When my children were in elementary school a few years ago they had a principal that decided the school would be a place of peace. This went so far as to having a chart on the wall near the front entrance that listed how many “Days of Peace” the school had achieved in a row. My first reaction was that it reminded me of those construction workplace signs that listed how many injury free days the site had achieved. I guess the principal once worked for OSHA.

I didn’t realize the full effect of the peace effort at the school until I had a conversation with my then seven year old daughter. I asked her how her school day went at dinner and she told me they had Field Day. If you are old enough to remember this activity it is a day where all the children in school participate in a variety of sporting activities, particulalrly foot races (at least when I was a child) and receive ribbons for their performances if they finish in the top three. That was then. Now everyone receives a bag of peanuts for participating and there are no winners. This must have something to do with outcome based education which teaches you that everyone should learn at the same level and no one should excel. In essence competition is bad because those that lose will suffer from low self esteem. I rolled my eyes at all of this but then my daughter said the big activity was the Tug of Peace. Incredible! We have come so far as to take a childs game and change the word war to peace. If war is so bad, why bother playing the game at all? No doubt the principal’s idea.

So where does a principal get ideas like this? Maybe from the Center for Peaceable Schools in Cambridge Massachusetts. They will be holding their 12th annual program this summer. The center was founded in 1992 by a coalition of Boston area educators and activists during the 1st Iraq War. The literature goes on to talk about the need for diversity, social justice and non-violent conflcit resolution.

The left is working hard to develop the next generation of anti-war activists, diversity promoters and peddlers of social justice. It’s now our turn as parents to fight back before they succeed.

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