Peace Education Paper

Rati Sivashankar Philosophy II Assignment 3

Peace Education Paper

“Humanity today resembles an abandoned child who finds himself lost in the woods at night, and is frightened by the shadows and mysterious noises of the night. Men do not clearly realize what are the forces that draw them into war, and for that reason they are defenseless against them” – Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori believed that although most of humanity did not want war…wars came about anyway. She believed that in the building of our civilization a vital component has been left out; this being the child as a creative social factor. She believed that all civilizations had taken into account only the adult values of life and the child has never been given his rightful place. She said that childhood is an entity of its own and is in fact the other pole of humanity.

The child when his possibilities are realized will manifest his potential function as the builder of society.

When our environments provide a place for the child to do the work he is meant to do; construction of the adult-that-is-to-be then he will be able to fulfill his potentialities and construct a harmoniously developed human society.

I believe that peace education first and foremost begins within the teacher herself. I am reminded of a quote made by Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” I believe that as a teacher I have to first and foremost internalize and embody all aspects of peace; at the very least, tolerance. Ideally, I would have acceptance of all people and places. If I carry within myself negative energies…then it will definitely hinder any form of peace education I try to implement in my environment.

We already provide in our environment a sense of complete accessibility to the teacher in the event of any form of conflict between children, be it verbal, physical or even a wrongly perceived conflict. The teacher first addresses the “victim” of the interaction to find out her condition, then, gives both the children their own turn to convey what transpired. The teacher then asks/helps the child to express how she feels, while she asks the other child to observe the “victim’s” face and describe the expression on her face. E.g. “How does she look?” “Does she look happy?” The teacher then goes on to ask for suggestions on what can be done to make her feel better, in fact, we also ask the victim what would she like to happen for her to feel better. Once this has been done, I always end the interaction with how we are all members of a community and that we care for the same things and that we are friends even when we are different from each other. I invite them to shake hands and ask if they want hug each other.

We also have in our environment plants in abundance; which brings about not only the care of the plants but the awareness of them being around and how to treat them carefully and with respect and that they also have life. We also have fish. The presence of this fascinates the children and builds their awareness of other life forms. We actively recycle and explain to children about how paper comes from trees and the importance of conservation and recycling. We speak about water conservation and how we can help by not leaving the faucet open while we are scrubbing our hands.

I would like to incorporate actively reading books that embody the qualities of empathy and problem solving at a level that is appropriate for children.

Last but not the least; I believe that our environment offers the space for sowing the seeds of peace by first of all having a harmonious relationship between the adults in the environment and infusing the environment with grace, courtesy, respect and love for each other.