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The experiences and work of Montessori Peace Now
The Montessori Peace Now student organization is a convergence of academic study, personal development, and social action focused on peace and sustainability for Montessori adolescents. Participants individually and collectively consolidate their vision of peace, forming a manifesto and roadmap of social action. Participants critically research, discuss, and act on issues of peace and sustainability, in collaboration with their school community, other local Peace Now chapters, and their global counterparts. The Montessori Peace Now network provides a channel of expression and real action for unique adolescent perspectives addressing the most transcending issues of our time.
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Table of Contents About ...............................................................01 Faces of Peace Now................................................................03 Costa Rica 2012................................................................05 New York State of Mind................................................................11
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Name: Savannah Roach Status: Alumni, currently studying Nonprofits and Social Innovations at University of Southern California “As I look forward to a life of endless possibilities, I can’t help but reflect on defining moments to decide what ultimate impact I want to leave on this world. My experiences in Peace Now created a frame work from which I am currently developing my career as a humanitarian. “
Who we are... The faces of Peace Now Name: Jason Walsh Status: Alumni, currently studying Marine Biology at University of North Carolina Wilmington
“If not us, who is going to stop the
violence? Who will work for peace? Old blood muddies the waters of change when it comes to people”s rights, and those who would blindly follow the traditions of oppression are those who would surely send our nation back to its dark ages.”
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Name: Taylor Slivka Status: Alumni, currently
studying Public Affairs at The Ohio State University
“I have found myself being able to
share what I learned with others. It is a chain effect, a grass roots effort. I am not about to hold a town meeting about every issues that was brought up, but I do know that what we did has effected our lives.”
Name: Courtney den Elzen Status: Current Student Leader, Senior at Montessori High School
“I’m hoping to use what I’ve learnt
and am going to learn about the growth of ideas and institutions to help build relationships here in Cleveland. Costa Rica was an amazing example of how ideas can manifest into reality with hard work and dedication.”
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Adolescent’s initial exposure to the wonders of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest Stage One, Trepidation: You start out as a newcomer, excited and anxious to begin your first day in a foreign world. A multitude of green explodes around you, overwhelming you with information you are not yet capable of understanding. You are an outsider to this community, and the deer flies let you know it, jeering at you like bullies towards a kid with a bad haircut on the first day of school. Their buzzing, mingled with the shuffling of your footsteps against the leaves underneath, escalates to create a cacophony that drowns out the more subtle background sympho-
ny, not to be noticed until later on. In a way, this is a stage of ignorance: the forest is filled with unanswered questions you are not yet sure how to ask. It will take more knowledge, more observation, and more exploration before you can begin to grasp the beautiful mystery that surrounds you. You take a tentative step forward and catch your foot on a mossy rock, tumbling down and coming face-to-face with a colony of leaf-cutter ants. Quickly, you scramble to your feet and dust yourself off, telling yourself to remember that mosses-the earliest, wettest form of plant evolu-
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inhabit. It is time for you to let go of your tion--are slippery. You continue to move trepidation and open your mind, not only cautiously down the trail, staring mainly to the beauty and enormity of the forest at your feet but occasionally stopping to itself, but to the issues it raises and the swing your head left or right. At one parconversation that ensues. ticular moment, you look up and gasp--a Stage Two, Curiosity: After a few more blue morpho butterfly is flying overhead. minutes of hiking and contemplating, You unconsciously reach for your camera during which to snap a picture, for its vivid color “Your eyes are open, but the thickness of is striking against your mind remains dis- the forest begins to intensify the myriad of greens occasion- tracted, concerned with and your feet, ally speckled with other issues and the unaccustomed to the unevenbrowns, reds, and oranges. What’s world you used to in- ness of the trail, start to tire, you amazing is that habit. It is time to let take a seat on a each of these colors represents go of your trepidation log and attempt to absorb all a different species, open your mind.” you have seen and each species and and heard so makes up an essential component of a far. Before long, you find yourself asking society that thus far remains unexplored. questions, not only about the 100 meters That’s why you’re here: to spark curior so behind you, but also about the more osity, understand your surroundings, and than 2.5 kilometers that lie ahead. You create balance in a place that represents all stand up to get a closer look at the nearest the reasons why people should care about tree, which is covered in epiphytes: plants biodiversity. Your eyes are open, but your that grow and live off other organisms. mind remains distracted, concerned with Most are surface-level, but the next tree other issues and the world you used to Page 7
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over has a vine crawling up it, trying were overwhelmed by the sheer largeness desperately to reach the light gap above. of the forest, but your interest has piqued You are suddenly struck by just how many and you are now overcome with curiosity different species surround you, and how for what’s inside it. much each one wants to live and thrive, Furthermore, as you move farther into which raises the question of whether each the trail, you are learning to walk more is helping or hurting the organisms around slowly, more quietly. This allows you to it. take note of both the variety of delicate reAs you that “Previously you were lationships continue along surround you the path, slightly overwhelmed by the sheer and the abstract more confidently symphony being than before, the largeness of the forest, played by birds trail narrows and but your interest has and insects. By the vegetation moving slowly piqued and you are now and asking thickens. You begin to notice you overcome with curiosi- questions, more subtle are gradually ty for what’s inside it. ” progressing with developments, like the varying you exploration sounds of bird calls: some jarring, some and immersing yourself in the world of the melodic. You are unable to see any of the forest. birds attached to these calls--except for a Stage 3, Understanding: Several hours few undefined flashes of color above--but later, you have covered the majority of the you begin to imagine what each looks like, trail, in terms of both walking and obserand wonder what purpose it serves. You vation. Inevitably, you are exhausted: the feel a sudden urge to document all that the backs of your knees ache, you are running rainforest contains, and bring it back to low on water, and perspiration rolls down share with your colleagues. Previously you your face, the smell of your sweat mingling
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with the sweet, slightly humid smell of the deeper; in an attempt to create further rainforest. Despite your fatigue, you feel understanding, you begin to document satisfied in that you have truly begun to and take measurements of everything that understand what’s going on around you. surrounds you. As you write down which Either from books you have read, science species are flowering and fruiting, calculessons, or some other form of previous late the GPS coordinates of the nearest knowledge, you have recalled certain light gap, and turn on your recorder to concepts and noticed their presence within document bird songs, you begin to experithe immediate area. For example, as you ence true comprehension, and with that a walk past the nearest tree, your practiced true connection with the forest and all the feet now nearly silent against the leafy possibilities within. ground, you squat down to examine its roots, surrounding which are a fw clumps Stage 4, Equilibrium: At this point, of mychorrizal fungi. These two organisms you and the forest have reached a balance: have a symbiotic relationship: while the your initial trepidation upon entering was tree depends of the fungus for absorption driven out by inevitable curiosity resulting of water and essential nutrients, it in turn from being somewhere completely new, provides nutrients and a home for the and as you asked questions and pondered fungus. They depend on one another for your surroundings, the answers you sought survival, and that “I realize more clearly began to appear. sense of interIn other words, the constant conflicts of as you began connection and interdependence listen to the my environment, on every to permeates throughforest, it began level. My concern for the to speak back out the forest. However, as is you. You environment is entirely to true in the human then furthered world, not all rela- partnered with my con- your knowledge tionships are posithrough your tive on both sides. cern for the future of my own intellectual Some represent one classmates and myself.” pursuit, as well organism taking as the forest’s something from another; this is true of the manifestation of the importance of biostrangler fig you noticed at the beginning diversity. Each species--from melastones of your journey, which harmed the tree it to pipers, from beetles to bellbirds--needs attached itself to in order to reach its own to be protected if their highly productive goal--a parasitic or detrimental relationand interconnected lives are to continue. ship. In other cases, one organism benefits As a biological researcher and explorer, from being affixed to another while the you understand their roles as well as your second is unaffected, a commensalistic own in the overall equation of the forest relationship. This is the case with many of ecosystem, and with that in mind you and the epiphytes evident every few inches on the rest of the natural community can the trail. Within your heightened sense maintain a necessary equilibrium. of awareness, you’ve noticed that’s one of You are nearing the end of the trail and the major themes of the forest in general: can see the exit up ahead. As you make things growing off one another, living from your way across the last few meters of one another, dependent on one another. rocky terrain, you are truly aware of the There is so much to notice and to learn beauty and tranquility of the forest and it’s from your continued exploration of the ability to teach you about biology and conforest that you feel a strong desire to delve servation. As an individual, you have bePage 9
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Top: Student brainstorm project proposals at La CalĂĄndria in hills outside of Monteverde Middle: Otto, Jorge, Lili, Savannah, and Taylor explore the rainforest canopy via suspension bridge Bottom: Taylor speaks with a student who is in a hospitality education program at a high school in Monteverde
come truly immersed and are at one with the forest’s variety of sounds, smells, and complexities. However, your role in caring for the forest and its marvels stretches further than what you have achieved so far, impressive as it is. Conservation and environmental protection are undervalued in human society, often simply because people don’t seem to understand what the natural world has to offer, or why they would place it above their immediate desires for land and development. You pause just before the end of the trail and the reentrance to the world you had previously known, both literally and figuratively considering your next steps. Personally, you are now in balance with the forest and will certainly be returning from time to time to revitalize your knowledge, but your job now is to not only maintain your newfound perspective, but to share it with others. By sharing your findings, and the steps of your journey, you can synthesize the same paradigm shift you have experienced and inspire a better future for the forest. With a deep breath, you take one last look back at the trail, then turn around and walk confidently forward towards your next journey. -by Gwendolyn Schanker
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New York State of Mind
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with food pantries and developing food The International Montessori education for younger students. Experts Adolescent Summit, the first of its kind from Slow Food NYC, Just Food, the in the Montessori world, achieved all of United Nations Development Program, the its objectives with high enthusiasm from Brooklyn Food Coalition, and the Farm to students and presenters, affirming the School Network were interviewed about the framework for what is to become an annurole their organizations play in implemental tradition. The emphasis on preparation ing food programs across communities. in advance of traveling to New York City Student groups rotated directing questions meant the students from Houston, Seattle, pertaining to their specific food system St. Paul, and Girona, Spain arrived as speconcentration to each expert. cialists in one category of the food system: Carrie Blackburn, Just Food Develproduction, processing, distribution, or opment and Membership Associate, was consumption. In their home cities they impressed with the range of knowledge the researched and interviewed both a local students exhibited. “They had really good and international organization working specific interesting questions about areas in the food system, adding relevance and that even I hadnʼt thought much about.” real-world application to their preparation. Anthony Fassio, chair of the board of Slow On the first evening, the students shared Food NYC said, “The students were very their goals and objectives for the summit well prepared, which helped in facilitating with a high level of anticipation to explore the “ E v e r y d a y y o u r the conversation. With group I feel like food system with their c ho i c e s a f f e c t every we could still be talking.” peers. Both unity of The summit’s key intent and community t he f u t u r e o f components were each spirit were instant, true o u r fo o d s y s t e m . valuable in exposing stuto the adolescent tendencies to form bonds W i l l y o u j o i n u s dents to the breadth of the problem along with and seek purpose. i n m a k i n g t he the expanse of solutions The summit opened being taken across with a keynote lecture right ones?” sectors. The interviews, by Danielle NierenDanielleʼs talk, a visit to the American berg, the co-founder of “Food Tank: A Museum of Natural History’s Our Global Food Think Tank.” She engaged them in a Kitchen exhibit, and the student presummit complex overview of the global food crisis, preparation immersed students in the comcovering environmental degradation, agplexities of solving the global food crisis ing farmers, the growth of cities and urban while engaging with people working sucfarming, market volatility in food prices, cessfully to change the system. This served the physical and mental strain of producas their springboard for social action. ing food, and the important role youth During the final session of the Summit, play in cultivating a healthy food system. the students sat tête-a-tête at round tables She painted the landscape with a broad discussing, synthesizing, and prioritizing brush. all they had learned into a final document The students spoke eloquently about representative of their collective knowledge. new technologies in sustainable agriculFrom the iconic podium in the United ture, deeply connecting with alternative Nations General Assembly, the Adolescent methods, such as biointensive farming. Summit student representative read the colOthers focused on the need to increase lective recommendations on how to create access to healthy fresh foods in urban, a just and sustainable food system. low-income areas, while other groups -Elizabeth Henke focused on connecting their school farms Page 13
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“We are now at a p i v o t a l p o i nt i n t he c r e a t i o n o f o u r g l o b a l fo o d system. We must make a decision o n e w a y o r t he o t he r . �
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