Ahimsa Conference in CA -- See Tazeen present! :)

Hi friends!  Many of you are aware of this conference, but just in case some do not know yet, I wanted to share some details.

Dr. Tara Sethia, who runs the Ahimsa Institute which many of the participants in the India program attended last summer, is offering a conference the first week in November called "Ahimsa and Sustainable Happiness."  It is from November 2-4, and I can personally speak for how amazing Tara's work is.  She's so passionate and thoughtful about this topic, and so I am confident this will be useful in enhancing our practice and our understanding of ahimsa and its relationship with happiness.

Our friend Tazeen is presenting (yay!!) and Meghan Hausdorf and I are planning on going, and Dr. Sethia is offering scholarships to help pay for the experience.  If you want more information, feel free to ask!

Miss you all,

    Laura

Revenge vs. Justice lesson

Hi, all!  So I feel like I'm a logical person to start this off, and after an awesome lesson last week, I was looking forward to sharing :)

So my kids are reading an awesome play called The Visit by Fredreich Durrenmatt, which deals with a scorned woman wanting revenge on a town that exiled her 45 years ago.  This led to a discussion with my seniors of the difference between justice and revenge.  For HW, they had to share their thoughts on the difference between justice and revenge, and then respond to two articles about the death of Osama Bin Laden, explaining whether they thought his murder was a matter of revenge or justice.

The next day in class, the students came up with wonderfully insightful lists of qualities of justice and revenge -- it was clear the two were completely different concepts, though the kids said that we often commit acts of revenge and call them justice (like the woman in the play).  However, when asked to apply their definitions to Bin Laden, they were really uncomfortable calling that act vengeance.  They were determined for it to be "right," and they felt like "right" had to be "just."  It was a really awesome discussion...

Anyway, to extend that, next week I'm having people from Communities for Restorative Justice come to my classes to talk to them about restorative justice practices (http://www.c4rj.com/).  I'm hoping it will be an interesting introduction to an alternate way of restoring community.

I want my kids, then, to do some kind of personal writing piece around this topic.  Maybe thinking about a time they were hurt, and how they responded?  I don't know, but I'm thinking maybe one of you all have an idea :)

Anyway, I hope all is well... I hope we can use this blog to keep in touch and share thoughts/ideas!!

xoxo,
   Laura