Youths Learn Nonviolence at Yale
Peace by Peace, Inch by Inch

By Virginia Baron and Michelle Chen

n a sunny April morning, 78 middle school students from towns in the New Haven, CT, area met on the Yale University campus to celebrate the culmination of a 10-week program of peace studies. In an excited flurry of activity, students registered, received Peace by Peace T-shirts and group assignments and gathered for the opening ceremonies.

Photos by Virginia Baron.

Carla Yarbrough, Director of Special Programs/Community Outreach at WTNH News Channel 8, gave a spirited keynote speech. “Look at me. I look like you,” she said. She recalled the hardships of growing up in an impoverished family in Memphis, but she also noted that her hardworking mother inspired her to educate herself and pursue her dreams. Yarbrough stressed the importance of getting to know yourself. “Don’t try to please the crowd, please yourself,” she advised, warning that it’s otherwise too easy to fall prey to drugs or unwanted pregnancy. She concluded by encouraging the students to empathize with each other, because “every choice you make has an effect on someone else.”

After the orientation, the young people poured out onto the Old Campus Green to locate their groups for the day—they were mixed into groups from different schools—and to start learning new techniques of resolving conflict, all in a lighthearted, upbeat atmosphere. Asked if it was difficult to get kids to give up a Saturday, a middle school principal who had accompanied her students, answered, “Oh, not at all. They’d all be here if they didn’t have other commitments.”

Loosening up for a dance workshop, with one participant thinking it over.

A seventh-grade teacher said that these courses, which Yale students have given for the last seven years, do make a difference, especially in what youths say. She has noticed that as a result of the discussions and activities, the students reflect more before speaking.

Twenty-three Yale undergraduates taught the Peace by Peace curriculum this year as volunteers in a program that emphasizes the importance of communication, respect for differences, overcoming stereotypes and seeing the world from new perspectives. Teaching techniques vary from lectures to role-plays and educational games, with lessons on analyzing and resolving conflict. In one group, each student thought of a conflict scenario, like fighting over a slice of pizza, and the others brainstormed ways to reconcile the problem.

Above and left: Getting to know each other before going into workshops that included: Comedy Improv, Children’s Theater, Folk Singing, Jazz, Modern and Hip-Hop Dancing, Wacky Short Stories, Music Writing, Peace Games, Human Spider Web (teamwork) and Television Journalism.

Other activities focused on constructive, group-oriented play and were just plain fun: Yale student comedy troupes organized improvisation games that turned even the shyest into comedic talents; Splatter!, a writing program for middle school students run by undergraduates, sponsored a creative writing workshop; Yale Dancers taught a choreographed hip-hop number. “So many different people get involved,” remarked one Yale student, “it’s a really nice collaborative effort.”

At the end of the day, the young students boarded a school bus that would take them back into their neighborhoods with a greater sense of belonging and a deeper understanding of how nonviolence could affected their lives. The students who put the event together were hopeful that the bridging of the Yale and New Haven communities had given new meaning to the words with which Festival Coordinator Andrew Sessa began the day: “You guys have the opportunity to show us all you’ve learned.”

Nicole Rodriguez and Vickiana Clark, sixth graders from Fair Haven Middle School. Friends since third grade, they are happy to pose for a photo in their new T-shirts: “Playful Explorations in Active Conflict Education.”

The Peace Games Program, begun in 1989 by Francelia Butler, Professor Emerita of Children’s Literature at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, was originated to provide students an opportunity to find constructive solutions to problems in their lives. In 1998 Peace by Peace International was established as an umbrella organization. Peace by Peace programs are also sponsored by Columbia University, Goucher College, Johns Hopkins University, Emory University, and the University of Toronto. For more information on Peace By Peace at Yale, contact its directors, Jessica Mangual, Jessica.Mangual@yale.edu, or Daniel Norland, Daniel.Norland@yale.edu., or see its website at www.yale.edu/pgames.

Longtime peace activist Virginia Baron has written extensively for this magazine and others. Michelle Chen is a YouthPeace activist at Yale University. Both are members of the War Resisters Publication Committee.