Nonviolence Explained to My Children

By Jacques Semelin

Book Overview

French scholar Jacques Semelin has been working on the issues of violence and non-violent action for almost twenty years, and he's found that most of the questions children ask about this subject deal with day-to-day life: If someone hassles me, what should I do? How do I deal with bullies at school? What if someone attacks me sexually? What about violent kids? Racism? Non-Violence Explained to My Children, following Semelin's answers to his daughters' nearly seventy questions, provides concrete responses to a myriad of conflict situations from an ethical and historical perspective. In a clear and accessible manner in conversational format, Semelin explains that non-violence is not passivity, but instead a way of being and a way of acting that seeks to resolve conflicts, fight injustice, and build lasting peace. He provides examples from the U. S. civil rights movement, Solidarity in Poland, and Tiananmen Square in China and the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr., Mohandas Gandhi and others.Non-Violence Explained to My Children will be an invaluable aid to parents and adults who want to teach children to express themselves and deal with all types of conflict in a non-violent way.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569245150
• ISBN13: 9781569245156
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Marlowe & Company
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 0.3" x 4.3"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

You Can Judge a Book by its Cover

In 63 short pages Semelin offers clear, compelling arguments for nonviolence, pitched for a young teenage audience. As a teachers of students in grades 7-12, I admire Semelin's sense of his audience and the cogency of his remarks. I'll probably make some use of the book in my own lessons on nonviolence, but it serves even better as an example of a teacher in synch with his student. None of what he has to say seemed grounbreaking or new, but the relationship with his audience and the clarity of his lesson was impressive.