This report is intended to support the goal of primary prevention of violence. The report examines how violence affects the development and learning abilities of children and youth. Seeing family violence, living in unsafe neighborhoods, witnessing violence, and being exposed to the harsh lives often faced by immigrants and refugees places children in a precarious position where progression through normal stages of development is stifled. While learning is affected by exposure to violence, learning can also lead to the prevention of violence. Schools can play a significant role in this prevention. "Guideposts" for breaking the cycle of violence include: (1) the recognition that parents are children's first and most essential teachers; (2) a multidisciplinary approach to violence prevention; (3) incorporation of violence prevention into the current curriculum; (4) recognition that schools alone cannot stop violence; (5) refusal on the part of communities to tolerate violence as an entrenched condition of modern life; and (6) understanding that no one group is the cause of violence in the United States. Four appendices include information on violence prevention programs; evaluation of programs; the National Health and Education Consortium; and the National Consortium for African American Children, Inc. (Contains 44 references.) (JW)