peace learning center

By Tim Nation - PLC Executive Director and Co-Founder "Many people come to our school and give presentations on bullying, but really all of them fail to scratch the surface of the problems.  They all have the same talk, 'Bullying is not ok, bullying hurts,  bullying is bad.'  It's like a broken record.  It's because they aren't like you, they are afraid to talk about the real world, they sugarcoat stories of pain and suffering, and they only pluck the leaves of the bullying tree.  Without people like you and the Peace Learning Center, the leaves would continue to grow back fuller and stronger every year." I took this from a letter written by an 8th grader who participated in one of our PLC workshops.  A stack of forty letters with similar sentiments from other students touched me deeply because they understood what Peace Learning Center does - we strive to build relationships that help us ask deep and thoughtful questions for rich and life-changing dialogue.  With this student and his classmates, we explored the root causes of violence while learning peacemaking strategies. Our facilitators often hear from high school students who say, "All the time I've been in school, no one has asked me what I think."  Education is not just math and English - it is our ability to think for ourselves and ask for what we need while building positive relationships. Many people ask me to describe