Friday, June 28th, 2013

The Vietnam syndrome

Regarding Iraq and Afghanistan, are we telling ourselves — and believing — the same false story we told in 1975?Former CIA operative Frank Snepp reflects on the military and strategic failures of the Vietnam War and how current U.S. policy is repeating those same mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan today.Our work at Peace Works Travel is to take students on… [Read Full Article]

Saturday, June 15th, 2013

The Case for Skipping Class

What do America’s schools have against travel?In Darien, Connecticut, the public high schools’ attendance policy warns: “Inexpensive airfares are not an excuse for extended student vacations.” Fairfax County, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., also discourages absences for family trips, and at least one of the county’s high schools, Annandale, seems to have an outright travel ban. “Family trips and… [Read Full Article]

Wednesday, June 12th, 2013

A Teacher’s Rant on the Fourth Amendment and War

I experienced a strange confluence of public, historical and personal events last week:I was asked to lecture at student film project about How and Why the Holocaust Happened. International newspapers revealed that some “inalienable rights” – expectations of privacy -- for the American citizenry are in fact alienable on a federal scale. A few students graduating from Laguna Blanca School… [Read Full Article]

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

‘Napalm Girl’ speaks about the horrors of her childhood and the importance of peace

Kim Phuc, the little girl set afire by napalm bombs during the Vietnam War, described to students, parents and teachers May 10 in Ahmanson Lecture Hall the horrors of being a nine-year-old engulfed by four napalm bombs.A photo taken that day in 1972 by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, then 19 years old, became an iconic image of the war.Phuc… [Read Full Article]

Monday, May 06th, 2013

‘He gave me the most heartfelt smile’

All educational travel programs are not created equally. Our student spring break packages invite teachers to creatively integrate their passion, our history curriculum and long-term relationships with dynamic NGO’s in the destination country. This year’s Investigative Journalism Adventure in Laos taught students how to make compelling videos through interviewing survivors of UXO (unexploded ordnance) leftover from the Vietnam War. Student… [Read Full Article]