TELLING PEACE AND JUSTICE STORIES TO CHILDREN is part of 10 Days Free From Violence, sponsored by Twin Cities Nonviolent. Find the full calendar of events at https://twincitiesnonviolent.org/calendar/.

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Session does the how and why of telling Peace and Justice stories to children, thus creating early inspiration, hope and courage in the midst of inevitable hard times and issues. Serious issues usually get relegated to "telling the story" just in secondary schools and to adults, but even younger children can and need to absorb a certain amount of complexity. We will talk about the "teachable moment" and adapting to the age group (i.e. tailoring traumatic adult content, without compromising the message). We'll look at a bibliography of children's books which overtly convey peace, justice, environmental, and other important messages, as well as those that can be made to do that. Finally, we'll use an experiential story circle technique to practice the how to of telling written and personal experience stories, so they're available for children and grandkids, teaching church or public school, or being an activist who talks in elementary schools.

Larry was a conscientious objector during the War in Vietnam, serving as an unarmed medic, willing to get people back home where they belong, unwilling to deliberately take life. He is a past President of Veterans for Peace, and author of SIXTY-ONE, stories reflecting the need to end violence internationally in ways adapted from the skills of teachers preventing injury and breaking up fights on the playground and in the classroom. His entire working life, before and after being drafted, involved teaching teachers and other adults to tell stories to children, as well as teaching children to tell their own stories and to make video to give them better media literacy skills. He has served as Director of the Old Gardening Party (OGP) since 1979 and currently writes a monthly SUN POST column, reflecting the subject of this workshop, and the broader OGP mission of "Keeping the World Safe for Children, Gardening, and Storytelling". Larry ran camps for young people in trouble with the courts, and was 23 years a specialist in the Minneapolis schools, teaching storytelling and video. During the time he was "famous" for starting the Children's Hospital TV channel (making TV behave as a storyteller), he did a workshop with Mister Rogers in D.C., and "opened" for Captain Kangaroo at the Kennedy Center at the inauguration of the National Clearinghouse for Children's Radio and TV.