Support for youth to discern conscientious objection is a vital ministry for Quaker meetings. The teen years are the best time to start documentation for a CO claim in the U.S. because Selective Service registration is required of all 18-year-old males, and perhaps females in the future. Beyond that, the peace testimony is central to Quaker identity, making education about conscientious objection paramount for Quaker teens.
Peacemaking Resources
Talking with Children & Youth about the Presidential Election 2024
The intensity of the election cycle is an experience both for adults and for the children and youth in our families and communities. Depending on their age, preschoolers to teens may be aware of the anxiety in the adults around them — and experiencing their own anxiety about the outcome of the election in November. This article shares resources and support for adults caring for children and youth.
Parenting for Peace
FRIENDS SCHOOL OF PORTLAND'S PARENTING FOR PEACE PROGRAM developed as an outgrowth of their overall educational vision – to encourage inquiry, reflection and action and to strengthen the community of learners. In accordance with Quaker values and process, they...
Do Our Children Know Enough About Quakerism to Play Quaker? Dover Meeting Dollhouse
Children learn through play. They play school, they play house, they even play COVID, giving everyone shots. Do our children know enough about being Quaker to play Quaker? Children are fully spiritual beings. Meeting life needs to be as open and comprehensible to them...
QREC 2022 Annual Conference August 12-14: Finding Our Footing on the Path Ahead
Join the QREC 2022 Annual Conference! In-person in Hickory NC, and online around the Quaker world. Explore how to strengthen and revitalize your local Quaker RE community of practice. Connect in Spirit-filled community with other Quaker religious educators.
The Good Garden
This is an inspiring story of one struggling farming family in Honduras…and their journey to growing enough food to meet their needs. Based on the real story of farm transformation underway in Honduras and many other countries, this book offers children ways they can...
Sometimes People March
Simple, direct statements are paired with watercolor illustrations to highlight some of the rallying causes for organized marches throughout the history of the United States. The text and art begin with two marches that will reemerge as metaphor later in the book: a...
Birth of the Friends Church
Mid-17th century England was swept by dramatic changes: sharp religious and political conflict, rising hopes, charismatic leaders and popular grassroots movements — in short, a world much like the one we live in today. Friends were born as a faith community into this...
The Dazzle of Day
The Dazzle of Day is an astonishing short novel about a generation starship. There have been plenty of books set on generation starships by everyone from Heinlein to Wolfe, but thing that makes this stand out is how astonishingly real the characters are, and how well...
Peace Begins with You
Peace Begins with You frames peace as real and possible and peacemaking as right and actionable in our daily lives and on the world stage. It establishes universal human needs, the inevitability of conflict, and the possibility that resolutions to disagreements may...
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins
When four courageous black teens sat down at a lunch counter in the segregated South of 1960, the reverberations were felt both far beyond and close to home. This insightful story offers a child's-eye view of this seminal event in the American Civil Rights Movement....
Four Feet, Two Sandals
This is a tender inspiring story of resilience, friendship, creative problem-solving, and peacemaking set in a refugee camp in Pakistan. After weeks of privation and the arduous journey walking out of Afghanistan to escape the fighting, great excitement fills the camp...
Teaching Conflict Resolution through Children’s Literature
This curriculum is a gem. Designed for 5-7 year olds, it is useful at home and in First Day School. Each lesson is based on an excellent storybook. Kreidler was a Quaker and brilliant educator. His curriculum normalizes conflict as an inevitable part of life in...
Weaving Quaker Activists Into First Day Schools
Make your Quaker Religious Education come alive! Weave Quaker Activists into your lesson plans bringing a fresh, contemporary voice of lived Quakerism to your Friends Meeting or Church. Use digital technology to invite the world into your classroom in the person of a...
Walking in the World as a Friend
"What do we do that makes us Quakers?" Follow how essential Quaker practices weave together the individual, Quaker community and Spirit, creating a unique, vital and transformative dynamic. The 15 short, free videos are great discussion starters. You can purchase...
Flowers for Sarajevo
Lesson plan for the home with a book, music and activities: Young Drasko is happy working with his father in the Sarajevo market. Then war encroaches. Drasko must run the family flower stand alone. One morning, the bakery is bombed and twenty-two people are killed....
The Mediator’s Handbook
The popular Mediator's Handbook presents a time-tested, adaptable model for helping people work through conflict. Extensively revised to incorporate recent practice and thinking, the accessible manual format lays out a clear structure for new and occasional mediators,...
Beyond Majority Rule: Voteless Decisions In The Religious Society Of Friends
This book is based on Michael J. Sheeran’s doctoral work in the Dept. of Politics at Princeton University. A Jesuit priest, he spent two years (1973—75) conducting interviews, reading, and observing the actual decision-making of the Quakers. Sheeran was convinced...
Friendly Holiday Gift Fairs!
Join us in an exciting pop-up partnership between Friends Peace Teams and the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative! We are starting a pilot project organizing Friendly Holiday Gift Fairs as a way to learn about, celebrate, and support peacemaking through "gifts...
Children’s Meeting of 1663
In 1663, when all adults from Reading Friends Meeting were imprisoned for their faith, the children of the Meeting continued worship in the manner of Friends. This legend of Quaker Faith and Practice illustrates integrity, courage and non-violent resistance in the...
Howard Thurman’s Closeness to God
This lesson plan introduces young Friends to Howard Thurman (1899-1982), African-American religious leader, writer and philosopher. Although Thurman was not a Quaker, he became a close friend of Quakers in the course of his work. His writings have been published by...
Stand Your Ground: The Life and Accomplishment of Paul Robeson
Three lessons on the life and accomplishment of Paul Robeson (1898–1976), in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Contains ideas for how to recognize and use our talents and how to gather the courage to stand up for what we, as Quakers, believe....
Peace Notes to Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un
In this lesson plan, children reflect on peace, what happens when two leaders exchange mean-spirited words, and how they can promote peace by writing simple Peace Notes to President Donald Trump and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. Witnessing for peace in this manner:...
The Peaceable Kingdom: A curriculum for kindergarten through adults
This 2003 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting curriculum explores the peace testimony in three lessons. It is adapted from Blessed are the Peacemakers, an older PYM curriculum. The packet includes activities for teachers in First-day schools to use in creating lessons for...