Short Stories For Everyone
Inspiring incidents from Gandhiji's Life: Selected from the book Everyone's Gandhi
(For the children in the age group of 10 to 15 years)


Gandhiji writing

SHORT STORIES FOR EVERYONE

Gandhi's inspiring short stories selected from the book Everyone's Gandhi

Editor by : Rita Roy


Table of Contents

  1. All for A Stone
  2. A Car And A Pair of Binoculars
  3. My Master's Master
  4. Enter The Monkeys
  5. Premchand Quits His Job
  6. Returning His Medals
  7. Basic Pen
  8. Prisoner No. 1739
  9. Gandhi's White Brother
  10. Who Saw Gandhi?
  11. An Early School
  12. An Unusual March
  13. Spiritual Heir
  14. The Less You Have The More You Are
  15. An Old Goat Talks
  16. The Phoenix Settlement
  17. Gandhi in Amsterdam
  18. Something To Be Shy About?
  19. Gandhiji The Matchmaker
  20. Gandhi's Army
  21. Dandi Snippet
  22. Hiding Something
  23. The Image Maker
  24. Creative Reader
  25. Postcards To The Rescue
  26. A Non-violent Satyagraha 214 Years Ago
  27. Gandhi And Delhi
  28. Gandhiji's Constructive Programme
  29. Gandhi Looks At Leprosy
  30. Baba Amte
  31. They Gave Peace A Chance
  32. From Mahatma To God
  33. Customs Are Out of Fashion
  34. The Man 'Charlie' Wanted To Meet
  35. It Came Naturally To Him
  36. Crossing The Sea of Narrow-Mindedness
  37. Wear Clothes As They Should Be Worn
  38. Education: For Life, Through Life
  39. The Abode of Joy
  40. To Cling to A Belief
  41. The Fruit of A Child's Labour
  42. An Ideal Prisoner
  43. How A Film Became Something More
  44. Gandhi: Beyond India
  45. Gandhi's Life-Saving Medicine
  46. Understanding The Mechanics of Life With Gandhi
  47. The Lokmanya and The Mahatma
  48. Man's Gift To Nature
  49. Gurudev And His Mahatma
  50. One-man Boundary Force
  51. What Does Mahatma Gandhi's Message Mean To Me?
  52. Let's Play Together
  53. Children's Response To Conflict
  54. Beggar By Choice
  55. The Better Half
  56. Uncle Gandhi
  57. The Watch: An Instrument For Regulating Life
  58. Light The Lamp of Your Mind
  59. Gandhi's Bet!
  60. Gandhi Feeling At Home In The Kitchen
  61. What Is Simplicity?
  62. Bapu And The Sardar
  63. The Power of Quality
  64. Gandhi: The Teenager!

Chapter 53: Children's Response To Conflict

Chris King

Despite availability of co-operative games it becomes extremely difficult and almost impossible to avoid a violent solution of conflict. Is it possible to save ourselves from this unpleasantness?
In the USA there is a small movement aimed at helping children learn that they can solve their conflicts in creative rather than hurtful ways. This programme is called "Children's Creative Response to Conflict" (CCRC). Non-violent Alternatives, the organization I work with at Brookings, SD, uses this programme to teach adults, especially teachers and parents, how they teach children to resolve conflicts creatively.
It offers specially designed activities that enable children to build a sense of community, know their worth as individuals, and develop the skills of creative conflict resolution. Through these activities children and adults experience new ways to examine conflicts and develop solutions. They allow the participants to have fun while developing skills in one or more of the programmer's central themes.
Cooperation activities provide a structured setting that allows individuals to work together toward a common goal; an experience often lacking in our competitive society.
Honest communication about one's needs and feelings is often necessary in order to discover the heart of conflict. Activities that helps improve listening, observing, speaking and perceiving skills are important in preparing for successful conflict management.
If people do not feel positive about themselves, it is difficult to feel positive about others. Affirmation activities demonstrate that everyone's ideas and feelings are valued, thus opening the to creative conflict resolution. One of the main goals of this is to show many alternative solutions to conflict and therefore there is an attempt to produce situations in which participants find themselves, and thus practise creative conflict resolution.
Sessions begin by inviting everyone to sit in a circle to emphasize equality and encourage participation.
Gandhi understood that for power to be used in a mutually creative way it must be grounded in love, rather than in fear of punishment. Conflicts are usually resolved by the use of power. When resolved creatively, the power is grounded in love and shared in a mutually beneficial way; when resolved in hurtful and destructive ways, the power is often derived from fear of punishment and or threat of the use of force.