According to Mahatma Gandhi, there is no way to peace. Peace is the way.

Peace education is defined as the pedagogical efforts to create a better world by teaching love, non-violence, compassion, and reverence for all life.

Peace education is a holistic, participatory process that includes teaching for and about human rights, non-violent responses to conflict, social and economic justice, gender equality, environmental sustainability, disarmament, and human security. The methodology of peace education encourages reflection, critical thinking, cooperation, and responsible action. It promotes multiculturalism and is based on values of dignity, equality, and respect. Peace education is intended to prepare students for democratic participation in schools and society.

Peace education, a worldwide movement, is a diverse and continually changing field, responding to developments in the world and, to some extent, the advancing knowledge and insights of peace research. The primary purposes of peace education are the development of peace-making capacities. It is based on a philosophy that teaches love, compassion, trust, fairness, cooperation, and reverence for the human family and all life on our beautiful planet.

Peace education is skill-building. It empowers children to join in creative and non-destructive ways to settle conflicts and to live in harmony with themselves and others. This world peacebuilding is the task of every human being and the challenge of the human family.

Peace education is the transmission of knowledge and understanding the obstacles to and possibilities of achieving and maintaining peace, training in skills for interpreting the knowledge, and development of reflective and participatory capacities in applying the knowledge to overcoming problems and achieving possibilities.

The dream of peace education for the culture of peace can best begin with the inculcation of peace in the minds of children in schools. They are the torchbearers and cornerstones of a healthy society. It is just to show the right track to growing minds to create peace-loving personnel in this world. Education empowers them with skills, attitudes, and knowledge based on a philosophy that teaches non-violence, love, compassion, trust, fairness, and cooperation for all life on the planet.

Key skills, methods, and content :

Peace education skills; identifying bias; problem-solving; sharing and cooperation; shared decision-making; analysis and critical thinking; enhancing the self-esteem of oneself and others; creative self-expression; ability to imagine life beyond the present and work towards a vision; understanding the links between personal, local and global communication through careful observation; honest talk and sensitive listening; positive emotional expression; recognizing and expressing feelings in ways that are not aggressive or destructive; conflict resolution strategies; empathy; nonviolent action in relation to problems both personal and societal; ability to act on ideas; self-reflection; independent research.

“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt

We must teach people to be peaceful. To be peaceful, people’s needs must first be met, and their self-esteem developed. They must feel valued to be able to have trust and confidence in themselves and others. They must be aware of their feelings, doubts, fears, and insecurities. This can happen only when they know they are loved and accepted.

Peace education is that which actualizes people’s potential in helping them learn how to make peace with themselves and others, and to live in harmony and unity with the self, humankind, and nature. In a peaceful society, people would work together to resolve conflicts, develop morally, treat each other with justice, satisfy basic needs, and respect each other. In essence, they would live in unity.

Reference

__ Mishra, L. (Ed.). (2013). Educating for peace. ProQuest Ebook Central.