Nonviolence Curriculum

I will be examining Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophies, specifically swaraj and sarvodaya, and their role within both Gandhi’s and Nelson Mandela’s nonviolence movements. The purpose being to gather insight in the ways both leaders fostered a sense of duty among their followers. I will then discuss how these philosophies can be applied in classrooms for the benefit of a thriving and joyful community. Human motivation can be categorized into deficiency and growth needs. Purposely created classroom communities can meet these deficiencies organically, allowing growth to take place.

This lesson gives students the opportunity to (1) critically discern between personal needs and wants, (2) make decisions and articulate the disadvantage and advantage of chosen needs and wants, and (3) consider Gandhi‘s ideals in creating self-sustaining communities and to think critically about how to make their homes, school and communities more sustainable.

This lesson allows students to take a look at the term "sustainability" and identify both sustainable and non-sustainable practices in modern human civilization. Students discuss how humans have affected the environment, and take a look at Gandhi’s ahsrams as models of self-sustaining communities.

The lesson consists of a close reading and analysis of selected works of Thoreau, Emerson, King, Gandhi and Mandela with particular focus on the genres of letters and speeches. Students will address the rhetorical appeals in each text and analyze the effectiveness of the language to persuade or move the reader into taking action. Authors’ styles and content will be compared, and students will emulate the style of one writer and also compose a comparative essay discussing the author’s impact on the world.

Students in second grade will understand the use of newspaper for relating news and educating people. Students will use examples of newspaper articles to write their own class newspaper regarding acts of ahimsa.

Students in second grade will learn about Gandhi’s philosophy of ahimsa. Through a digital story, honesty story, abstract art, and writing, students will learn about Gandhi’s philosophy of ahimsa.

Students will be introduced to Cesar Chavez. Through stories and visual presentations they will learn how an ordinary boy grew into a man that made big changes to a great number of people relying on peaceful actions. Cesar affected significant changes in social justice for farm workers and brought an awareness of the plight of an even wider group of impoverished people to the eyes of the nation.

This lesson is to provide a framework for beginning to incorporate attributes defined by the Learner Profile of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme by using examples taken from the life, of civil justice leader, Cesar Chavez.

Students will learn about the famous marches of Mohandas Gandhi and Cesar Chavez, including the Epic March in South Africa, the Salt March in India, and the Sacramento March in California. They will research the impact and historical significance of each march, and will present their findings to the class. Finally, they will have the option to design and participate in their own march in order to make a statement about an issue that directly affects them and their community.

In order to bring families into the discussion on the importance of Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence as a practice, we will spend time together discussing both the acts of violence they have witnessed and the possible alternatives to these acts. We will create art projects to hang in the school building as a testament to our commitment to nonviolence. Families will also be asked to document acts of violence as well as nonviolence that they see in their communities for a week following this session.