July 28, 2020 7:00 am pst

Join the Webinar titled "In Search of Social Justice: Criminal Justice Reform and the Restoration of Solidarity and Trust in our Communities."

The recent killing of George Floyd by a police officer in the United States triggered widespread protests and demonstrations, both in the USA and globally.

As middle school students graduate and prepare to enter high school, I urge them to seek good mentors. These students might be puzzled by the word "mentor", but they already have been mentors. At The Principled Academy, they have been "reading buddies" to younger students, accompanied them on field trips, and tutored some of them. As part of our Character Education focus of the school, students greet each other in the morning assembly by saying, "Good morning, brothers and sisters." We want students to feel like a family where we are all committed to each other and care about each other - the basis of mentoring.

What is the most extreme example of moral behavior?  My example would be the righteous Christians who risked their lives to protect Jews from the Nazi murderers.  When scholars studied this altruistic behavior they discovered something very ordinary.  
These altruists explained that their moral behavior was learned at home, where they took seriously what they were taught by their parents. 
 

Discover the Personal Story of the Greatest Peacemaker of our Time

Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon was born on February 10, 1943 in Anju, South Pyeongan Province, in what is now North Korea. At the age of six, she fled to South Korea with her mother and grandmother, risking their lives to cross the border in the dead of night.

From a very young age, Mother Moon developed a deep relationship with God in a close father-daughter bond. When she married the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon in 1960, their mutual desire to see a true world of peace led her to join him on a pioneering course as the Mother of Peace.

"Middle school is brutal.  Ask just about anyone, and they'll very likely tell you it was the worst time of their life…" 

Since I teach in middle school at The Principled Academy, I was anxious to read the newly- 
published book, And They Stopped Talking to Me, by Judith Warner.  I guess I have been unaware of what I should be experiencing.  Warner describes the feeling of exclusion many middle schoolers feel (hence the title of her book), the bullying, insults, popularity contests, sexual attraction, dress demands, and pressure from parents, among many other tortures. 

The title of this essay is from a book by Thomas Lickona of the same name.  Raising a good child is perhaps the most challenging and rewarding activity in life.  Parents see a child go through dramatic changes from year to year and sometimes from moment to moment.  Psychologists and educators give us a framework of child development that can enable us to understand that there are stages of moral reasoning and moral behavior. 

From a biblical perspective, each person is created in the image of God and has great potential for love, reason, and creativity. From a secular point of view each person has, in potential, the same nature. Psychologists speak of the 24 strengths in each person that can be developed by taking responsibility to cultivate those strengths. These are often the virtues described by the Judeo-Christian worldview: prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude (courage).

While preparing for our wedding, we [Josiah and Sandra Larson] discussed possible ideas for our honeymoon. Separately, we had talked about traveling, possibly for work or for volunteering internationally. With nursing and engineering as our professions, we were looking into how we could offer our skills to another community.

For me, one of the core values of Unificationism is transcending differences. It doesn’t mean we don’t have clear beliefs and ideals of our own. It means we continue to value, respect and love others who may be different from ourselves. It means we actively find ways to connect with “the other” and work together with “the other” until there is no longer a feeling of “otherness.” This may be just my interpretation, but I believe in it strongly.

The World Summit 2020 Assembly, which was sponsored by UPF, took place February 3-8, 2020, in Seoul, Korea.  The summit was aimed at addressing critical challenges facing humanity, from climate change to poverty and conflict, bringing together a wide range of experts and stakeholders to deliberate collaboratively, offering insights and recommendations that contribute to building a world of lasting peace.