Parenting for Peace
Parenting for Peace represents FSP's commitment to engaging with our larger community, being of service as a learning community, and providing opportunities for inquiry and discernment for adults. Our topics are broadly about issues relevant to raising children in a peaceful, loving environment using the lens of Quaker values. We intend to follow our fall event with a larger gathering featuring a national speaker in the spring, offering a workshop for educators and a free evening lecture each time. We have worked with coalition partners on these events to deepen our work in the community. We have thus far funded the project through private donations, grants, and sponsorship, and hope to continue building community support for the program.
Upcoming Events
Please mark your calendars for our next Parenting for Peace event!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
7:00pm Presentation, free & open to the public at Hannaford Hall, USM
Best Friends/Worst Enemies: Friendship Development, Popularity and Social Cruelty in Childhood, with renowned psychologist and author Michael Thompson
This presentation walks teachers and parents through the complex social world of childhood and addresses a number of questions:
What do social relationships in school predict about happiness in adult life?
What is the normal sequence of child friendships, from the parallel play of the two-year-old to the intimate self-disclosure of the adolescent?
Why do cliques form and what are the differences between boy and girl groups? Why are children scapegoated and how can their parents and school protect them?
Dr. Thompson makes suggestions about the management of social problems in schools and makes the case that while all children yearn for popularity, it is friendship that helps children survive and thrive.
Educators’ Workshop: Going Beyond Fear in the Parent-Teacher Relationship, 3:30 pm, Friends School of Portland
Dr. Thompson describes the seven fears on each side of the parent/teacher equation and gives suggestions to both teachers and parents that will help them improve their communication.
Register for both events online.
Past Events
Books as Bridges: Children's books can be effective catalysts for conversations about race, particularly essential for communities with few opportunities for cross-racial relationships. On October 18, 2011, Anne Sibley O’Brien and Krista Aronson shared an overview of the latest findings on race and bias, including research demonstrating that exposure to books featuring positive interracial interactions can actually reduce prejudice. In the educators' workshop, earlier the same day, Annie presented an overview of some of the latest research on racial identity formation (including whiteness), unconscious bias, and contemporary realities of racism. Check out Coloring Between the Lines to learn more about her approach.
Bibliography: Children's books that help talk about race
Related Reading:
Silence in the Classroom: learning to talk about issues of race by Jeane Copenhaver
See Baby Discriminate by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman
A Different View of White Privilege by Dwight Lopes
Educators' Workshop Action Posters
View WCSH6 207's Kathleen Shannon's interview with Anne Sibley O'Brien
Download a pdf souvenir poster
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Alfie Kohn, author of THE HOMEWORK MYTH: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, and UNCONDITIONAL PARENTING: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason, THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE, and his new book, FEEL-BAD EDUCATION, a collection of essays, spoke to an audience of over 200 at USM's Hannaford Hall in the Abromson Community Education Center. This event was free and open to the
public and made possible in part with a grant from the Quimby Family Foundation and a generous donation from Sam Solish and Jo Linder. Click here for one parent's notes on Alfie Kohn's 10 recommendations for parenting.
Here is a link to an audio recording of Alfie's presentation on unconditional parenting (2 hrs) Alfie starts at 08:50, recommendations to parents is around 120:00, Q & A is at 157:16
Here is a link for more information about Alfie Kohn.
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Wild Play: Parenting Adventures in the Great Outdoors, was presented on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 by David Sobel, Co-Director of the Center on Place-Based Education at Antioch University, Keene, NH to over 85 audience members. His afternoon workshop, "Cultivating Environmental Stewardship: Practical Strategies for the Pre-K - 8 Classroom," brought together 15 educators from across the state. Both programs elicited action steps from the participants to implement or learn more about the topics presented. These programs are funded in part by a grant from the Quimby Family Foundation.
The following links will take you to more information about: David Sobel - his books - place-based education - Quimby Family Foundation
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The Ecology of Hope with Sandra Steingraber, took place on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at USM with over 150 people attending. Sandra Steingraber, is an award winning ecologist, Cornell University professor, mother, cancer survivor, and former Ms. Magazine Woman of the year. Dr. Steingraber's newest book, Living Downstream, 2nd edition, was published in April 2010. The book is also being produced as a documentary.
This event was made possible in part by a grant from the Ceres Foundation and is co-sponsored by the USM Women and Gender Studies Program, The Environmental Health Strategy Center, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Natural Resource Council of Maine.
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The first in the series featured author and psychologist Susan Linn, Ed.D. on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 speaking on "The Case for Make Believe: Why Children Need to Play, Who's Stopping Them and What We Can Do About It." Susan Linn is a psychologist at Judge Baker Children's Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston. She is the co-founder/director of A Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. She is also an award-winning ventriloquist, internationally recognized for her pioneering use of puppets as a tool in play therapy with children.
The second in the series was a panel presentation on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 and was presented in partnership with Physicians for Social Responsibility. Taking a proactive approach, "Detox Your Toy Box" explored current research linking environmental toxins to children's health and opportunities for personal and collective action. The panel also shared strategies for engaging children in making healthy choices for themselves and their planet. Experts from diverse, yet connected fields came together as a panel and include:
- David Bellinger, PhD, Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School.
- Nicole Borrasso, Friends School Teacher and Outdoor Educator, FSP
- Kristine Jenkins, Environmental Health Organizer, Environmental Health Strategy Center
The panel was moderated by local pediatrician, parent and FSP Board member, Jeff Peterson.
