Location: Colombia/Massachusetts, USA
Level of Training: (Level I – 2010) & (Level II – 2011) & (Level III – 2018)
About:
Ruth has promoted nonviolence through her spoken word music for many years, reaching many young people in the language they know best. Ruth, a teacher at Watertown Middle School and World in Watertown member is one of the people who first thought to bring Dr. Lafayette to Watertown. Trained in the Kingian Principles of Nonviolent Conflict Reconciliation in college at the University of Rhode Island, Henry said she’s thankful the school administration made the decision to implement the program in Watertown. “The core curriculum is about 16 hours,” she said. “It’s different from a normal curriculum in that you can’t just download a syllabus and memorize it. It’s interactive and engaging and involves a lot of deep thinking, and application to each individual personally.” She believes what makes the training powerful is the process of going through an intensive and self-reflective path to understanding the curriculum. In the days following the training, the administration and newly trained teachers of the Kingian method will gather to discuss how to best roll out the lessons to students and teachers in the system. “We’ll be checking in through the year, this isn’t just a one shot,” she said. “It’s really just the start of things.”