The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science.
- Albert Einstein
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Violence and Denial
Last year I was working as a travelling art teacher in a school on the East side of Tucson, just outside the Air Force base. I just happened to be scheduled to work out there the day after the invasion of Iraq began.
The first thing that struck me was the utter silence in the teacher's lounge. I thought there would be a flurry of talk about the war, or that someone would at least have brought a radio in so we could find out what was going on (not that the corporate radio stations tell us what's really going on, but if nothing else as something for us to gather around.) But it was business-as-usual. Not a MENTION of the war.
Of course, the kids were wound up like tops. A lot of them had (and still have) mothers, fathers, siblings, and family friends over there, or on the verge of deployment. The tension was a palpable thickness in the air. A school full of heavy hearts.
My second class of the morning was coming in from their recess as I came down the hallway. Fourth graders. The swirl of chaos around the classroom door let me know that business was no longer as usual. Ms. Flank (I'll feel free to use her name, as she no longer works there) had a group of about 7 kids lined up beside the little table in the hall reserved for private conferences. She told me to go in and start the lesson, that these children had been in a fight and she needed to talk to them one at a time out there. The first child sat down and the rest of us went in.
The whole class was bouncing off the walls. The kids who had been in the fight strutted in like heroes, smiling and joking. Details of the brawl, which had been huge and involved several students from various classes, were bubbling around the room and being woven into legend.
I managed to get them started on their project, and eventually Ms. Flank, having reprimanded all of the brawlers, came in and sat down. She expressed her shock at the scope and the violence of the fight, and I joked, "Well, how could we expect them to act, considering how our leaders are behaving?"
Oops. Didn't compute. I was subjected to a lecture on what an evil guy Saddam Hussein is, and then a lecture about how she doesn't take sides on political issues in the classroom. And then more about the evils of Saddam and his plans to take over the world.
I dunno, are Michael Moore and me and you and a handful of other informed citizens the only ones who are seeing the connection? That a society that answers every conflict with violence and every unknown with fear is going to raise children who deal with things the same way, and who think it's normal? If the president does it, it must be cool, because he's the most important guy in the most powerful country in the world. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln... we looked up to those guys as kids. Kids learn from what they see, not what they're told.
I hope that this gives an example of violence as an energy that we can control in our own lives. If you are feeling bewildered and powerless at the atrocities committed by our "leaders," know that every moment we have the choice to meet the situations in our lives with Love or with fear. And that our choices have repercussions we could never dream of. Young eyes are watching.
Peace.
Mitzi
The first thing that struck me was the utter silence in the teacher's lounge. I thought there would be a flurry of talk about the war, or that someone would at least have brought a radio in so we could find out what was going on (not that the corporate radio stations tell us what's really going on, but if nothing else as something for us to gather around.) But it was business-as-usual. Not a MENTION of the war.
Of course, the kids were wound up like tops. A lot of them had (and still have) mothers, fathers, siblings, and family friends over there, or on the verge of deployment. The tension was a palpable thickness in the air. A school full of heavy hearts.
My second class of the morning was coming in from their recess as I came down the hallway. Fourth graders. The swirl of chaos around the classroom door let me know that business was no longer as usual. Ms. Flank (I'll feel free to use her name, as she no longer works there) had a group of about 7 kids lined up beside the little table in the hall reserved for private conferences. She told me to go in and start the lesson, that these children had been in a fight and she needed to talk to them one at a time out there. The first child sat down and the rest of us went in.
The whole class was bouncing off the walls. The kids who had been in the fight strutted in like heroes, smiling and joking. Details of the brawl, which had been huge and involved several students from various classes, were bubbling around the room and being woven into legend.
I managed to get them started on their project, and eventually Ms. Flank, having reprimanded all of the brawlers, came in and sat down. She expressed her shock at the scope and the violence of the fight, and I joked, "Well, how could we expect them to act, considering how our leaders are behaving?"
Oops. Didn't compute. I was subjected to a lecture on what an evil guy Saddam Hussein is, and then a lecture about how she doesn't take sides on political issues in the classroom. And then more about the evils of Saddam and his plans to take over the world.
I dunno, are Michael Moore and me and you and a handful of other informed citizens the only ones who are seeing the connection? That a society that answers every conflict with violence and every unknown with fear is going to raise children who deal with things the same way, and who think it's normal? If the president does it, it must be cool, because he's the most important guy in the most powerful country in the world. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln... we looked up to those guys as kids. Kids learn from what they see, not what they're told.
I hope that this gives an example of violence as an energy that we can control in our own lives. If you are feeling bewildered and powerless at the atrocities committed by our "leaders," know that every moment we have the choice to meet the situations in our lives with Love or with fear. And that our choices have repercussions we could never dream of. Young eyes are watching.
Peace.
Mitzi
Sunday, May 16, 2004
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