With televisions beaming images of violence daily to children’from the simulated sort in video games to news broadcasts from overseas’it sometimes seems impossible to teach the value of peace.
But for the past two years, Lake Orion elementary students have participated in an art program that channels their creative energy to combat violence. The result, a field of lazily spinning pinwheels the students make themselves, is a symbolic gesture of peace intended to counter the daily barrage of violence.
On Sept. 22, Orion students fashioned pinwheels in art class, filling them with messages of goodwill in the literary form of their choosing, and took to school grounds to plant them. At Orion Oaks, nearly 630 pinwheels covered the fields.
‘We, as an elementary school, decided to bring peace home with us,? said Brenda Pescia, the art teacher at Orion Oaks who initiated the program in the school district.
Pinwheels for Peace, begun in 2005 by two Florida art teachers, is an art installation project that coincides with the International Day of Peace on Sept. 21. Pescia heard about it a few years ago and thought it would be a good idea for Orion Oaks.
Now, the project is spreading. Both Stadium and Blanche Sims elementary schools participated this year.
‘We had a ton of parents involved in this,? Pescia said.
The intentions aren’t necessarily political, according to Pescia. The type of peace promoted is abstract, related to cooperation, harmony, and unity.
‘It’s a good program to talk with children about what good behavior is,? Pescia said.