GIVE TIME TO CHILDREN TO BE CHILDREN

NON VIOLENT COMMUNICATION

"For more than a century, holistic and progressive educators have creatively thought about and responded to the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs of children. Despite this enormously rich work, coercive power relations still hamper our ability to serve students and faculty. Nonviolent Communication can help us understand, engage with and transform some of these relationships. Nonviolent Communication (NVC) provides specific tools to empower ourselves and others to live more in line with our values and deeper needs. When we do that, we become more effective in relating to ourselves, other faculty, and staff, and we can contribute more to students’ ability to feel connected and energized. Through this process, we nurture the hope in everyone about the possibility of creating a world that works for all."

introduction to article entitled

“transforming power relations: the invisible revolution”

by miki kashtan

This article was published in Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice in September 2002. It is republished with permission. All names in this article are made up.