Source: (2003) In Tricia S. Jones and Randy Compton, eds., Kids Working It Out: Stories and Strategies for Making Peace in Our Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pp. xi-xiv.
Mark Gerzon begins his foreword to this book by recounting a terrible incidence of school violence in Erfurt, Germany, in 2002. After killing a number of teachers, students, and a police officer, the student who committed the murders was stopped by one of his teachers. The student then killed himself. Gerzon makes the point that the teacher was able to intervene nonviolently and end the violence because of his teacher-student relationship with the disturbed young man. Gerzon goes on to sketch some of the more ordinary yet still troubling problems of conflict and violence in the lives of young people and in schools. Against this background, Gerzon welcomes the writings in this book as significant contributions to conflict resolution education in school settings for parents and educators.
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