Can your students name the 22 American Nobel Peace Prize Laureates?* The Nobel Peace Laureate Project has developed a high school curriculum to teach students the history of the Nobel Peace Prize and has made it available for free via the internet at http://www.nobelpeacelaureates.org/
teach_peace.html. The materials consist of an introduction to the lesson plans for teachers, an introduction to the Nobel Peace Prize, lessons about each of the 22 American winners, and an assessment activity. Each lesson contains a biographical essay about the Nobel Laureate and suggestions for classroom activities (introductions, discussion questions, vocabulary, and technology options). Written by three experienced high school history teachers from the state of Oregon, Nancy Newman, Jerry Ragan, and Jessica Tuerk, the materials emphasize what the winners did to gain worldwide acclaim for their efforts to bring about a more peaceful world. The short biographical sketches and accompanying lesson plans meet the curriculum standards of the state of Oregon and should be adaptable for other states.
Project Chair John Attig writes, “The materials are intended to meet a national need for information about peacemaking. Most high school textbooks devote large amounts of space to American wars. Many students can identify Robert E. Lee, Douglas MacArthur, and Norman Schwartzkopf, but few know of Norman Borlaug, Jody Williams, and Cordell Hull. The Peace Laureates have settled wars, worked to prevent others, and have saved millions of lives.”
The Nobel Peace Laureate Project is a grass roots organization in Eugene, Oregon, with a goal of inspiring future peacemakers by honoring American winners of the Nobel Peace Prize and increasing the knowledge Americans have of their own internationally recognized peacemakers.
*Answer: Jimmy Carter (2002), International Campaign to Ban Landmines (1997), Jody Williams (1997), Elie Wiesel (1986), International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (1985), Henry Kissinger (1973), Norman Borlaug (1970), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964), Linus Pauling (1962), George Marshall (1953), Ralph Bunche (1950), American Friends Service Committee (1947), John Mott (1946), Emily Balch (1946), Cordell Hull (1945), Nicholas Murray Butler (1931), Jane Addams (1931), Frank Kellogg (1929), Charles Dawes (1925), Woodrow Wilson (1919), Elihu Root (1912), and Theodore Roosevelt (1906).