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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 1999)
Page A4 <Fl»e IJorUanì» ffibwrwer July 7 ,1 9 « Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views O f <Xlje ^ o rtla n h ffibserlier Attention Readers! _____r take a minute to «end ue your com m ei*». W e’re always trying to ^ v e you a b etter paper and w e can’t do It without your help. Tell ue what you Hke and what n eeds Improvement... any suggeetlone are weloemed and app«^ d ated . W e tak e crWclem well! Get your p owerful pane out WOW end address letters to: EdKor. Reader Reepooaa. P.O. “ “ * * ” (£tje ^ o rtla n h ©bseruer (USPS 959-680) Established in 1970 Charles Washington Publisher Larry J. Jackson, Sr. Editor Gary Ann Taylor Business Manager Joy Ramos. Copy Editor Mark Washington Distribution Manager Heather Fairchild Graphic Designer Tony Washington Director o f Advertising Contributing Writers: Richard Luccetti Lee Perlman, 4747 NE Martin Lather King, Jr. Btvd.. 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The Portland O bserver-O regon’s Oldest Multicultural Publication- is a member o f the National Newspaper Association-Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association - Serving Portland and Vancouver. SU B SC R IB E TO <£hc W ortlan b <©b»eruer The Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home for only $60.00 per year. Please fill out, enclose check or money order, and mail to: T he S ubscriptions P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137 P ortland , O regon 97208 Name: Address: City, State: Zip-Code: T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver Conflict Resolution Skills Taught To Children B y M iik k B o m a n n W hile conflict resolution pro grams are introduced in high school to teach alternatives to violence, research increasingly points to the first five years in a ch ild ’s life as the critical period for influencing social and em otional development. “A lot o f child ren ’s habits, the basic foundation for the ways they think and relate, are established in th o se first y e a r s ,” sa id L arry D ieringer, executive director o f Educators for Social Responsibil ity, a Boston-based organization that has developed a conflict reso lution program for the very young called Adventures in Peacemaking. Lisa Cureton, a childcare direc tor and teacher trainer in Maryland, said giving children the social and emotional tools to handle life s ex periences is just as important as developing their intelligence. C iting the tw o student suspects in the L ittleton, Colo. H igh school killings, C ureton said they obvi ously had the intellectual ability to build the bom bs and plan their attack. W hat they lacked was emo tional intelligence. “ We w ork so dilig en tly in giv ing our children cognitive intelli gence but we are losing the battle as it relates to social and em o tional developm ent,” Cureton said, referring to the w ork o f Daniel G olem an and his book “Em otional Intelligence.” The A dventures in Peacem ak- ing p ro g ram , w hich has been im plem ented in 600 after-school program s in 25 com m unities na tionw ide and has reached an esti m ated 16,000 children, aims to give children em otional coping skills at a young age, before they have developed a protective mask that is difficult to crack. Geared for both pre-school chil dren and schoolchildren through the sixth grade, the program is designed for after-school hours and em phasizes having fun. A ctivities like “The Lily Pad H op,” “ Human C am era” and “Beat the W ave” teach cooperation, differing per spectives, and the effects o f ste reotyping. Y oungsters learn to express their feelings, com m uni cate w ith each other, respect dif ferences in cultural background and w ork together. “We can remove that hardening o f the heart before that hardening even occurs,” by giving children the skills to deal w ith their em o tions, says Cureton. "T hen w e’ve really done some work and can really make a change for tom orrow .” Positive reinforcem ent is an other tool that seems to help turn around negative student behavior in the low er grades. A program called G ive Peace a C hance in N ashville, Tenn., revolves around small efforts to rew ard students for good deeds. Positive notes from other children are stuffed into Continued on the next column Snodgrass & Mannix Perpetuate Mabon Tactics There is plenty o f blame to go around for school shootings in Peal, Paducah, Jonesboro, Springfield, Littleton and Coyners. The easy availability o f guns. Hollywood vio lence. Failure o f friends schools and law enforcem ent officials, fel low students and family to recog nize signs o f trouble. The Internet. There may be another root cause: The role o f the Lon Mabons o f the world. M abon, leader o f the con servative religious group, Oregon Citizens Alliance, will o f course deny he favors hatred or is a part o f killing kids. But what his words and deeds do is foster trouble. No, M abon d id n ’t call for the p h y s ic a l v io le n c e o f s c h o o l shootings. But he led a church- based election cam paign to single out hom osexuals and treat them as less than equal hum an beings. Twice in the 1990’s M abon put a supposed "m oral authority” b e hind an em otionally violent m es sage to youths that it is okay to target groups you d o n ’t like or disagree with. It isn ’t difficult for adolescents Continued from previous column envelopes stapled to a wall for each child at Goodletsville Elementary School. Slights and hurts are recorded with tacks on a Peace Fence that are removed when the affront is resolved. So m any children grow up in a violent environm ent that they do not know what peace m eans, said Carolyn Bush, the fourth grade teacher who initiated the program . “We decided to create an environ ment to let them know what peace really is,” she says. Raising awareness about the cul ture o f violence that children live in is another goal o f Educators for S o c ia l R e s p o n s ib ility , sa id Dieringer. “ It is important to rec ognize that we live in a culture that too often celebrates violence, es pecially through the m edia,” he said. “It’s important for us as adults to directly address some o f the fac tors that contribute to this culture o f violence, like the availability o f weapons. There are some larger, cultural factors that we as adults have to take responsibility for.” At Sweeney Elem entary School in S a n ta F e, N .M ., th e BULLYPROOF program tries to dilute the effects o f violent televi sion shows and m ovies by em pha sizing peaceful storytelling and en tertainment. Through puppet shows and a rap opera, children are given ex amples o f how to address bullying through characters like the Listen ing Lynx, Loving Lion, and Re spectful Raven. M aking abstract concepts con crete through games and activities is at the heart o f A dventures in Peacem aking, too. “ So m uch o f the inform ation we give kids is not fun,” said Cureton, who after four years o f working with the program in M aryland is now training others to use it. “The piece that was pow erful (in P e a c e m a k in g ) w as giv in g youngsters the opportunity to prac tice skills they needed w ithout it being lecture based. I could see how the children w ould learn and discern those skills w ithout really knowing it,” said Cureton. Adventures in Peacemaking was initiated four years ago by AT&T em ployees who were concerned both about increasing violence among children and the quality o f after-school program s. Backed by the com pany’s Fam ily Care De velopm ent Fund, Educators for Social R esponsibility and Project Adventure - an experimental learn ing com pany - team ed up to de velop the curriculum . E d u c a to r sa y the p ro g ra m works. V icki W right, who intro d u c e d P e a c e m a k in g a t the C h ild re n ’s L earning C enter in Longm ont, C olo., said after one year physical confrontations be tween her children are down and the whole atm osphere o f the room to take the underlying message to the next stage for physical violence against any group o f humans. In Littleton the targets in the gun lens deliberately include a born-again Christian co-ed and Black athlete. Mabon w ouldn’t get away with harassing gays with a gun so he used the other insidious tactic o f emotional violence. Is it a coinci dence th a t tw o o f the school shootings happened in states where there have been anti-gay ballot cam paigns earlier in this decade and most o f the other shootings have been in conservative "Bible Belt” states where youth have had years o f anti-gay teaching in church? Snodgrass: Dividing Oregon Again Now O regon Republic Reps. Lynn Snodgrass and Kevin Mannix are se e k in g to p e rp e tu a te the M abon em otional violence tactic. Their Joint Resolution 29 is aim ed at gays. They attem pt to sanitize and hide their anti-gay bias by not including the w ord “hom osexual ity” in their ballot measure. has changed for the better. "W e have a lot o f challenging children and some behavior prob lems,” W right explained. “Those sorts o f things are way down. The children have learned how to use anger management tools and how to use words in an appropriate way.” Change doesn’t happen over night and the program asks for a one-year com m itm ent from par ticipating after-school programs. But once the curriculum has had time to take hold, the effects are often rem arkable, Cureton notes. A fter the first year, children in her program began to com m unicate If sin is w hat they are against, note that they do n ’t speak to ban m arriage or benefits for “ all sin ners (period).” A fter all, the Bible is full o f rules S nodgrass and M annix violate. So the duo plays pick and choose with sins and point their trigger finger at groups they think they can easily dom inate. Schoolyard Bullies Just like sch oolyard bullies Snodgrass and M annix are pick ing a fight with someone they think they can beat. In the short term Snodgrass and Mannix will no m at ter w hat the election results are. They know sex sells and they can raise lots o f m oney and energize their troops w ith a sex-related bal lot issue. H ow ever in the long run O r egon w ill be divided and after the election there will be straight, gay and bisexual mem bers o f society. Ironically, at the beginning o f her term w ith the H ouse Speaker, Snodgrass claim ed she was tired o f O regon being divided betw een rural and urban areas. Yet she is more effectively and started to cooperate w ith each other. “By year two I saw a drastic change," she says. C hildren who had been enemies started holding hands, sitting next to each other and treating each other w ith re spect. “Cursing stopped, fighting com pletely left the program and children began to function" as a com m unity, she explains. Says Cureton, “I see it as a ve hicle for change. I see it as chang ing the behaviors o f our children and giving them the tools they need to cope w ith w hat’s happening in our society. W e’re touching a lot happy to lead a divisive cam paign against a group she d o esn't like. Snodgrass, M annix and Mabon should read Jerem iah 23 on their politics o f division, w hich has turned people away from churches: W oe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep o f my pas ture! Says the L ord... it is you who have scattered my flock, and driven them a w a y ...” Instead o f dividing O regon with yet another religious- based ballot cam paign, Snodgrass and M annix m ight try the positive tactic o f evangelism . If they con vince 99% o f O regonians to com m it them selves to be practicing m em bers o f th eir conservative churches, the legislators w ouldn’t have to fear w hat they label “ the gay agenda." Instea, Joint Resolution 29 is a tactic adm ission by Snodgrass and M annnix that they are failing to convince O regonians o f their in terpretations. So the legislators instead are seeking a secular law to im pose their religious beliefs even on people o f faith who find a different m essage in the Bible. o f lives.” Mieke H. Bomann is a free-lance reporter based in Seattle. Contacts: Larry Dieringer, ex ecutive director. Educators fo r Social Responsibility, Boston. Mass.. 617- 492-1764. Vicki Wright, assistant director. Children's Learning Center, 851 Crisman Drive, Longmont, Colo. 80503. 303-651-1008. • L isa Cureton. childcare director, University fo r Tots, Suitland, MD.. 301-856-0782. With FHA's new higher loan limits. you can buy your dream home H o w 's y . th a t fo r a h o u s e w a r m in g gi Since 1934 w e've helped over 2 6 m illion Americans get into new homes. And starting this year, HUD can help you get a home loan for up to $ 208,8 00. Be sure to check with your lender to find out what the FHA-insured loan limits are in your area. W e can also help you with any questions you might have. 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