Towards a Pedagogy of Peace
.
Traveling to Hiroshima to create peace workshops. What can I teach someone in Hiroshima about peace? First thing is to listen. Respect. Learn. Get better. Japanese people for certain notice these things. Humility, especially as a Yankee is important. Each case has its specific needs.
Sarajevo
Once I painted a mural with local youths in Sarajevo, Bosnia. I had just met the kids, who had just, somewhat randomly been gathered together from the neighborhood. Most had witnessed some trauma from the longest siege in modern history. So, I just wanted them to have some fun! In our grind it out American culture, the idea of fun is difficult to assess, and thus often discounted. but if students can have fun, they learn better, and art regardless can be joyous exuberant expression. So I made a schematic (a Fish from the Miljacka river!), and the students filled in their own thoughts…lière
Juárez is a long story. But once, with Professors Lydia Huerta and Scott Fritz, we took a group of students to Panaderia Rezizte, in Juárez. All we could do really was hope the students had open eyes, and hearts still beating. in 2015 La Violencia has tapered down, though the thought was still there just beneath the surface. The students came over for an afternoon and got a bit of a history lesson.
Hiroshima
Three experiences teaching Peace: Respect, Fun, and History. History is what ties things together.
in Hiroshima we still have survivors from the atomic bombings, who can tell their stories. Having a human being in front of one, telling the story of what happened to them is very powerful. It acts upon the mind, as we put ourselves in their shoes: “what would I have done?“
Talking, thinking, and creating. There is much to be done, but as artists we must work with people and together create new ways of understanding, new ways of remembering old things, new ways with new media that do not forget the auld.