The Woodbourne Center
1301 Woodbourne Avenue

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The 2014 winners for the Peace Study Center Prize at the  Maryland History Day Contest have been announced.  Congratulations to Sean Kim, Selena Willett, Nick Girard from Calvert High School for their documentary, Conscientious Objectors During the Vietnam War.
And to Nora Bay, Arshiya Dutta, Manasi Yedavalli from Eastern Middle School for their exhibit, A Grain of Salt: How The Gandhi Salt March Impacted the Fight for Indian Rights.

Our award, the Peace Study Center Prize  is given to entries that best examine the aesthetics of peace, justice, or non-violence as a way to sustain our earth,  promote global awareness and support the  dignity of all persons. The Maryland History Day Contest is sponsored by the Maryland humanities Council and is open to students in grades 6-12.

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Play for Peace Concert by the World Peace Orchestra
September 10, 2013 at Lincoln Center.
Use promo code Peace10x to save 10% – get more information

Film screening and conversation of World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements
Thursday October 3, 7 pm at the Pratt Library (400 Cathedral  Street)
Tells how John Hunter created the World Peace Game for his students in Charlottesville , Virginia.  The game teaches conflict resolution and collective problem-solving and transforms students from a neighborhood public school to citizens of the world.   – more information

Author M. K. Asante will discuss his book, Buck: a Memoir
Monday Sept 16th at 6:30.  at the Pratt Library (400 Cathedral Street)
It tells the unforgettable story of Asante’s rise from dealer and delinquent to writer, filmmaker, poet and professor of creative writing and film at Morgan State University.   We met M. K. Asante when his wife Maya Freelon Asanti was our guest artist at the Peace Study Center and at Peace Camp several years ago.  (She paints with photographs and tissue paper!)  – more information

While you are at the Library look at the exhibit “From the Heart: a Cultural Journey of Refugees”
This is an exhibit of African bookbinding made by students in “Cultural Expressions,” a workshop which encourages creative initiatives for foreign youth from the Refugee Youth Project.  Woodberry Crossing and the Peace Study Center  have enjoyed working with these youth from the Refugee Youth Project sharing farm experiences and stories with these children.   (on display through December 15th.)  – get more information

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pencils
pencil bags
erasers
folders
black pens
wide ruled paper
spiral notebooks
crayons
composition books
binders
dictionaries
locks
college ruled paper
college ruled notebooks
colored pencils

Thank you for making this summer celebration of school and children a success!

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By Cindy Woodruff, PSC Founder and President

You could almost hear the sighs of relief as hundreds of teens completed their presentations at the annual Maryland History Day Competition on April 27. Held at University of Maryland Baltimore County, this program is sponsored by the Maryland Humanities Council with this year’s theme: Turning Points in History.  Students expressed this theme through websites, performances, exhibits, papers and documentaries. I was honored to judge the Middle School Group Website competition and the finals in the Middle School Individual Performance competition.  We also nominated students for Special Prizes and the Peace Study Center offers two of these special prizes.

Winning is no easy feat. In order to participate in the Maryland History Day, students first had to win at their county or city level of competition.  The top two winners in each category will compete at the National History Day, held this year at the University of Maryland, College Park on June 9 to 13^th.  This opportunity builds research skills, knowledge of history in context, public speaking skills, teamwork, cooperation and stage presence.  The students were engaged and eager to show their work.

Congratulations to the Peace Study Center Award winners:  Alexandra, Gabrielle, Trelian, Teauna, and Jordan!

Student:          Alexandra Fine

Topic:              Gandhi’s Salt March and Revolutionizing Civil Rights in India

Category:        Junior Individual Documentary

School:            Eastern Middle School in Montgomery County

Teacher:          Laurie Hawe, Laura Huber

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Students:         Gabrielle Benjamin, Trelian Lloyd, Teauna Mitchell, Jordan Moses

Title:                Armenian Genocide: How the Loss of 1.5 Million Led to the Modern Age of Mass Murder

Category:        Senior Group Exhibit

School:            Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Prince George’s County

Teacher:          Julian Lord

Cindy is the co-founder of the Center with a 35 year career in school and public libraries. She was the director of Libraries and Archives at the Gilman School in Baltimore for many years and she currently lives and works in Delaware. Cindy has a B.A. in English from SUNY Geneseo and a MLS from UNC Chapel Hill. She also studied at the University of Nottingham for one year. Cindy supports the goals of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) and served on the USBBY Bridges to Understanding Award Committee in 2011. She served on the Caldecott Award Committee and the Geisel Award Committee of the American Library Association.

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How do we talk to children about immigration? What is the right way to explain that almost all citizens of our country are descendants of immigrants, all coming to this continent in search of a better life, or in attempt to escape some kind of cruelty, but new immigrants are now rarely allowed to enter our country legally?

On a recent service learning immersion trip I took with undergraduate students from Loyola University Maryland, we learned about the harsh realities of immigration from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Our country has built a fence, at great expense, across many miles of the border between the US and Mexico, but there are still those who will risk deportation, harassment and even their lives to cross this border, looking for a better life for themselves and their families.

As Jose Vargas, the founder of Define American, and an undocumented immigrant, says, we can better understand each other if we hear each other’s stories. So, I will tell you the story of two young people I met on my trip to Mexico and San Diego. Anna and Juan (names changed) ages 16 and 7 came by plane from Guatemala with their mother to cross into the US from Mexico. Their father had immigrated to the US, but had been unable to bring the family with him. Once at the border, Anna’s mother realized it was risky to cross the border, but Anna would not be deterred. Taking her brother, she boldly crossed from Mexico into southern California, hoping to find her father and a better life. Instead, they were quickly picked up by the border patrol, but as unaccompanied minors, they could not be immediately deported. They were taken to a foster home where they are now awaiting deportation. Anna and Juan are learning English and hope to be able to find their father and eventually be with him as well as their mother. Some would call them “illegal aliens.” Others would recognize them as two of the thousands of children whose families have been split because of unnatural borders. These are the stories we can tell our children, not the stories of “illegals” and people who want to take our jobs, but the stories of families who are looking for a better life or are running from persecution, just as my great-grandparents did, or perhaps your grandparents or parents.

Share the story of Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan with your intermediate reader or Four Feet Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams or One Green Apple by Eve Bunting with your primary children to give them some stories of immigrants both in the US and in other places. Illegal is almost never the most important part of the story.

Wendy M. Smith, PhD, joined the PSC Board in 2012. Wendy is currently the chair of the Teacher Education Department within the School of Education at Loyola University Maryland. She teaches classes in literacy education for elementary education majors and graduate students in the Reading Specialist Degree Program. She has been a Peace Corps Volunteer, an executive director of a non-profit advocating for people with cognitive disabilities, an elementary special education teacher and a certified Lamaze instructor. Wendy’s area of expertise is children’s literature and she has written numerous papers on the use of books that contain characters that are marginalized by society; these include books with children who have cognitive and other disabilities, children who are abused, children who live in war zones and African American children. Her favorite books about peace are A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and The Watsons go to Birmingham, 1964 by Christopher Paul Curtis.

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Two years ago, I began working at a preschool to pay the bills while I was a full time graduate student in library and information sciences. However, upon graduation I decided to continue working part-time at a preschool while also working at Longview Public Library. I love both of my jobs, but recently I saw my two worlds collide in an unexpected way. As I settled into my new classroom working with after school students, ages five to ten, I wanted to promote reading as much as possible. I even asked the students to help create a library in the classroom during our Christmas break. Naturally, I inquired about the books they liked to read and nearly every one of them begged me to buy the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. At first I thought, “Why not?” At least they will be reading and not burying their faces in video games. So, I asked the Assistant Director of the preschool how she felt about buying the books and she instantly nixed the purchase: “These books are full of toilet humor,” she said.

Honestly, I thought she was over reacting. I was determined to prove her wrong and buy the books for my kids, so, I asked one of the students to let me borrow one of their Wimpy Kid books. After the first 30 pages I realized the Assistant Director was right. What’s more, I already had to talk to one of my students for the exact same inappropriate behavior portrayed in these books. I cringed at the thought of the whole class reenacting the characters’ behavior of lying, stealing and more, but would this behavior be a direct result from the books the children were reading?

Julia Eccleschare, author of the article “Can Books Teach Children to Behave Badly?” responds to a concerned parent with similar experiences as she reads David Shannon’s No, David! to her son. After reading the book, she noticed her son thought the naughty things David did was “a permissible kind of behavior.” We all agree on the importance of reading to our children and having them read as well, but can books teach and encourage children to engage in bad or unhealthy behavior?

My job as a librarian is to encourage children of all ages to read and learn through appropriate literature. However, what is the price we pay if what they are reading incites bullying, disrespect or lying? As Eccleschare explains, it’s up to us, the teachers, librarians, and parents to help our children look at bad behavior in books objectively, so that when faced with similar real-life situations, they can make the right choices.

Jennifer Anne Warren has been working alongside children in the preschool setting since 2011. She received a BA in both English and History from the University of North Florida and an MLS from SUNY Buffalo. During her time at SUNY Buffalo, Jennifer worked on two practicums including one with WBNY’s radio station cataloging their music collection and the second researching and completing statistical analysis of NTIS’s database.

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— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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