Striving for peace
Private school breaks new ground with ninth-graders
The Hillside School in Marlborough is a private boarding school for 150 adolescent boys, which might not sound like the most peaceful place in the world. Yet for a three-month term, its ninth-graders have a new addition to their curriculum: peace studies.
Peace studies programs are usually reserved for the college level, or as an elective course for seniors in some high schools. Hillside's peace studies class appears to be one of the few in the nation required for students at the freshman level.
"This is incredible, that it's a required course," said Joseph de Rivera, director of the peace studies program at Clark University in Worcester. Teaching the course to ninth-graders probably "is going to be a challenge, but there is nothing intellectually they couldn't handle," he said.
Classes that teach peacemaking skills, such as conflict resolution and peer mediation, can be found in other middle and high schools, but Hillside's class is unique in that it delves heavily into global issues.
"They have a thirst for talking about these social issues, really in a profound way, and they haven't had an opportunity necessarily to do so," said Matt Laliberte, who teaches the Hillside course.
The school's push toward peace education this fall was prompted by a visit early in the year from Colman McCarthy, a former
"Students have the right to be informed that other ways to solve conflicts exist without violence. That should be basic information at every grade level," McCarthy said. "We teach math every year, we teach science every year - why are we not teaching peace every year?"
At Hillside, which covers grades 5 through 9 and where about half the students have learning difficulties, administrators have embraced the course. "Middle school can be a somewhat unpeaceful place. It's an unpeaceful time in their lives," said David Beecher, the school's headmaster. "We work pretty hard with our boys to get them compassionate, kind, and gentle."
Students are asked to keep a "media manipulation" log, where they record events they see in the news, on television, in video games, and elsewhere, and "analyze the underlying message of what the media conveys," Laliberte said.
"It made me more aware," said Patrick Linnane, a student from North Reading who took the course last term. He added that he tries to watch the news when he can.
After introducing his students to techniques of negotiation and compromise, Laliberte has them play a computer game called Peacemaker, where they take on the role of the Palestinian president or Israeli prime minister and try to find a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"It was a little bit difficult," said Cameron Gillies, who also took the peace studies course last term. "You did one thing that made someone happy, but it made someone else unhappy."
Students end the course by giving a 10-minute presentation on a famous peacemaker such as Mother Teresa or the Dalai Lama.
Cameron's mother, Michele, said she had noticed changes in her son's behavior after he took the course. "He's become a more respectful listener. He's actually started to negotiate . . . and his mediation skills are picking up," she said.
"The class really does help me in everyday life," said Lucas Figueroa, a Hillside student who is taking the class this term.
The first few minutes of each class are devoted to journal writing, in which students respond to a prompt from Laliberte, and much of the rest of class is devoted to discussion. "We're not here to learn important dates or important facts. We're learning about what it means to be a respectful individual, what it means to practice peace," Laliberte said.
Abby Pettee, the school's counselor and chaplain, said students have come to her wanting to share ideas they have written in their journal. "This is really great," she said. "It's getting some of the thoughts that have been churning in their heads anyway . . . those are teachable moments with kids."
Not every discussion goes smoothly, especially when the students are discussing a controversial issue such as the war in Iraq.
Patrick said that during discussions last term, "some of the kids just wanted to say what they had to say and not listen to what anyone else wants to get across."
Lucas, however, said of other students in his class, "I think they try to listen."
Controversy arose last year at a Maryland high school where McCarthy has been teaching a peace studies class for almost 20 years, after two students who had not taken the course accused McCarthy of trying to advance a political agenda.
McCarthy said that the allegations are unfounded, and continues to teach the course.
"I think it's part of an honest dialogue that you share your viewpoints as long as you don't impose your viewpoints or demand that people agree with you," McCarthy said.
Laliberte has a similar opinion. As the teacher, he said, "I think it's important that the boys know where you stand and what you believe, but it's also important that you couch that explanation . . . in that being my opinion and not being a fact."
Although Beecher, Hillside's headmaster, is proud of the course, he tries to be modest about it. "I don't mean to portray that our little school is going to change the world overnight. But I think we might change these boys for the better." 