Know All You Can Know: Seeking to create alternatives to the "power over" mode

author : Molly Gibbs

by Molly Gibbs

This is Mother's Day in Olympia. Today my heart and prayers are with the mother whose seventh grade son took his life. I awoke at 4 am thinking I could not sleep if I lost my son to repeated acts of bullying. This couldn't happen in one of Olympia's Middle Schools? My young Chinese American friend has experienced racially motivated bullying at school. She tells her mother that kids do not seek help when this happens because they fear retaliation. Wonderful children are suffering in our community and parents need to take action, beginning in our homes.

We need volunteers in our schools trained in non-violent communication; and adults in schools need administrative support for making the safety of our children a priority. Bullying cannot be tolerated, and racial intolerance is not a value in Olympia. The acceptance of violence in our society is connected to things we witness daily: violence in sports, video games and movies (often orchestrated by the Pentagon's large media budget which keeps Hollywood movies supplied with high tech weaponry and high decibel explosions, graphic destruction). What drives intolerance? You may add to these observations:

* our acceptance of competition [as the model for success in sports, business;]

* the belief that we have winners and losers;

* a blindness to white privilege; and

* the focus on our limited resources.

I have enjoyed working with college students this past year to develop a program to make sure high school students receive factual information about the military, both during and after service. Know All You Can Know is a unique program where college students team with high school students to learn critical thinking skills. We view films together, and support student clubs or activities to explore peace and justice issues. Dialogue and communication skills are the basis for our program. We discuss and seek to create alternatives to the "power over" model that drives our corporate government, and shapes our society. One curriculum we have been asked to develop by a group of local teachers focuses on Truth and Reconciliation as a model for managing conflict. This is very different in its results for victim and perpetrator, when contrasted with our court system. The judicial system produces winners and losers, and your case is decided based on determinations of "right" or "wrong," where it is difficult to fully examine how all parties may have responsibility for the outcomes. We look at issues regarding authority, at what happens when some have power and others do not. (In school, who has power among students? What happens if I seek help from an adult and another student finds out?)

Know All You Can Know offers internships and Contract opportunities to all local college students who are interested. We provide information about post-secondary opportunities for low-income and minority students and develop classroom curriculum to promote peace, critical thinking, and civic leadership.

I am filled with grief for the family who lost their son to violence in our schools. We can each look more deeply into how we might be spectators to, or supporters of, violence. We can contact our Federal legislators to support the proposed Department of Peace, HR 1673, which addresses international and domestic violence, and provides support for nonviolent communication training.