Responsibility of Peace Educators

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jeff S on December 23, 2010 at 2:10am

Do you have a curriculum or doctrine to use as a basis for this course?

Permalink Reply by Prof. Fani Bhusan Das on December 23, 2010 at 8:43am

Yes,I have. Curriculum is incorporated in my books 1)Peace Technology 2)Peace TimeCalendar.

Permalink Reply by Prof. Fani Bhusan Das on December 25, 2010 at 12:50am

Let the 2010  Christmas symbolising PEACE shower on you and all the world citizens divine blessings to be at Peace and to work for a peaceful world.Let the NEW YEAR 2011 be a year of HOPE for the world to usher New Thinking for the Humanity so that  the apprehension that the world will end in 2012 do not come true. SPARE THE MAD RUSH TO VILLAGE BUGARACH IN FRANCE to escape from the devastation of 2012 by thinking and acting in right and ethical way.Let UN announce PeaceTime Calendar in 2011 for continuance of mankind beyond 2012

Permalink Reply by jan mercuri grossman on January 1, 2011 at 1:23pm

Happy New Year, Professor! and All!

For Peace Education to move forward we really do need to motivate our institutions to adopt the inclusion of Peacebuilding skills at every level of education, across all fields.  The idea that Peace Study is not simply a course for the interested few, but a broad skill base to enhance all of civil society is a challenging concept to integrate into our established educational and professional structures. 

A friend and colleague here in NH was successful at establishing the nation's first Peace and Social Justice program at the Community College level.  Nashua Community College now offers an Associate Degree Program in Liberal Arts with a Peace and Social Justice Concentration.  This program overlaps with the Teacher Education degree and she is trying to awaken the college to the notion that Peace Studies should "count" toward all professional degrees. It is established but still considered a "fringe" degree.

The aims of the program are listed below:

The Peace and Social Justice Studies Concentration has three major aims:

1. To prepare community members and program graduates to relate interdisciplinary theories and practices of peace and justice to their own lives and to real-world problem-solving.
2. To recognize the potential of conflict as an opportunity for possible constructive outcomes, and to develop alternative structures to everyday violence through education, research and action.
3. To encourage academic exploration of the growing field of Peace and Social Justice Studies throughout the nation and the world.

She and I also attended a four day BePeace Foundations Course in Vt. recently.  It was sponsored by the National Peace Academy and the Rasur Foundation International.  

BePeace is a program that teaches individuals of all ages to not only feel peace, but also to speak and teach peace. Developed in Costa Rica through the Academy for Peace in that country, the BePeace practice combines the HeartMath method for “feeling peace” and Nonviolent Communication for “speaking peace.” BePeace brings together the essence of each in a powerful, synergistic approach to being peace. BePeace founder Rita Marie Johnson is now bringing her program to the United States.

The goal is to bring this training into the schools for future generations of children. (Preliminary results actually show an increase in test scores with children using this approach.  More evidence based studies hope to persuade those in need of statistical proof before allowing consideration of the idea.)

I have also just completed an illustration project for a book to be re-released this spring.  It is entitled, "The Peacable Classroom". It is intended as a guide for teachers and parents in establishing an intentional environment where the children are held in, and use the skills of Peace.  It includes suggestions of breathwork, Reiki, yoga, Feng Shui, rhythm, and witnessing emotions to name a few avenues for skill building.

I will let you know when it is finally published.

I recommit to establishing the groundwork for Peace Education in 2011.

Permalink Reply by Macomb Jess on January 2, 2011 at 1:59pm

I, too, am looking to turn my focus back onto Peace education as an integrated topic in the classroom and at the university, as an institution. Social justice is really a topic that is borderless and boundary-less, so it is not about naming a particular victim of conflict, but rather identifying the process of injustice and transforming conflict-maintaining actions to peace-bulilding actions.