Much is said about the value of empathy and the need to cultivate habits of nonviolence which lead to Peace. At the same time, it is very rare to find truly humane and co-creative environments which insist on the daily practice of peace in order to actually achieve this end. The [[Peace Practices]] curriculum is now being offered for the first time in public, thanks to [[The Renaissance School]] in Oakland, CA, which has allowed us to open a door through which even the most scattered and conflicted children and families may walk to learn habits of peaceful interaction. These habits are one of the traditional pillars of learning and of Montessori education in particular. 

Most educational communities lack access to high-quality, integrated curricula specifically devoted to practicing peace. At the same time, actual peace-making requires a strength of purpose and dedication to frequent practice that is characteristic of the best teachers and classrooms. It may come as a surprise to some, for instance, that teachers of the martial arts have tools at their disposal to step to the forefront of peace practice, and that an entire martial system, called [[aikido]], was founded for this purpose and is known around the world as The Art of Peace. 

Developing aikido to extend beyond the walls of its traditions using theater and facilitation techniques, Brandon WilliamsCraig created Martial Nonviolence (MNv), to be a method of regular practice for all ages that prepares the body, mind, and spirit to respond to conflict of all kinds in ways that lead people--young and old--to build communities which practice peace. [[Peace Practices]],  is a series of site-specific, carefully designed variations of the Martial Nonviolence training that is already practiced privately by residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, and by students, faculty, and staff at UC Berkeley. Now it is being offered publicly to parents and their children (6 to 9 years of age) at [[The Renaissance School]], under the direction of Dr. WilliamsCraig.

It is the hope of those participating that you will join in this innovation, experience a training and bring your children to do the same, and help us to create a sustainable base from which Martial Nonviolence may grow so that it can be said that Peace Practices may be found wherever our children find themselves.

[[Brandon WilliamsCraig]], Ph.D., was reared in Montessori environments, worked in the professional regional theater for twenty years, and became an aikido apprentice and then teacher. He obtained state certification as a mediator and worked as a process arts (group process design and facilitation) professional before receiving graduate degrees in mythology and psychology. He co-founded and acted as President and Executive Dirctor of [[Association Building Community]] (501c3). He holds a fourth degree black belt from the Aikido World Headquarters (Aikikai) and is Founder and Chief Instructor at both [[http://goldenbearsaikido.com|Golden Bears Aikido at UC Berkeley]] and [[Free Aiki Dojo|Free Aiki]], his downtown Berkeley dojo. 

Brandon created [[Martial Nonviolence]] to bring body, mind, and spirit together in the process arts and social justice movements. This is taught by beginning with traditional aikido responses to physical conflict, and then extending principles of "conflict done well" to apply to interpersonal differences using theater techniques, addressing systemic and political conflict through group process design and facilitation. He is a husband and father, and it has been his pleasure to teach children and adults for over twenty years, welcoming those who were his students as children back as adults to work as colleagues.

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