - What struck me, was the twist of fate of his father’s good deed buying Nelson a ticket to school - otherwise we may not have had the Nelson we know!

h) Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic - John De Graaf, David Waan, Thomas Naylor - Excellent reflexive content - you could pick any chapter and work with it -  (found these bonus resouces - http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/ and http://www.affluenza.org/).  My son did a tour of some Ottawa private schools with Peter Daglish and this is the message he brought to the kids.  Quite frankly, this is what we suffer from most.  If you can get this man to speak at your school you will totally amaze your students.

i) Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda - Romeo Dallaire - not pretty, mostly for grownups, my rascals read it though, but excellent and it is very important.

j) Movie - Hotel Rwanda - there is a very useful teachers guide to accompany the film -  - the film was purposely made less gory to ensure wide viewership by teenagers.  My kids saw it and had tons of excellent reflections afterwards.

k) The No-Nonsense Guide Series by the New Internationalist - Totally suitable for teens & Uni Students, quick and easy facts about many issues - great little reference books a little larger than a passport.

l) The World Guide: An Alternative Reference to the Countries of Our Planet - by the New Internationalist -  - super great!  It is a fact book on a country by country basis.  Here is a section on Afghanistan.

m) The New Internationalist - The NI Magazine has tons of great info w/wonderful maps & graphics that can be used for modules - all ages  - just nav & scroll down their site for good educational material.

n) Bonus find - Tools for Change

o) Looking Forward - Participatory Economics for the Twenty First Century - Michael Albert & Robin Hahnel - Fun cartoons, critical thinking, alta perspective kids and grownups - (egalitarian consumption, work without hierarchy etc.).

p) for the grownups - Transforming Ourselves Transforming the World - Brian K. Murphy

q) for the grownups - Fostering Sustainable Behavior - Doug McKenzie-Mohr & William Smith

r) The Gaia Peace Atlas: Survival Into The Third Millennium - Frank Barnaby - A classic reference, can be found in second hand bookshops.

s) Peace a Dream Unfolding - hard to find - content on tons of critical topics.

t) Design of Dissent - Some images in the book are harsh - but you can be selective - PBS here has tons of wonderful image content with captions to explain the symbolism!

u) Peter’s Projection -  - you can do some excellent modules with different world projections.  You can also introduce the upside down map - where New Zealand is at the top of the map.  There is also a series of maps where other countries are front and centre as opposed to what we are used to - The US - Up and Centre!

v) The Generosity Game

w) Barbara Petchnik Children’s Map Collection

Funky Peace Tunes