Educating for peace

Instructing people to live with a worldview that maximizes nonviolent, noncompetitive ways of resolving conflicts.

UNESCO assists in the planning the development of human rights teaching and education for international understanding, cooperation and peace. Proposals are made for revision of curricula, textbooks and other teaching materials and teacher training schemes, taking into account the results of research dealing with the themes of peace and human rights.

In 1991, the Institute of Peace in the USA began to teach peacemaking issues in classrooms. The Institute's priorities for 1995 include, increasing its effort in education and training, and in the specialized areas of skills training in conflict resolution. In a short time in the USA, over 300 violence prevention programmes and 100 conflict resolution curricula have been made available by anti-violence groups to middle and high schools.

Our schools must be revered places of learning and their most valuable lessons are those that teach the wisdom of peace and the folly of war.

Violence, competition and anger are natural, creative human responses, needing to be used appropriately in honouring the other as much as affirmation, cooperation, compassion and all other natural responses.