Musings: Bringing Compassion and Forgiveness Into the Classroom Where Peace Can Get a Brand New Start

As you may know by now, the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, named in honor of my son, has been working tirelessly to educate and inspire children in the restorative principles of accountability, compassion, forgiveness, peacemaking, and support for safer schools and communities for over twenty years! TKF began with a simple premise: that violence is a learned behavior. No child, including Tony, the murderer of my son, was born violent. If you accept that violence is a learned behavior, nonviolence can be too. Schools don’t have the mandate to teach nonviolence, so TKF has embraced the call and is doing it successfully through our story and programs.

Our middle school programs are designed to positively impact youths’ behaviors and attitudes, increase their educational opportunities, and improve school safety. The Safe School Model, which is comprised of several programs, is a viable and affordable solution for schools to address youth violence in our country. The cost of our Safe School Model is $50 per child per year, as compared to an average cost of $10,000 per child per year to provide free public education. Since 1996, the Tariq Khamisa Foundation has directly impacted over one million children through its programs, and through national media and public outreach it has impacted millions more.

TKF partners with schools to conduct comprehensive programming that incorporates a continuum of proven prevention strategies that reduce youth’s risks for violence, bullying, delinquency, school failure, and gang involvement. The good news is that through all these efforts the foundation has significantly increased school attendance by 72% for our mentored youth. Additionally, our programs have decreased behavioral referrals and suspensions by 67% for our mentored youth.

The bad news is that there is still so much more work to be done.

While the foundation would hope that someday its programs could be supported by funding at state and federal levels, it is important that it continue its work today so the teachings of nonviolence become as mainstream as math, writing, reading, science, and other subjects taught in school. While many kids may not end up as doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, and astronauts (the percentage of people with a second degree in the U.S. is under 12%), most will become parents. These principles TKF teaches will create nonviolent parents who can positively impact the next generation. As we know, our children often mimic their parents.

I am reminded of a quote by Gandhi: “If we wish to create a lasting peace we must begin with the children.” TKF’s focus is very much about our children and youth. In addition, teaching our children to be educated, socially responsible leaders demonstrating good behavioral choices is our best opportunity to break the cycle of the “school to prison pipeline.” With the immense cost of $140,000 per year to incarcerate a youth and considering the average of an 85% recidivism rate, our communities and families stand to greatly benefit from our children’s success. Peaceful, educated youth will make a significant difference in future crime statistics and contribute to a compassionate, nonviolent society – a win-win for all involved.

Each year several thousand youth experience our message for the first time and several thousand more are waiting for our message. With the support of individuals, businesses, and leaders, we are striving to expand our resources to meet these requests. We believe that every child deserves to be bolstered with the tools of a peacemaker: the foundation of a healing approach that helps repair emotional wounds and guides problem solving decisions, teaches the skills to encourage peace and forgiveness within themselves and others, and empowers them to build healthy relationships.

At the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, we believe we can achieve success. But it won’t come without your support and partnerships. There are many ways you can help with this worthy vision. My earnest and sincere hope is that the Department of Education at the state and/or the federal level will someday soon support TKF’s programs. Until then we need to rely on your support and contribution to help TKF continue its efforts. There are many ways you can contribute:

• By your financial tax-deductible contributions (Donate HERE)
• Getting matching grants from your employers or other community organizations
• Creating awareness in our legislators and community
• Joining TKF as volunteers
• Spreading TKF’s work to your families and spheres of influence and in other creative ways (Facebook page HERE)