Teaching peace in classrooms 教室里的和平教育

邓梅

為帮助学生们更好地进行人际交流，丽贝卡为学生们开设了和平课程，帮助学生们更好地解决忧虑和精神压力问题。

In Japan， Rebecca Oxford was to speak at a meeting of JALT， the Japan Association for Language Teaching. Her subject is “The Language of Peace”.

Oxford is Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland in the United States. She says that foreign and second language teacher?educators and their students have an important duty to foster peace. She adds peace is created through communication， and that communication is the main goal of language teacher?educators and teachers.

Part of Oxfords approach to the language of peace is to change signs of conflict into respect for the values and hopes of the people involved. Peace builders should firstly look for the causes of conflict and then use this information to reduce violence between people， groups and cultures.

One United States?based group aims to shape its peace education programs. Tim Nation is Executive Director of the Peace Learning Center， or PLC， in Indianapolis， Indiana. It began working with children who experienced violence at home， and then moved to programs to reduce violence in schools.

Over the past year， the PLC joined with the Tribes Learning Community， a social and emotional learning program. Tribes offers training to elementary， middle and high school teachers. Nation says the work of Tribes is based on evidence from research into how to build communities in schools and classrooms. Nation notes that with the change to online learning， help with understanding social and emotional learning is what teachers need right now.

Jing Lin is a professor of International Education Policy at the University of Maryland. She teaches classes for educators related to peace and ecological ethics. Lin says peace education programs can help students a lot. Some students have mental health problems because of conflicts at school or in the community. They need to learn how to deal with that worry and mental pressure.

Lin suggests organizing groups of students into teams by birth month. Then in these groups， each person tells their life stories. This activity， and similar ones， can help students come to understand that we are all human beings.

[Reading][Check]

1. What is the main goal of language teacher?educators and teachers according to Oxford？

A. Physical health.  B. Efficient learning.

C. Better communication.  D. Academic performance.

2. What is the first thing for peace builders？

A. Learning to maintain.

B. Reducing interpersonal violence.

C. Digging out the causes of conflict.

D. Making their lessons understandable.

3. What does Nation think of the work of Tribes？

A. Popular. B. Practical. C. Interesting. D. Necessary.

4. What suggestion does Jing Lin make according to the last paragraph？

A. Managing groups by birth month.

B. Hosting life?story telling competitions.

C. Hosting more activities for communication.

D. Giving lessons on the nature of human beings.

[Language][Study]

Theme?centered chunks

change...into 把……变成

create peace through communication 通过沟通创造和平

look for the causes of conflict 寻找冲突的原因

aim to do 旨在……

reduce violence in schools 减少学校中的暴力

experience violence at home 在家中经历暴力

be based on 以……为基础

be related to peace 与和平有关

have mental health problems 有精神健康问题

deal with worry and mental pressure 处理忧虑和精神压力

suggest doing 建议……

come to do 逐渐……