Hello my name is John Wideman and I’ve been the Peace Program Director at Willowgrove for two years now. Willowgrove is a not-for-profit organization that’s affiliated with the Mennonite Church and commits itself to serving a diverse community, teaching peacemaking and non-violence, and caring for the land that God has entrusted to us. Through Willowgrove Outdoor Education Centre, Glenbrook Day Camp, Fraser Lake Camp (in Bancroft ON), Master Peace Theatre (a drama skills peace education camp) and Willowgrove Primary School we offer a variety of programs for children and young adults (of varying abilities and backgrounds). Because of the uniqueness and diversity of our programming we have a lot of children come through our facilities every year. We had over 16,500 children participate in our programming last year, ranging from 3-16 years of age, and take it from me, someone who started at Willowgrove doing maintenance -cleaning toilets and taking out garbage- that’s a lot of kids. But in all seriousness, whether they tend to make a mess or not, I’m so grateful for the opportunity that Willowgrove provides for these children: through our peace education program, in the 100 acres of god’s creation for them to explore and for the potential for a “good start”.
Starts are important. I think that anyone who works with children would agree. In the formative years of childhood, the things that children are exposed to and the things that they experience can really direct the path of their life and can actually affect the philosophies that they might come to embrace down the road. Today I want to talk with you about the importance of a good start in developing the future peace heroes of our generation. Peace Education equips our children with conflict resolution skills, encourages them to maintain their childlike compassion as they mature, and can inspire us- as pessimistic adults- to receive the kingdom of God like children. Sometimes we can under estimate the weight of a good start. For example we all have our morning routines: I for one wake up to my alarm, have a shower, get changed, have a coffee and then drive to work. These individual steps are all essential to whether or not I have a good day, if I were to forget any one of these steps the effects could be catastrophic. If my alarm doesn’t go off well then I don’t get up in time to go to work, if I don’t shower then my co-workers might wish I hadn’t set my alarm, if I don’t get changed… that would
just be plain awkward. If all these things go well on the other hand, then I have laid the foundations for a great day at work. These seemingly insignificant steps can really dictate the direction of my day as a whole, however small they may be.
Mary Jo Leddy, the founder of Romero House (an intentional community for refugee claimants here in Toronto), speaks about the importance of beginnings regarding peace. She says that in order to achieve effective long-standing peace we must work proactively. If at the onset of conflict we work quickly to address the issues and facilitate conversation then we can better diffuse the situation before the conflict becomes entrenched. Many times we think of peace work as being in response to the outcomes of conflict or tragedy but Mary Jo Leddy finds that the most effective response to injustice
happens at the “start” before the issue erupts into a convoluted mess. Now obviously this is an optimistic outlook as there is no possible way to predict every tragedy or conflict. But on a large scale, this is exactly what peace education strives to do. By proactively educating our young people in the ways of non-violence they can better respond to issues of injustice or tragedy in the future. Globally and locally, the better educated our children are in conflict mediation and world issues then the more peaceful our futures will be. Peace education is a “Good start” because it is a clear and tangible way of
proactively responding to violence and injustice, equipping our young people with the skills and philosophies needed to work towards peaceful futures for our communities and world.
Starts are important. Mahatma Gandhi said, “If we are to have real peace in the world, we will have to begin with the children.” However, many people are sceptical of the optimism tied to the proactive approach of teaching kids peace. When I tell people I work in Peace Education with children as young as 3 ó I often get funny looks. Many think that Kindergarten is far too early to be learning about conflict and world issues as they equate Peace Education and learning about injustice with the graphic shock value and fear mongering tactics of the evening news. I suppose the main difference between the news and Peace Education is that when we talk about world issues we discuss them compassionately, as extensions of the same conflicts that occur on the playground or at home: issues of bullying, sharing and equality. We learn about world issues to encourage a global consciousness but also to learn from these events. I believe that whether these issues are occurring small scale on the playground or violently in Israel/Palestine they are both rooted in the same themes of peace and justice, fair and unfair, and therefore necessitate similar responses. It is true that peace is a complex conversation. It can be political, it can be abstract, it can be overwhelming, but, I can speak from experience that we often underestimate what children are capable of learning and especially how natural “peace” comes to children. As children we are far more receptive to hope and optimism then we are in old age. Matthew 18:1-5 tells of a story when [one of ] the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ Jesus brought forward a small child and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”
Throughout the Gospels it is clear that Jesus had a heart for children. It’s almost as if they were the choir which didn’t need to be preached to. Peace makes sense to kids, obviously there are some details that need to be avoided when diving into peace and justice topics with kids but the compassion and optimism that children possess is so important to addressing injustice. At times I feel our age and experiences complicates our understanding of peace, so perhaps this is what Jesus was speaking to. It isn’t until we grow older that we allow our thirst for vengeance to slowly justify concepts such as “Just War” or “Punitive retribution” where peace becomes a much more complex topic. At times Jesus does have a reputation for confusing his audience. On many accounts he speaks in riddle and allegory and allows those listening to come to their own conclusion regarding the message. But, when it comes to peace, his messages are crystal clear with practical examples. In Matthew 5:38- 44 Jesus says, You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to
you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… Not only is there no metaphor or riddle but he lists a clear number of examples in which the correct response is non-violence. Bruxy Cavey, from the Meeting House church, asks this question, “If Jesus wanted to teach pacifism [to] his followers… that is in not being passive but in being a peace making, peace living person… is there anything more he could have said to convince you?” Jesus is very straightforward when speaking about peace, so much so that he leaves no room for error and lays out his views as concisely as possible so to not complicate non-violence. Jesus syas that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the children, their ideas of right and wrong are simple; it is our “grown-up” nature that allows us to muddle things and to shroud peace issues in pessimism and doubt. At Willowgrove we believe that every child is capable of working for peace at any age and that by starting young their conflict mediation skills will progress along with the complexity of their conflicts. We want to help maintain and nurture their empathy and work alongside them in these formative years to help inspire and motivate their choices for peaceful responses to conflict. By learning about world issues and non-violent responses we hope to lay the foundations for encouraging compassionate reactions to injustice and to assist in paving a way of non-violence for their future.
In Luke 18:15-17 Jesus reprimands his disciples for discouraging the children from coming to see him. He responded, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ So how do children respond to injustice? How is it that children show love and “receive the kingdom of heaven”? I would say that Jesus is encouraging us to remember the compassion we had as children, the optimism and energy that could be poured into any worthy project. This is what we are encouraging through Peace Education. We
aim to support this vitality by providing outlets for the children after we educate them. For instance: We learned about refugees, about why someone might leave their home and come to a strange new country with a different language or customs. Before this, they may not have known what refugees were, and they might not fully understand the complexities of the issues at hand but they certainly knew what to do. The camp children, some as young as 3 ó, all joined together and signed their names and supportive messages on a welcome banner that we brought to a new family from Iraq and the Primary school made Christmas cards and sent stickers so that the refugee children knew there were other Canadian children thinking about them. After learning about active pacifism and conscientious objection the kids were so inspired by the stories and work from Christian Peacemakers Team that they each sent letters of encouragement and drawings to CPTers in Iraq, Colombia, and Israel/Palestine. One boy, after learning about sustainability and creation care, spent his entire evening walking the blocks around his neighbourhood picking up litter. He filled an entire garbage bag with pieces of litter as small as cigarette butts. Last week the students brainstormed imaginative ways to get aid into Khartoum,
Sudan. These included elaborate tunnels from safe countries, dropping parachutes of food, disguising themselves as soldiers to distribute rations and more. Now, to me, whether these approaches would be successful or not doesn’t matter. What is important is that children as young as 3 ó are getting excited about social justice and humanitarian work, at an age when I was still playing dinosaurs and watching cartoons.
When Jesus tells us to let the children through, to me, he’s saying “do not under estimate what these kids are capable of”. The children we work with at Willowgrove constantly surprise and inspire me through their responses to injustice and their initiative. Our peace-motto at Willowgrove is based on Romans 12:18, which says that If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. At Willowgrove we define peace as “living in harmony with all of God’s creation… no matter what” and the children take this very seriously. To the campers and students this motto means that there are no excuses. If it is up to our responses and reactions to create harmony then it’s up to us to at least try to make things better -even if there are bigger issues at hand. This is what Jesus was describing in regards to receiving the kingdom of heaven like a child. I believe that it is a responsibility he was referring to: to try despite failure and to hope despite the overwhelming feeling of “where do I start”. Pessimism doesn’t seem to affect kids. You could argue that it’s ignorance, that if they knew just how systemic these issues were that they wouldn’t be such go-getters, but I think it’s deeper then that: I think it’s faith, the type of faith and optimism that makes children the kind of example Jesus was referring to.
A friend of mine volunteered in Bolivia for a year through the MCC’s SALT program. She worked at an orphanage and was constantly surrounded by energetic children. She is already a very chipper person but I’m sure being around the childlike energy magnified this exponentially. One day one of the older Social Workers saw her exemplifying this youth and it made her shake her head. She told her, “You’re so young and idealistic.” My friend immediately wondered if that was a bad thing?
What, was she supposed to grow up and get grumpy? One of her older mentors at the orphanage later explained that one does grow more pessimistic with age but that it’s okay, it just happens with maturity and receiving a broader, more complex understanding of how the world works. She instead encouraged my friend to fight it; to hold on to that idealism as long as she could; to stay educated and informed but to strive for the energy and passion of youth. I hope that it is understood that I am not asking us to be childish, or blindly optimistic, that won’t bring change. I’m not asking that we stay naïve but there are many circumstances that strip “adults” of their passions. We can be too pessimistic and loose the faith and hope that children hold onto.
Even though my work is inspiring and highly rewarding I am no stranger to losing faith myself. Sometimes it seems impossible to not become sceptical of change in the face of the overwhelming amount of injustice in the world. Sometimes I just don’t know where to start. On a small scale, I received a rude awakening from this mentality at camp two summers ago. There were two boys in a camp group that were nothing but trouble. They had been arguing from the first five minutes of camp and upon a couple of occasions the disagreements turned violent and lead to fights. As the Peace
Program Director I lead conflict mediation discus
sions with children on multiple occasions but the boys wouldn’t speak to each other. I spent a great deal of time with these two boys in particular because we use Restorative Discipline when dealing with conflict at camp. It is a technique that uses the process of conversation to find consensus about what took place so that the perpetrator and the victim can figure out a solution they both agree on that will bring healing to the situation. It can take a lot of time, honesty and effort and after many conversations they continued to fight. I was beginning to think that there was no way to bring peace to their dilemma but something changed and the boys started talking honestly and eventually decided to shake hands. Lets just say that I was sceptical. I mean we’d been having problems between these boys all week. They had opened up and come to a consensus but they’d also been in their fair share of scuffles. I hadn’t heard from their councillor all day so I assumed that the afternoon had gone well but at the end of the day I saw the boys together and one was picking up a rock. The other then picked up a large rock too and began running towards him with his own rock clenched in his hand. My initial reaction was to yell “STOP!” I thought these two boys were finally going to pummel each other! Vivid pictures from the Children’s Illustrated Bible came rushing back to me of Stephen’s stoning and so I expected the worst. After my yelling the boys looked up confused as they handed each other their rocks and explained that they had agreed to trade friendship rocks so that they wouldn’t forget each other. Friendship rocks! I was speechless as the boys turned and walked away, arms around each, but I was thrilled that I’d been proven wrong in my pessimism.
It is not reasonable for us as adults to hold onto an uneducated naivety, especially when facing the real world day in and day out. But, as my friend’s mentor suggested, we need to hold onto our idealism as long as we can, which can be a difficult balance. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” This is a somewhat ambiguous quote, I mean it does contain figs for goodness sake. But Holmes is trying to guide us to the epiphany that sometimes the best solution is the easiest one and that only by wading through the complexities of the issue can we come to see this. A perfect example of this would be Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche (an intentional community for adults living with intellectual and physical disabilities), who received his Doctorate in moral philosophy. Moral philosophy is essentially the study being a good person, and receiving your doctorate in this field would make one well versed in caring for ones neighbour. But Vanier, even with a vast knowledge of philosophy and in depth understanding of historical injustices felt helpless in applying his education to real life. His eventual response was very simple. He decided to invite two men with downs syndrome to leave the institutions they were living in and to come and share his home. They lived together, as equals, learning from each other and growing together. This was not only the birth of L’Arche but perhaps the most simplistic and direct way for Vanier to put his education and beliefs to the test. I would say that his response embodies the child like approach to receiving the kingdom of heaven. His response was founded in simplicity the other side of complexity. We can bog ourselves down with theory and philosophy because as adults we do have a more full understanding of the world and how it works. But children aren’t held back by their brain because they act with their hearts, as Vanier did. Sometimes the “good start” that we as adults lack is the motivation to “begin”, to listen to our hearts as children do and jump in feet first.
In a way, children already possess the “good start” necessary to make this world a better place, they are innately compassionate. All Jesus asked of his disciples was to not get in their way. We need to encourage our children’s compassion and nurture their “receiving of the kingdom” so that they may hopefully hold onto this peace making energy as long as they can. If Willowgrove has taught me anything from my working with these kids it is that you can never underestimate the power or understanding of a child. Peace education equips our children with the tools to bring about a better future for our homes, communities and the world. I truly believe that the small steps and big steps these children are taking empowers them, inspires us, and will hopefully right some of the wrongs that we –as adults- have so diligently made. We need to realize the importance of “good starts”: that may mean a fresh start for us or a good new start for our children but teaching children how to live peacefully amongst each other could very well bring about a new beginning; the kingdom of heaven. I believe that there is a reason Jesus emphasized the point that the little children should come to him because we have a lot to learn from the compassion and faith of kids.
Thank you.