PACER Center uses puppets to foster tolerance

Here at Search, we firmly believe that media can be a very powerful tool for conflict transformation. Through our radio and television programs including The Team, we hope to reach a broad audience and teach them about transcending their differences to achieve common objectives, while at the same time doing so in an entertaining manner.  With this context in mind, we thought we would highlight a similar initiative by the US-based PACER Center (Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights). Though the initiative focuses on disability education rather than peacebuilding, it is a similar use of interactive theater to foster tolerance.

In 1979, the PACER Puppets, a multicultural cast representing children with various disabilities, were introduced to classrooms of kindergarten through fourth grade students. The puppets are each a work of handcrafted art and were created as a teaching tool to educate children about their peers with disabilities and to assist schools in efforts to implement programs of inclusion. The puppets come to life through the puppetry techniques of trained volunteers.

The Center has created various puppet shows to educate students about a range of issues. For example, the Count Me In shows include scripts on blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy and Down Syndrome.  Another program, Kids Against Bullying, is designed to helps students and adults learn about bullying prevention. This show is designed for students in 1^st through 3^rd grade and helps them learn ways to respond if they are being bullied, how to help if they see someone being bullied and, most importantly, that no one ever deserves to be bullied.

The PACER Puppets is yet another example of the powerful role that media such as radio, television or theater can play to encourage tolerance and inclusion, while being entertaining at the same time.

Below, you can watch a short clip featuring interviews with PACER puppeteers.