War Toys to Peace Art

Anna Ryoo

* What is the name of your professional association or specialist organization?

http://www.wartoystopeaceart.com/ War Toys to Peace Art

* How did you find out about it (provide details such as urls)?

From http://www.pagebc.ca/ (This association was in the list of the relevant links on this website.)

* What is the mandate of the association?

n/a

* What kinds of projects is your association currently working on (e.g., publications, mission statements, professional development initiatives, collaborations with museums, conferences, etc)?

1. This is the mission statement of this association. (http://www.wartoystopeaceart.com/mission.html)

A. To work on and organize peace education projects and activities, as appropriate, that promote a culture of peace and non-violence for children.

B. To provide organizational support (including but not limited to human resources, financial support, office, printing and publishing) for the Peace Education Project called, “Acts of Transformation from War Toys to Peace Art”.

C. To encourage, inspire, motivate and cultivate an educational environment that will create capacity and community support for the understanding and growth of the Peace Education Project in schools and school districts throughout British Columbia.

D. To promote, advocate and support the Peace Education Project as a 2010 Vancouver Olympic peace education showcase that builds support and understanding for the Olympic Truce in a uniquely Canadian way.

E. To consider the feasibility of extending the Peace Education Project through our member organizations to be national and international in scope and participation.

2. The upcoming project/event of this association is: (http://www.wartoystopeaceart.com/events.html)

"The Fountain of Peace" - Local Participation in The UN International Day of Peace – will visit Vancouver and Lower Mainland Elementary and Middle Year Schools January/February 2011.  The intent of the Fountain of Peace Project is to raise peace consciousness and honour the voice of children and their role in peace and their futures. The fountain will travel across Canada visiting children and asking the questions:
  - What does Peace mean to you?
  - What kind of world do you want?

The Fountain of Peace will be reassembled at each school and stones from around the world will be hung in random order creating a world without borders. Each participating school will be twinned with another country and a mural with messages and images created by the Canadian children will be a gift to the twinned school.

A special song has been written for the Fountain's journey and will be sung by children across Canada.  The children’s voices will be collected and then overlapped to create a recording that will be the largest collaborative collection of Canadian children singing a peace song in Canada.

3. Grants to Schools for Artist Residencies - This grant supports individual schools across BC to bring professional artists into their classrooms for a wide range of curriculum-integrated arts programs including workshops and long-term residencies.  The selection of award is determined by a committee based on the eligibility and merit of the artists and arts activities proposed by the schools.  Successful applications are student-centered projects that offer young people opportunities to deepen their learning, expand their understanding of the world and make meaning in new ways.

* Who are its funders?

It is a non-profit society.  Aside from Blenz Coffee, which seems to be the main sponsor of this organization, it seems to be funded by individuals who make donation and/or sponsors, such as UNICEF and UNESCO, of the events that Promoting a Culture of Peace for Children Society of BC organizes.  http://www.wartoystopeaceart.com/support.html

LENZ CARES PROGRAM

* How would you describe the possible link of this group to your teaching?

This organization seems to be mainly involved with kids who are in kindergarten and elementary schools.  As a secondary school visual art teacher candidate, I am interested in expanding the idea of using war toys and other mediums to create peace art in a way that could be used to target larger audience to promote culture of peace and non-violence.  Through the process of introducing and creating peace art, I would like to help students understand the relationship between nurturing/childhood/culture and outcomes/consequences/reality; in other words, I would like to facilitate students to come to their own realizations about the consequences/impact of things/events that we encounter as a child, young adult, and as an individual of today’s world.

* What other organizations does it work with?

Port Moody library, New Westminster library, City of Port Moody, elementary and middle year schools in Lower Mainland, UNICEF, UNESCO

2. Review one of the association’s resources or journals (e.g., Social Studies and the Young Learner: A Quarterly for Creative Teaching of Grades K-6) and locate a social issue that is central to an issue of import to educators in this association. Write one-two paragraphs summarizing the issue and other salient information on educating to address this social issue from the article/resource.

(http://www.wartoystopeaceart.com/Curriculum_Resource.pdf )

This website provides a Teaching Resource Guide written by Sam Fillipoff and Susan Ruzic which contains excellent resource materials, such as sample lesson plans, but more importantly, they address a major social issue, a pervasive culture of violence and war that exist all over the world through mass media, which now has turned into a preferred mode of entertainment.  They believe that the power to promote world peace should not be left to governments, but rather, regular citizens, such as teachers, students, parents, and community members, should be the ones to start peacemaking in their homes, schools, and workplaces.  By engaging students in active peace education through the use of war toys to create peace art, they seek to raise awareness in a demonstrative manner; those who participate in the process of creating peace art as well as the viewers of these art works will get a valuable experience and also contribute in promoting worldwide culture of peace.

3. Brainstorm one additional pedagogical strategy of your own dealing with the major social issue of importance that was discussed in the article/resource (e.g., How to teach soccer to students with a physical disability; how to discuss the environment in the classroom; how to teach science to English language learners?).

I would like to have students bring in visual images and/or photographs that were used in newspaper articles and have a class discussion on their intended or unintended messages that could cause misunderstanding and barrier between groups of people.

-         Provide other examples in your life or from media where an action or words contributed to cause of violence unintentionally.

-         What could be some practical prevention measures?

-         If you were to choose a different image for this article, what would it be? In what way is it a better choice?  Is it free from causing unintentional misunderstanding?