Alberta's peaceable school

For A Change, Dec-Jan, 2000 by Chris Harvey

In the last farmland east of the Canadian Rockies, the pioneer town of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, is demonstrating how to grow peacemakers from kindergarten age upwards. Rocky Elementary Public School has named itself a `peaceable school' and set out to train each child in recognizing conflict and dealing with it in a peaceful manner.

School counsellor Sister Margie MacDonell's interest in peacemaking dawned the year she had an unmanageable Grade Five class. `Nothing I'd been taught worked,' she says. `I needed new tools with which to work.'

Rather than just weathering the turbulent class, she collected ideas and materials from near and far which began to turn the situation around. Now, rather than acting exclusively as a counsellor for problem children, she has the freedom to teach whole classes what conflict is, how to understand it and, most importantly, how to mediate between students in conflict.

The peaceful philosophy in this school is clear as soon one enters the doors. Photographs of students who have been helpful are pinned on notice boards and along the corridors there are numerous positive action memory jogs.

`Rocky Elementary does not believe that there have to be winners and losers in life,' comments the local newspaper The Mountaineer. `Small acts of peace in hallways, on the playground, and in classrooms are promoted and celebrated by the school.' Its programme has been endorsed by the provincial Department of Education.

Training starts in kindergarten with songs and advice tapes from the cartoon figure called `I Care Cat'. Children learn about hands that are for helping not hurting. Kindnesses are encouraged to one another, to members of the family and to the lonely-looking student off by himself.

So successful has the programme been that Sr Margie, assisted by her friend, Sr Cappy Peters, has presented workshops for teachers and parents and created awareness for the town of Rocky Mountain House through newspaper articles and a Peace Day--celebrating the peaceable school at the end of each year.

An international idea adopted by the school was the `Peace Pole' initiated in Japan in 1955. Over 100,000 of them have been dedicated around the world.

The pole represents the commitment of the school to a non-violent conflict resolution environment and a desire to see peace worldwide. It is moved from class to class.

There seems no doubt among the school staff that peace education should start at the earliest grades and be reinforced grade by grade into high school. The hope is that it will be supported by family values and behaviour at home and in the community. The Sisters travel extensively during the summer updating and integrating new resources.

Despite the evident public support, funding to date has mainly come from personal friends and the religious community to which the Sisters belong.

The Peaceful School vision that Srs Margie and Cappy have brought to Rocky Elementary has spread waves in many directions. Teachers and educators worldwide are trying a similar approach from the cradle upwards, following UNESCO's call this year for `The Culture of Peace'.