Expressions of Peace

The several dozen colorful pinwheels adorning the main stairwell at Owings Mills High School are merely a drop in the bucket of the more than 3.5 million similar student-made pinwheels that were on display in over 3,500 locations in the United States and elsewhere on Wednesday, Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace.

"We are a diverse school. We have students with a lot of different backgrounds here, and we wanted everybody to be able to express themselves and get on the same page with this project," said art teacher Mary Elizabeth Dickman, who launched the annual Pinwheels for Peace project at Owings Mills High four years ago.

"Even though it started out as a voluntary project, everybody wanted to do it, so it became a class project. Everyone wanted to get involved," Dickman said.

The notion of world peace may be pie in the sky — little more than a wan candle in a chill wind during these troubled times. But Dickman and her students don't believe that's a reason to stop striving for it. Or to stop reflecting on what peace really means.

For Michael Washington, 16, an Owings Mills High junior who lives in Owings Mills and is president of his school's chapter of the National Art Honor Society, the concept has its own subjective implications.

"When you look at peace, people have their own opinions on it," Washington said. "I tend to think of it as freedom. I associate it with my own experiences in childhood, when I liked going into the woods, sometimes with friends, sometimes by myself, and would get in touch with the beauty of nature, and with my own life."

Washington says collaborating with his fellow students while making the pinwheels was both fun and enlightening.

"You get to find out how other people think of peace," he said. "It's not just about being able to express yourself, but to share everybody's ideas and really get in touch with other people and understand their ideas. I think that makes you become a better person."

Brett Rosner, 17, a senior and Owings Mills resident and vice president of Owings Mills High's Art Honor Society, says this year's Pinwheels for Peace project also had an element of healthy competition.

"I liked it because it gave you a chance to show your creative abilities, what you can do" she said. "It's a project for everybody to show off their creativity."

A childhood symbol

According to the official Pinwheels for Peace (www.pinwheelsforpeace.com) Web site), the worldwide pinwheels initiative started in 2005 as the brainstorm of two art teachers, Ann Ayers and Ellen McMillan, at Monarch High School, in Coconut Creek, Fla. They saw it as a vehicle for their students to express their feelings about what's going on in the world and in their lives.

In the years since, it has spread to thousands of schools across the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Middle East, Africa and South America.

The Pinwheels for Peace website stresses that there are no political implications or biases attached to the decorative pinwheels. Along with world peace, they can also symbolize nonviolence, tolerance and peace of mind in our daily lives.

Dickman says that every school year when she and fellow art teacher Kathryn Short launch Pinwheels for Peace they start by recounting its history to their students.

"The pinwheel is a childhood symbol, a symbol of a time when we all had less responsibility and we were able to express ourselves more," Dickman said.

Dickman is pleased that those pinwheels decorating the school's painted concrete walls have occasionally prompted discussions among the students.

"People have wanted to know what the pinwheels mean and why we were decorating the school with such childish things," she said. "But once they realized it was a serious thing, they wanted to become part of it."