Gerald Jampolsky and Einar Michelsen at peace conference the Haague May 1999

Forgiveness

Two hours from Accra in Ghana, West Africa, lives a teacher named Mary. She uses the Principles of Attitudinal Healing with her young students, and teaches them how to communicate with each other without anger and fighting. In emphasizing the process of forgiveness, Mary was named "the Forgiveness Teacher", by her class.

There was a 10-year old boy in another class who was the terror of the school. He fought with everyone and disrupted everything around him. He broke most things he touched and never took resposibility.

One day he was caught stealing money out of a teacher's purse. The school principal handled this boy by having a general assembly where the boy was to be whipped with a cane on the stage and then expelled as a bad example for the whole school to see.

The moment at the assembly when the boy was to be caned, Mary stood up. As she was about to say, "Forgive him," all os the children around her cried out "Forgive him, forgive him!" Shortly thereafter, the whole assembly began chanting out in unison, "Forgive him, forgive him!"

Just then, the boy on the stage broke down and began to sob. He was neither caned nor expelled, but forgiven and loved instead.

From that day forward, he has never fought, destroyed property, or been disruptive in any way. He became an excellent student with many new friends-