2010 Peace Essay Contest
Elementary School Winning Entries
1st Place: Maya Charlton, gr. 4, South Anna ES (Hanover Co.)
America: A Country of Diversity
America is a very diverse and multi-cultural nation even though it might be thought of as primarily Caucasian. Right now, Caucasians make up over 50% of the total American population. But soon, Caucasians will make up less than 50% of the total American population.
America is like a giant mixing bowl. Inside the mixing bowl is a salad. The salad represent the people of America. In a salad there are many different ingredients. Each ethnic group, religion, culture, race and etc. is like there own ingredient in this salad, in this mixing bowl labeled America.
Not everybody likes every ingredient in the salad or sometimes they don't want to try a new vegetable or fruit in their salad. Once they don't like the ingredient, they never go back to try it again. Sometimes people treat others differently based on their ethnic group, religion, culture, race or skin color. This is called discrimination. When you discriminate, you don't like a certain group of people for an impractical reason. You usually don't like them because you do not fully understand them. You might teach your kids and grandkids to do the same. This is one reason why we need to educate people on different cultures.
So, what could you do to help? One of my favorite things to do is read. You could read about different cultures and countries, which widens you knowledge of the world. You could also try to learn about the other side of the story when you learn something in school, especially wars. Another thing you can do is to become a pen pal to somebody from another country. It will give you a new experience of how people live in other countries and you could try to learn their language.
If there is a new student at your school and he or she is teased or left out (it could be both) because of their physical appearance, try to become their friend. You could also ask some friends to come together with you and tell about their heritage. You will most likely find some interesting stories. Another thing you could do is to teach your friends and neighbors to be open-minded to people of different races. This might be a big step, but you can try it. Another idea is that you could write a letter to a local representative expressing your concerns of discrimination.
Just as different ingredients make a good salad, different people help improve the mixing bowl of America. Different people (diversity) bring in new perspectives and ideas. I hope that one day everyone will be able to appreciate the advantages of diversity.
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2nd Place: Grace Li, gr. 4, Kersey Creek ES (Hanover Co.)
Our Garden of Love
We must learn to appreciate people of different colors. But how? Imagine earth as a garden, a big one. Now imagine peace, love and other good deeds are like seeds that bring delicious fruits and beautiful flowers to the garden. Wars are weed seeds, which compete with the good seeds for nutrients and sunlight.
This is the recipe for growing our Garden of Love:
1. Where: next to any libraries.
2. Who: people from different cultures. Africans, Chinese, Europeans, Russians, Polish, German, Egyptians, Canadians, and Americans.
3. When: spring of each year.
4. What: we bring seeds of vegetables or fruits from our homelands.
When we gather at the garden and plant our seeds, we share stories about ourselves and our cultures. At harvest time, we rejoice and harvest the produces together. We invite our friends and relatives and cook our own family recipes and have a huge feast as a family.
When we gather at the garden and plant our seeds, we share stories about ourselves and our cultures. At harvest time, we rejoice and harvest the produces together. We invite our friends and relatives and cook our own family recipes and have a huge feast as a family.
Just like the garden, we take different cultures and colors and plant them in our hearts. With patience, we will see the first signs of a blossom of love. Keep on nursing our love. When our love is ready, we share it with others and help them start growing it. The garden is in our hearts, the perfect place for peace and love to grow. It blossoms with different colors and religions. It is important to keep different colors and religions our heart so we can learn to respect different colored races. If we try hard, maybe one day the earth will become a utopia.
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3rd Place (tie): Noah Johnson, gr. 5, J. G. Henning ES (Chesterfield Co.)
When you exit your house and look around everyone you see has differences. Rather it being from someone's skin color, religion, a person's likes or dislikes, their looks etc. We may think of these things as good or bad, but it's a part of everyone. Yet, there are ways to learn how to relate and respect people because of their amazing differences. This is what we know as diversity. It is all around us and makes America unique. Diversity is accepting people based on their differences. We accept diversity because no one is identical and we all can bring something to the table. As Americans, we have a huge population of diverse people and we should continue learning and respecting each other every day.
There are many ways to get past diversity and learn how to relate to each other. I know of some that can help me through life. Some things I do are to learn more about what makes some people different from me. This lets me find ways to relate better with other people. This can be my neighbors, my classmates, or teammates. I have to communicate with them so we can work together. There are many times, you have to be a team player and you will count on someone else to be there. You need to know how to communicate. Sometimes it can be a scary feeling because you don't know how others may react. But if we plan on reaching the same goal, it works out in the end.
I can get information from the library by doing research. This helps my knowledge and learning. By talking to others and doing interviews, I can have one on one conversations with the person. 1 get to learn different customs and heritages about people. Also, I can do a role reversal for whoever I'm trying to learn about they can also learn about me too. Sometimes, there are classes you can take. By attending fairs or presentations by organizations, you are put in their environment. This helps us to open up more.
By reaching out in the community, I will have a chance to meet a neighbor and learn more about their background, even though I may have known them for a long time. We can play games, share food recipes, and discuss our lifestyles. We can talk about holidays, religions, family traditions and see if we have some things in common. It's exciting when you have something common in someone because you can find more things to talk about. This may also start friendships. Our goal is to get along with each other.
Some things that our country can do are to keep spreading information and keeping us informed with our fellow countries. We have a right to know what goes on and how it affects us. By having Americans know what happens in other countries we learn to help ourselves too. If someone is in need, we reach out to them. If a bad accidents or events happen, we try to send help to areas. We send our military, missionaries, and teachers for assistance. Then there are just the volunteers who want to make things better. That's why we are a great country.
USA is full of diversity, no matter how big or small. Over the years, many things have changed because of differences. People have fought and lost their lives to bring diversity to the United States. Laws have been passed to help others and bring awareness. We are taught things in school, so education is important too. We celebrate many holidays and celebrate different times of the year to give respect to certain groups of people or individuals.
Differences can be turned into respect which lets everyone have their own identity. We don't have to always agree on everything all the time, but being respectful is a part of life. As long as we understand and communicate together, we can make diversity work. Everyone wants to be respected and we have to learn to respect others too. When there is respect it is understood that everyone knows what diversity is between themselves and you.
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3rd Place (tie): Zachary Marshall, gr. 5, J. G. Henning ES (Chesterfield Co.)
Living in a World of DiversityAs the kid gazed upon his town, he realized that being different is a wonderful thing. Otherwise the world would be a boring place with nowhere new to go. America is filled with many unique cultures, religions and ideas. Yet, some of us can't accept that. Fortunately, there are ways we can fix this problem and put an end to some of the dislike of diversity found in America.
For one, we can get to know each other better. This itself would help people understand that just because another person is different than you doesn't mean they can't have some amazing ideas. Hopefully, it would help people make friends. But most of all, it should help people realize that everyone is equal, even if they are different.
Another thing we could do is have people share their religions with another person. People would then understand how much alike both of their religions truly are to one another. They might even find out that they like this new religion more than their old one. Or, they could find that they don't really like either religion and would like to find one they do want to continue practicing.
If people understood these things, we could hopefully end the dislike of diversity found in America. We could help people realize that just because a person is different from you, doesn't mean you can't make friends with them. It actually makes them unique from everyone else in this world. And that's a good thing, so we should accept it.
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Honorable Mention: Delaney Heinz, gr. 5, J. G. Henning ES (Chesterfield Co.)
Living in a World of Diversity
Our world is one of diversity. The most diverse place I know is right here in my home town, Chesterfield, Virginia. I can effortlessly spot differences between people in my neighborhood. Some of my neighbors include African Americans, Hispanics, and a Lebanese family. I consider myself very lucky to live among so many different cultures.
I believe the first step in building respect among Americans with different backgrounds is understanding. We need to learn what their beliefs are, both religious and cultural. Once we understand how they think and why they act the way they do, we can begin to understand them. I belong to a church where over half of the congregation is Hispanic. We have many Caucasian parishioners who have left our church because they were unwilling to learn the culture of others. However, my family, among many others, have the patience and willingness to learn of their beliefs.
I have an uncle who lives in New York where he is the minority. He lives in a neighborhood that is mainly Russian Jews. Another uncle lived in a neighborhood in downtown Richmond, which was an African American neighborhood. I consider myself a well-rounded person because of my family that does not care what is on the outside, only what is on the inside of an individual.
I have witnessed individuals and my community work to understand the differences among people. If everyone took the time to understand all cultures, I know that we could be a country that lives in peace. It just takes one patient person at a time to change a community.
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Honorable Mention: Sydney Kirtley, gr.5, J. G. Henning ES (Chesterfield Co.)
Living in a World of Diversity
As we all know, we live in a world of diversity. In fact, there are so many people from so many ethnic backgrounds that many people just don't understand how to deal with it in a respectful way. Nowadays and always, this is a problem. In pastimes and even now, these ethnic groups have separated, not letting even a small window of opportunity to mix be seen. But now, the time of separation is over. Peace is in out grasp. We just have to reach it.
To create respect and understanding amongst these diverse groups of people, and put an end to group separation, you can...
As a individual , befriend people from varied backgrounds and ethnicities. If you do this, you may be able to develop trusting friendships. After you complete the friend stage, make sure that you keep the relationship alive by inviting your new friends to your activities, such as scouts or sports. But most importantly, don't treat people like they are aliens. If you did, it would only make them insecure and start the separation again. Remember, be a good role model!
As a community and country, You could get together with some neighbors and attempt to start a community center. If you can start one, make sure that you offer plenty of different class and activities to get as many people as possible interested. Different people have different interests, so new groups could be formed depending on their hobbies. The best part is that a chain reaction could occur. By chain reaction, I mean that other communities could see that you started a center. Chances are, if you start one, other places will too.
Standing together as the USA, we can decrease the amount of separation in our country.
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Honorable Mention: Vaasav Kumar, gr. 4, Twin Hickory ES, (Henrico Co.)
Diversity
Have you seen a rainbow? Like the colors of the rainbow, our society is made up of different people from different religions and nations from all over the world. When different colors of rainbow come together it makes the rainbow look beautiful. In the same way people from different races, culture and religion make this society more beautiful.
As every color in the rainbow has a different significance, in the same way every individual has a different role to play in the society. Diverse nationalities, religions and race make our society more colorful, like a rainbow. Just by looking around we get a feeling about how diverse our society is. When we go to a shopping mall and we see people of all colors, religion, and nationality.
Democracy in our country has played a big role in bringing the diverse people together under one umbrella. This concept was hard to be found out a couple of decades ago. Modem science has also played a big role in creating diversity in our country. People have migrated in search of better opportunities from all over the world.
Diversity teaches us a lot about different cultures, different food, different lifestyles, and even music. We always come across different festivals which are being celebrated by different cultures. Good food from all over the world is available in the society due to diversity. Listening to good music from different types of cultures is really fun and this happens because of diversity.
We have learned to increase our tolerance for each other due to diversity. Diversity also teaches us to start treating others with respect. Also we learn not to make opinionated comments. We learn to respect who are different from us for their intelligence and skills. I am proud to be a part of this diverse society.
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Honorable Mention: Joshua Taylor, gr. 5, J. G. Henning ES (Chesterfield Co.)
Living in a World of Diversity
As a country, we need to build respect and understanding among different people, even if they are in different ethnic groups or backgrounds. We can do this by blending everyone together and making all people equal
A way we can do this is by getting to know people. Sometimes all you have to say is "hi" to get a conversation started. You might just have to find something you both like. Soon you could befriend them and then you can do that to others to make friends with a lot of people. This can stop division among different groups. We can also do service to help others and befriend them. Some services I have done are helping others with class work, homework, yard work, and chores. As a community, we can make community centers where any one can go. One community center that I know of is the YMCA. It helps the community by bringing different people with different ethnic groups together by doing sports there or just simply talking.
Sports help us connect because when you are on a team, you might have someone on your team that could be a different religion than you, but you still have to work with them or you're not going to do very well in a game or scrimmage.
One thing that can help us as a community and a country is cultural fairs because they can teach us about other religions and cultures. One reason this can help is because when you see a person at an airport bowing on their knees, on a rug, while reciting prayers, you might think they're a terrorist saying their last prayers. They could just be a person from one of the many religions the world has offered us.
I think the more people who go to fairs like this, could learn a lot of things that we wouldn't have known. We could respect them and truly understand them because we know what they have to do for their religion and cultural.
Churches are one other community center. Even though they don't bring different religious groups in all the time, they can have people of different nationalities inside of it.
One last place that is like a community center is work. It brings tons of people together each day to get a job done.
It is important for us as Americans, to build respect and understanding with all Americans. It may be hard, but if we work together as a team, we can do it!