From July 23rd to August 13th, On Earth Peace held a webinar series called “Raising Race Conscious Kids.” Several members of OEP were involved in creating the series, including Marie Benner-Rhoades, Priscilla Weddle, Laura Hay, Tamera Shaw, and Grace Cook-Huffman. Topics included culturally responsive teaching, the myth of color-blindness, the role of racial scripts, and the future of racial justice. The books “Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America,” by Jennifer Harvey, and “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria and Other Conversations About Race,” by Beverly Daniel Tatum, were used to guide the discussions. 

The Read Aloud Project was created by Priscilla Weddle and Marie Benner-Rhoades to provide homeschooling resources in peace and justice during the pandemic. For the project, members of the community read children’s books about peace, courage, and justice. With the school year coming up and many students attending remotely, we have decided to create a curriculum to go along with the read aloud videos. 

Beginning in September, the project will return to its regular schedule of posting two videos a week on Mondays and Wednesdays with a peace skills lesson. To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15th to October 15th, we will be reading books about Hispanic history and culture every Wednesday. 

The project is looking for bilingual readers to read these books. If you are interested in recording a video for the project, please email Priscilla at [email protected].

We are also looking for child readers.  If you are a child or teen and would like to read for the Read Aloud Project, we’ll mail you the book of your choice to keep from a list of peace and justice books.  For more information email Priscilla at [email protected]. 

You can find all the past Read Aloud videos here.

My name is Priscilla Weddle and I am the Children’s Peace Formation Coordinator at On Earth Peace. I led the second session of “Raising Race Conscious Kids” with Laura Hay. The second session focused on racial scripts and how to disrupt them. Racial scripts are formed from past events or experiences and impact how racialized groups are viewed and interact with one another. While preparing for the session, I was concerned because the topic of racial scripts is complex and can be difficult to explain and understand. I decided to include several examples from Raising White Kids by Jennifer Harvey and Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum in my slides to ensure that everyone would understand what racial scripts are.

Taylor Cole works as our Social Media Intern for the Dunker Punks Podcast! “I work indirectly with OEP, and mainly with the Dunker Punks Podcast staff.” For Taylor, the history and meaning behind Dunker Punks brings life to her work. “Dunker Punks, coined by Jered McKenna, reinforces the idea of supporting youth and bringing youth back into the church by emphasizing it as a beacon away from hate and anger. The podcast has been created to inspire the youth on the church's philosophy as it should be.” Taylor finds joy in the freedom of her job at OEP and Dunker Punks. “I really like having the freedom to work on my own. A lot of the jobs I've had before I have had very direct authoritarian supervision, so I like the independence.” Outside of the podcast world, Taylor can be found knitting and watching 2000’s sitcoms. “I am kind of a grandma. The two main things that I do outside OEP are knitting and watching the Big Bang Theory or West Wing.”

Dunker Punks and OEP are very grateful for the amazing work that Taylor does for the podcast world. Thank you Taylor for all your hard work keeping OEP proud and strong!

Dunker Punks Podcast is looking for new contributors!