In the case of Abu Ghraib, this was a real question. Were the people who committed the abuse at Abu Ghraib just bad people, bad apples? There's this wonderful book written by a very prominent psychologist named Philip Zimbardo called The Lucifer Effect. He made a very good case that it's not bad apples who generally are responsible. There are bad apples out there, but almost all war crimes, abuse and atrocities and so forth, are a product of the environment of what he called the "bad barrel," of a situation that almost forces people to act violently and cruelly toward others.

Resources and downloads for meditation in schools

peace education resources from the US Institute for Peace

Welcome to the UCDP GED (Uppsala Conflict Data Program - Georeferenced Event Dataset) page. The GED is the product of two and a half years of work at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University. The UCDP GED contains conflict data disaggregated spatially and temporally down to the level of the individual incidents of violence. For more details please see the About link above

This article describes several of the more successful critical peace education methodologies and perspectives that I was able to bring to my classroom in a juvenile detention home.  For example, reflective writing and community analysis of nonviolent peace movements formed the core of my curriculum, as did critical analysis of the social processes of stereotyping and dehumanization.   As a result, numerous students grew in their ability to write, express empathy with others, identify bias and articulate critical analysis of their schools, among other political systems.  This analysis will contribute to the growing body of work on the practice of critical peace education.  

Ready to use student activities for grades 10-12

curricula and lesson plans on human rights

Lessons for Hope is a web-based, high school curriculum inspired by my book, Reason for Hope. In my book, I express optimism for the future and the belief that every individual can make a difference. Lessons for Hope communicates these ideas to students through activities that: Empower them to implement their own real-world solutions to problems in theircommunities and the environment.Integrate service-learning, character education, and humane education.Are developed and classroom-tested by educators and the Center for Applied Technologiesin Education. Are aligned with national standards.

One of the main roles of LIB ED is to examine the way this society educates its members. Schools obviously play an important part in the process of manufacturing docile people for the shop-floor, office and market-place. So much of our space will inevitably be devoted to analysis of schooling. However, schools, because of their very nature, do allow some scope for libertarian teachers to have an influence counter to the ideology of the school. LIB ED publicises and encourages this work.