John Lennon's pop hit "Give Peace a Chance" became one of the anthems of the 1970s, but these days it often seems like peace is the last thing on anyone's mind. Violence prevails in music, movies, video games and television programs, which often romanticize crime, gang violence and inner-city life.

Under the force of such a barrage, how can kids today learn to resolve conflicts peacefully?

That's exactly what students at Cold Spring School are trying to do. Last fall, the school's fifth-graders attended a daylong workshop on peaceful problem-solving at the Peace Learning Center at Eagle Creek Park, with several of them receiving extra training to serve as conflict mediators for their peers.

Anika Sykes, 11, is one of the mediators who found the training helpful and enjoyable. "It's fun, and they teach you how to solve your problems without just fighting," she said.

Peace Learning Center offers an array of programming, with much of it targeting elementary and middle-school students. Cold Spring students attended Peace Education, a daylong conflict-resolution program tailored to fourth- and fifth-graders.

Students received several weeks of training by the center's staff as well as their teachers before their trip to the center. Afterward, even those not trained as mediators were eager to put their skills to work.

"It's a fun way to learn how to control your abilities when you're about to have a conflict," said Tyree Avery, 11.

"It works, too," added Vedorian Thompson, 11.

The center teaches skills to avoid conflict as well as the STEP process to resolve disagreements. STEP stands for: Stay cool, Tell your point of view, Explore their point of view, and Problem-solve.

"We learned something called cognitive listening," said Tyree.

That means, he explained, each person in an argument gets to voice his or her side of the story while the other listens without interrupting.

"They taught me how to use my eye method," said Vedorian. "You look eye-to-eye (instead of) using your fists or anything physically to hurt the person."

All three have changed their own behavior since they learned peacemaking skills.

"It changes how I interact with others. I don't talk about people. I don't fight with people, and I don't get in as much conflict as I used to," said Anika.

Vedorian has learned a different way to respond to rumors.

"If somebody like talks about me or something, I will just be like, 'Hmm, really?' " she said.

Tyree is learning to tame his temper. "I used to get mad very easily, and now I just keep my cool. They taught us to attack the problem, not the person," he said. "If I'm, like, being bullied, I'll just do, like, a step back and don't listen to them. And then if they, like, touch me or something, I'll just push them out of the way and yell for a teacher."

Spreading rumors and bullying are two common problems of childhood. The students approach such situations with empathy.

"I feel mad and I try to stick up for that person because I wouldn't like somebody making fun of me," said Anika. "If I don't do nothing about it, it makes me feel guilty."

"If you talk about somebody, it really hurts that person and you could feel it inside because you've probably been talked about before," added Vedorian.

Tyree advises not to become too close to the situation, however.

"If I saw anybody being teased or something or being talked about, I would rather tell a teacher or something instead of being in the problem and them starting making fun of me," he said.

When others behave violently or confrontationally, it isn't always easy to practice peacemaking skills.

"Sometimes it doesn't work if someone's really trying to fight you, 'cause I did that before and I got hit in the face," Tyree said.

Vedorian agreed: "If they touch me, I'll hit 'em."

And conflict-resolution skills don't work if people won't listen.

"Sometimes if you say something that they don't agree with, they'll interrupt you and say you're lying," Anika said.

"They'll be disrespectful and stop you when you're talking, and sometimes they're like, 'Shut up!' or something," added Vedorian.

The young peacemakers had a few ideas about why people don't always use conflict-resolution skills.

"I don't think they use it because they're used to, like, violence and stuff, and their family doesn't use it, so the children think that they shouldn't use it because their parents don't," said Vedorian.

"They think it's just a waste of time talking. They just want to see who's the stronger person," added Tyree.

But all agree everyone could benefit from taking some Peace Learning Center training.

"It could help parents, too," said Anika. "Sometimes they have problems like we do (that) affect their work or their jobs. I think it would help them 'cause it helps us."

It may often seem impossible to resolve conflicts peacefully, but it can be done with the right skills. Even when others don't return the favor, these young people have decided to "give peace a chance."

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Peace Learning Center programs

The Peace Learning Center was conceived in 1997 after the success of a series of short conflict-resolution sessions in IPS schools to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

IndyCorps, a program of the national service organization AmeriCorps, determined that students would benefit from a full-day program in a natural setting. Indy Parks offered to lease them a building at Eagle Creek Park that once housed an Indian museum, in exchange for renovation of the building.

Now, the center's full-time staff joins with AmeriCorps workers to offer a range of conflict mediation services.

Two programs are available:

* Peace Education , which serves about 6,000 fourth- and fifth-graders a year.

* Peace Camp , a three-day, two-night camp for sixth-graders at the Indiana FFA Leadership Center in Trafalgar. Students learn interpersonal communication, leadership development and diversity appreciation as well as conflict resolution.

The center also offers a summer peace program and other initiatives.

For more information, call (317) 327-7144, or go online at www.peacelearningcenter.org.

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Chad Dyar, 16.

REPORTERS: Keenen Brannon, 11, Joi Officer, 11, Steven Thompson, 13.