MONROE — Great Plains Zen Center will host Beloit College professor and chair of the Education and Youth Studies Department Dr. William New in a public talk with discussion following. 

The talk will take place at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 23 at the Great Plains Zen Center, W7762 Falk Rd., Monroe. This talk is free and open to the public. The facility is wheelchair accessible. This talk will explore the use of the three tenets of the Zen Peacemakers. The focus will be specifically on the middle term, bearing witness, as the key to engaging students’ and teacher’s compassion and understanding.  

New grew up in the suburbs, attended Dartmouth College, and then accidentally became a third-grade teacher in an inner-city Catholic School in Jersey City, New Jersey. After several years of teaching and being a part-time graduate student, later New found himself the surprised recipient of a Ph.D. in Educational and Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia. Currently, New is professor and chair of the Education and Youth Studies Department at Beloit College. He is a member of Great Plains Zen Center.