Parkway Peace and Social Justice Blog

An Introduction to Parkway Peace Work:

Liz Shriver

3.4.09

As a young adult on a one year fellowship at Parkway I can best allow others to understand what we’re working on through my own experiences here. In the two days of school that I’ve had so far this week I have been challenged by Parkway Students.

On Tuesday All Acceptance Alliance hosted an ‘open house party’ in order to gain interest in gender and sexuality issues. I was asked to think about sexuality and faith in ways I didn’t expect. A junior student who identifies as Muslim, is married and is pregnant with her second child attended our open house because she feels that her beliefs are not understood at the school and she wanted to talk more about diversity. A senior and the godmother of that student’s first child told a story about how she realized at the age of nine that most people didn’t want her to have a ‘girlfriend’ and that she has been fighting to express her identity since then. The day after the party an ally (someone who identifies as strait but supports gay rights) in the group, a ninth grader, told me that her dad wouldn’t let her be in the group anymore once he found out what we were talking about. She was clearly upset but respects her father’s decision and the parameters of her religion. These students gave me a deeper perspective of how complicated faith and identity are.

The next day I sent a senior to do research with the Darfur Alert Coalition for his senior project on American foreign policy and got to see the smile of another student who had received a positive response back from the Women’s Health Center at Bryn Mawr College who she is going to interview about ‘fad diets’ and how they effect women. That afternoon we brought in Awbury Arboretum, Weavers Way, Breakfree Youth Design, a mediation trainer, the Help Increase the Peace Program, and our school counselor to talk about spring and summer opportunities with our 9^th and 10^th grade students. Each classroom listened and asked questions about how they could get involved, and facilitators came back with long lists of kids wanting to volunteer.

At the end of the day I quickly switched gears and I sent off seven energized students to a Students Talking About Relationships retreat in the city with their facilitator from the Lutheran Settlement House. Students left in a stretch limo, a serendipitous mistake made by the transportation company. After school I observed ninth grade boys create friendships and overcome barriers of ‘cool’ and ‘uncool’ through the packaging of food from the Weavers Way Co-op. Boys who had originally disregarded one of their peers ended our session walking out as a group talking and laughing.

Working with all of these outside speakers and facilitators gives our students a huge variety of perspectives on how to engage with life and take advantage of unique opportunities. What Parkway Peace and Social Justice High School staff, students and teachers strive to do is create a safe space to express opinions, challenge beliefs, have new experiences, and become leaders. We do not look at a “Peace School” as the absence of difference or change but as a place to become active and passionate. In order for our students to develop intellectual passions they need experiential tools which allow them to engage with difficult concepts. Funding for fieldtrips to museums, leadership retreats, youth conferences, international experiences, art projects, special in-class projects, and speakers and facilitate the creation of these tools. Students take new experiences and use them every day when they encounter intolerance, violence and other detriments to peace.