In 1982 acclaimed Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy was invited to teach a course on writing at an impoverished public school in Washington, D.C. He responded, "I'd rather teach peace." Thus began the work he has passionately pursued for the past twenty-five years????????????????????????teaching courses on nonviolence, conflict management, and peace studies, to students in a range of schools, from Georgetown University Law Center, to a juvenile prison, and various high schools in between. I'd Rather Teach Peace chronicles one semester in six of these schools, as students find themselves challenged and inspired by an unconventional course and by a man who believes that if we don't teach our children peace someone else will teach them violence.