Education for peace
What does education for peace mean?
It should not be considered as an additional discipline, but rather as an instrument to transform every formative field in a path of peace. A path where children's creativity and autonomy are developed to address their problems, learning how to dialogue and experiment, in order to increase their awareness of their own resources and responsibilities as don Milani said.
Educating for peace, therefore, is promoting practical actions within a specific context, starting from interpersonal relationships without overlooking, more general issues such as the development model, resource distribution, and power management. It is important to make concrete actions to transform a globalised society starting from the bottom up, where lack of rights and inequalities often make the word "peace" meaningless.
Why education for peace?
“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.”(Unesco Constitution)
This quotation would be enough to understand the extreme importance that education for peace should have in the learning processes of every inhabitant of the Earth.
Therefore, the Universal Declaration on the Human Right to Peace, which was approved in 2016 by the United Nations General Assembly, is extremely timely and important; a document in which, for the first time, it is established that all human beings have the right to enjoy peace. It also recognises that peace is not just lack of war, but a fundamental human right that requires "a positive and dynamic participatory process in which dialogue is encouraged and conflicts are resolved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation" (A/C.3/71/L.29, Preamble). Of the five articles of the Declaration, the fourth is devoted to peace education in order to "strengthen the spirit of tolerance, dialogue, cooperation and solidarity among all human beings".
The Living Peace International Project is a path to peace education.
It is based on the “Dice of Peace” on whose faces there are no numbers but sentences that help build peaceful relationships among everybody. It is inspired by the main points of “The Art of Love”, that Chiara Lubich proposed many years ago to the children of the Focolare Movement using a dice game.
Together with the dice she also proposed the “Time out”: at noon every day we have a moment of silence, reflection, or prayer for peace.
As of today, there are more than 1,000 schools and groups that adhere to this project and more than 600,000 children and young people involved in these initiatives in the five continents.
The project aims to strengthen the collaboration and to cooperate with many people in the world to build a “net” of peace that wraps the Earth. As a consequence, Living Peace is also a platform: there are more than 60 international organisations that operate in synergy with this project and share peace initiatives proposed by the respective nets.
Living Peace International aims at improving everyone’s commitment to live in peace and for peace in every context, including education.
The main beneficiaries of our project are schools and youth groups, but other entities may benefit from it, such as parishes, art groups, charities, and others, regardless of their location, culture and religion.
6x1- Six steps towards a goal: a proposal from the Teens for Unity movement that stems from Service Learning methodologies and aims to help youth groups to plan effective and inclusive peace actions.
The 6x1 Methodology enhances our ability to look at our own social context and actively improve it in six steps: observe, think, involve, act, appreciate, and celebrate.
Living Peace International is a project based on a game, the “Dice of Peace” on whose faces there are no numbers but sentences that help build peaceful relationships among everybody. It is inspired by the main points of “The Art of Love”, that Chiara Lubich proposed many years ago to the children of the Focolare Movement using a dice game.
Every context in which the game is played is unique and different, so are the players’ culture, religion and age. The die can be modified and personalised as long as it concretely encourages peace.
“The dice may be considered a recreational, didactic and educational proposal (…) intended for everybody: families, schools, and all kind of groups. The main goal is to stimulate positive relationships in every context in which the dice are used, enhancing children’s prosocial abilities and strengthening those of the adults.” (Le origini e la storia del dado e dell’arte di amare - Josep M.C.I. Arxer)
This game is considered a pedagogic entertainment technique, useful to develop everybody’s potentialities and promote cooperative learning contexts based on knowledge sharing and co-building.” (La pedagogia del dado - Teresa Boi)
Usually, we roll the die every morning or whenever possible: every one, child or adult, is committed to actively put into practice the sentence. The kids and educators involved are then invited to share their peace building experiences once a week or when it is feasible. For example, they can share them on a Diary of Peace, or on a Mural of Testimonies glued onto a wall in schools or associations; of course, there is no limit to creativity.
Experiences, videos, and pictures of these activities that are sent to the Living Peace international coordination centre will be shared among all those involved with the project through our website, Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Created as an answer to never-ending wars and conflicts, and widespread violence and injustice, the “Time-out” wants to weave a thick net of peace around the world, a net with thousands of knots made of people who stop for a minute's silence or a minute's prayer or to meditate on peace every day at 12.00 (noon) in every time zone.
First proposed by Chiara Lubich in 1991 during the Gulf War, this activity was born to create a human chain that links the whole world together.
United with thousands of kids, youth and adults in every Country of the world, we ask for peace in every nation on Earth especially for… (mention here the Countries at war), and wherever violence and injustice reign.
We strive to make the Golden Rule our own: "Do to others what you would want them to do to you" to bring peace wherever we live and build a united world.
OBSERVE . THINK . INVOLVE .
ACT . REFLECT . CELEBRATE .
Peace may seem a distant and difficult ideal to reach and not being able to see quick results of our actions might be frustrating.
“6x1” is a proposal from the Teens for Unity movement that stems from Service Learning methodologies and aims to help youth groups to plan effective and inclusive peace actions.
The whole group gradually develops a “vision” for working together in their town or district, enabling them to identify the real needs of the area where they live and to focus on what could be their specific contribution.
Run4Unity - relay race for unity - is an annual activity that takes place in hundreds of cities in the 5 continents, organised by Teens for Unity, one of the Living Peace promoters.
Hundreds of thousands of boys and girls of different cultures and religions run together to show their commitment to peace and promote an instrument to achieve it: the Golden Rule. The first Sunday of May from 11 a.m. until 12 a.m. in each time zone they organized sports, social and artistic activities, involving not only their peers, but also young people and adults, to extend symbolically a rainbow of peace on the whole planet.
Living Peace schools and groups are invited to participate and to be protagonists in this global relay of peace that unites the most distant points of the planet.
For more information and to register: www.run4unity.net
Milonga is a volunteering platform.
The youth of Living Peace, between 21 and 35 years, are invited to adhere to the high-quality opportunities that Milonga provides: “fraternal” and intercultural volunteering whose work will strengthen the impact of the NGOs on the ground.
It is voluntary service with mentorship before during and afterwards.
The spirit of fraternity is also what drives the encounters with communities in precarious situations, bringing about an experience of communion and intercultural dialogue.
Currently, these projects are present mainly in Latin America, but others from around the world are integrating into the platform.
For further information, just click www.milongaproject.org
If you wish to undertake a volunteering experience, access the link: http://www.milongaproject.org/en/join-now/
The child shall be protected from practices which may foster racial, religious and any other form of discrimination. She/He shall be brought up in a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship among peoples, peace and universal brotherhood, and in full consciousness that his energy and talents should be devoted to the service of his fellow men.
Declaration of the Rights of the Child - UNICEF 1959