Dr. Helen Brown McIntosh

Activism of the Heart

When you think of activism, certain images might come to mind.

Protests, petitions, rallies—folks carrying signs and congregating around an issue.

And this is certainly one of the most visible forms of activism.

Dr. Helen Brown McIntosh’s form of activism, “Activism of the heart,” as she calls it, falls into a different category. Most of us are aware of violence in our schools and our cities, and that children are being exposed to more and more violence in their daily lives. The effects of this increased exposure to violence became abundantly clear, and received widespread media coverage, after the school shootings at Columbine in 1999.  Helen, who was working as a school counselor at an inner city school at the time of the Columbine incident, realized suddenly that she was counseling over 700 children who were poised to become the next generation of school shooters if something was not done to help them learn conflict resolution. She could not do enough as a counselor working alone to help them achieve this. Inspired in part by her struggle overcoming an emotionally abusive relationship with her mother, Helen came up with the idea of the Peace Rug. The idea was to give children a safe space to confront each other when they were teased or bullied.  Both teachers and children are trained to use the peace rug, and given a specific script to follow when they invite someone to the peace rug when they feel that their personal space is violated in any way.

The peace rug is an actual 3 by 5 rug, sky blue and covered in clouds. Some teachers have painted a similar design near the playground outside to help resolve conflicts during recess. Helen conducted research on the effectiveness of the peace rug, found it to be extraordinarily beneficial, and published her findings in her dissertation. She hopes that the peace rug can be used in classrooms and homes all over the world to help promote conflict resolution. In Helen’s own words: “If every classroom had a peace rug, or even every school, if it were taught to children on a consistent basis, and these children had the language to stand up at the slightest sign of being disrespected, if they could approach their bully with language that’s inviting, and do a boundary, and come to some agreements, and have some closure, then they would know what it felt like to resolve conflicts for the rest of their school days.”

In my opinion, if children learned this valuable lesson, it would also go a long way towards reducing violence in our schools, and creating a safer and more supportive learning environment. Helen suggests that to her, activism is “Proactively making a difference.”  In this case, her peace rug is already making a enormous difference in the lives of the children who have access to it.

Dr. Helen Brown McIntosh graduated from Hollins with a degree in psychology in 1964. Even as a student, she was inspired to help others, and one of her early experiences in counseling was while she was studying at Hollins, through the local veteran’s hospital. She believes that Hollins cultivated both her love of learning and her desire to make a real difference in people’s lives. After raising her children and working within their schools, she continued her education, getting her PhD at 60 years old. She worked as a school counselor for 12 years. Now retired, Helen continues to do pro-bono counseling and volunteer work throughout her community, and is in the process of writing a book.

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