Teaching Nonviolence

Children benefit from the environment you establish. By example you can teach your children many of these important skills:

To recognize conflict as normal. It is an opportunity to build a new sense of community and connectedness.
To honor all feelings and use the energy of anger and fear to work out problems fairly and safely.
To resist using competitions and judgments to separate or reject others.
To trust personal intuition and use it to guide oneself and others toward nonviolence.
To resist using punishments to correct problems, but to focus on another's' strengths.
To listen for the needs behind a conflict with our partners and to work together to solve problems.
To use one's head and heart to build fair resolutions.
To teach that no one is safe unless everyone is safe. —Barbara Oehlberg

Barbara Oehlberg, Making It Better: Activities for Children Living in a Stressful World*