Buddha In The Hood

This is our first Video Podcast!  In this podcast you will see how three SGI Women’s Division/Culture Department members are using collaborative technology (Google Groups and Skype) as tools to advance general education and promote humanistic Buddhist values in public schools.

SGI members Linda Myring, Lynn Harper, and Arlaana Black, three inner city teachers became acquainted with one other at the June 2010 Culture Department Conference at the Florida Nature and Culture Center.  With a shared commitment to bring a culture of peace to their respective schools and communities they are developing a curriculum of conflict resolution utilizing dialog, and the understanding of the root causes of violence and thus introducing SGI’s Victory Over Violence program into their respective schools and communities.

Linda Myring, a 6^th Grade teacher at Horace Mann Middle School in Los Angeles, had conducted Victory Over Violence workshops with the administrative leadership team of teachers at another L.A. Unified school. Working with the Principal at Horace Mann she developed an approved curriculum for teaching Victory Over Violence as a 6^thGrade elective class.   In Spring 2010 Linda also brought the Victory Over Violence iChoose performance program to Horace Mann.  Click here to see the article of the impact iChoose had at this middle school:    http://www.vov.com/ichoose/story.php?id=2

Lynn Harper teaches middle school in Richfield, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis.  The community is a resettlement area for refugees from East Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia), and is also on the migrant agricultural track with students from Mexico, Central and South America. Within this clash of cultures Lynn witnessed many of the students making the transition from wannabe gang members to gangsters in middle school.  Hearing that Linda Myring was teaching V.O.V. in Los Angeles piqued her interest, as Lynn’s students glorify the L.A. based violent gang culture.  Lynn wanted to work with Linda to bring the V.O.V. curriculum to her school using the internet to create a bridge of peace and understanding between the students from Minnesota and Los Angeles.

Arlaana Black, of Charleston, South Carolina has taught 5^th grade through college.  She was involved in starting the Renaissance School, a Soka Education based school, in New York.  Arlaana is working on her doctorate in Peace Studies & Conflict Management.  Her dissertation is entitled “Dialog As The Most Expedient Means To Solve WorldConflict”.  Arlaana also desired to bring a much needed V.O.V. Curriculum to her high school.  Her collaboration with Linda and Lynn took yet another turn whereby she began collaborative work with Jefferson Awards for Public Service, the largest foundation in South Carolina, to teach Victory Over Violence throughout the community, utilizing the people power of community members and students to become specially trained as “Peace Ambassadors”.

The women are working with Danny Hall, SGI West Territory Peace & Community Relations Director  to design V.O.V. Curriculum

This is a powerful and exciting example of SGI members bringing Victory Over Violence to their workplace.

 

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