Colman McCarthy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Colman McCarthy is an anarchist, peace activist, and animal rights advocate. His central interest is the spread of pacifism through education. He has taught classes in peace studies for 20 years at colleges including Georgetown University, the University of Maryland, College Park, American University, The Catholic University of America and at a variety of high schools in Washington D.C. as well as Bethesda, MD. He is a frequent speaker at conferences on social justice. He is also the founder and director of the Center for Teaching Peace, a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to assist people and groups to promote peace through education.

For 28 years, McCarthy worked as a columnist for The Washington Post until he was fired in 1997^[1]. He has written and edited a number of books and collections of essays on pacifism, education, and journalism. His essays have appeared in magazines and newspapers including The New Yorker, Readers Digest, and the Catholic Worker.

1 Peace Studies
2 Works by Colman McCarthy
3 Quotes
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Peace Studies

McCarthy currently teaches Peace and Conflict Studies, known as Peace Studies at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and by similar names at other institutions. A strong follower of Howard Zinn, McCarthy believes that he must teach students peace before the world, violent as it is, teaches them war. He considers abortion a form of genocide and refers to capital punishment as state sanctioned homicide.

He also reasons that various aspects of conventional teaching are forms of violence—aspects such as tests and grades. One of his teaching exercises is having his students protest in front of the school, holding up anti-war signs, in an effort to encourage mobilization, though this has caused many a complaint among parents and other students who consider these protests to be disruptive of the school atmosphere.

[edit] Works by Colman McCarthy

Strength Through Peace
I'd Rather Teach Peace
All of One Peace
Disturbers of Peace: Profiles in Nonadjustment
Inner Companions
Involvements: One Journalist's Place in the World.

[edit] Quotes

"Warmaking doesn't stop warmaking. If it did, our problems would have stopped millennia ago."
"Everyone's a pacifist between wars. It's like being a vegetarian between meals."
"Unless we teach our children peace, someone else will teach them violence."
"Testing is a form of academic violence."
"Peace is the result of love."
"Laws represent the failure of love."
"Why are we violent but not illiterate? Because we are taught to read."