The GWT Blog

Very young children appear to embrace Good Work with greater enthusiasm than their older classmates.

That was one of the surprising conclusions of my recent Sonoma State University Master's project, "The Peace Crane Project: How Children Can Be Inspired To Do Good Work." The project's mission was to: (1) create an environment and provide guidance for children to do good work, (2) provide stimulus and assistance for children to develop their innate artistic abilities, (3) offer an environment and guidance for children to develop their social consciousness, 4) teach children to express their feelings through art-making and (5) honor the extraordinary contribution to world peace by Sadako Sasaki.

This project first saw light in my kindergarten classroom at the Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts. As a way to pay tribute to victims of 9/11, kindergartners decorated giant pre-folded origami cranes and wrote reflections responding to the prompt, "My wish for the people of the world is..."

The success of the kindergarten 9/11 peace crane art exhibit inspired me to expand this activity to my fourth-through-eighth grade art specialty classes. By folding and decorating origami peace cranes, these older students added their artistic voices to a Japanese tradition that was over one thousand years old. Completed peace cranes became part of a year-long traveling exhibit that ended in Japantown, San Francisco on International Peace Day, August 6th.

To enhance their understanding of the peace crane symbolism, children studied the activism of Sadako Sasaki, who was two years old when the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Sadako used traditional crane-folding as a way to heal spiritually. She died from leukemia at age twelve. Her activism and bravery encouraged children globally to work together for world peace and inspired my inquiry: "How can children learn to do good work?"

The kindergartners hurled themselves into this project with triumphant abandon. Moreover, their responses were drawn from the heart: concerns about wellness, safety and personal responsibility. Examples: "My wish for the people of the world is for more fireman to help out." And "My wish for people of the world is bread for everyone." But eighth graders played back "pop" media-inspired slogans, such as "Peace out!" and "Have a great day every day!", short-circuiting their hearts. One could chart a descending line of joyful participation, from the kindergartners' eagerness, to the eighth graders' conditioned reflexes.

Seiko Fujimoto, international peace activist and Hiroshima bombing survivor, told me, "Children are the hope for peace because their minds are still clear. When children ask for peace it ís different than when adults ask for peace. Kids care more and have more ideas for peace."

The Peace Crane Project was finally about fusion. For nine years in elementary and middle school, we teach our students about numbers and dates and places. Then on weekends some of the students go to church, temple or synagogue to address their spiritual selves. The twain rarely meet. The project sought to join the two worlds, to help children get in touch with their better angels, to open their lives to the possibility of wonder.

I emerged from this project with a profound sense that children come to earth with a built-in need to do good things for others. Before grown-ups show them all the things they cannot or should not do, they see things purely. They cherish their connection to others and are happy making others happy.