Building a peaceful and just world--beginning with the children.

The conflicts that seem to be underway in every region of the globe demonstrate the profound need for creating paths to a peaceful and just world. Mahatma Gandhi said that if we are to have real peace in the world, we need to begin with the children. Sowing the seeds for peace and justice in classrooms could nurture a new generation of world leaders and ordinary citizens who have a vision of a peaceful and just world, and who have both the will and skill to bring this vision to reality.

Support the UN Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2000-10 as the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World. The Report of the UN Secretary General states that education at all levels is key to building a culture of peace. The Manifesto 2000 is a simplified summary of the proclamation, written by Nobel Peace Prize laureates. It is available to sign at www3.unesco.org/manifesto2000/uk/uk_manifeste.htm. As educators, we can be messengers of the Manifesto as we work to create a culture of peace in our schools and classrooms, as well as in our families and communities. Already, over 75 million people around the world haved signed the Manifesto 2000, pledging to:

* Respect the life and dignity of every person without discrimination or prejudice

* Practice active nonviolence

* Share their time and material resources

* Defend freedom of expression and cultural diversity

* Promote consumer behavior that is responsible and development practices that respect all forms of life and preserve the balance of nature on the planet

* Contribute to the development of community with the full participation of women and respect for democratic principles in order to create together new forms of solidarity. (Manifesto 2000)

Implementation of this Manifesto can begin in our classrooms and schools with the culture and climate that we create, and with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that we teach and foster. Our learning communities can be viewed as microcosms of the positive society we envision. Here are some ways we can begin to support the six pledges above.

Build Caring, Cooperative Classrooms Where Diversity Is Celebrated

A key goal is to strive to create a caring community of learners where diversity is celebrated and children of all races, ethnic groups, socio-economic classes, religions, geographic regions, sexual orientations, and family structures feel both welcomed and affirmed in the classroom. It is important to teach students to move beyond tolerance and acceptance and to become more proactive in stopping bias-related comments and other forms of discrimination. Two excellent resources in this effort are Anti-bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children (Derman-Sparks, 1989) and Common Bonds: Anti-bias Teaching in a Diverse Society (Byrnes & Kiger, 2005).

In describing how to empower children to create a caring culture, Derman-Sparks (1993/94) stresses the importance of nurturing a confident self-concept and group identity. When children feel cherished and affirmed by others, especially the adults in their lives, they feel less of a need to prove their worth by putting others down.

As students learn about cultures different from their own, we can help them understand that their way is not the only way. What is appropriate in one culture may be considered highly inappropriate in another. For example, my students are surprised when I share with them that on the island in the Pacific where I served as a Peace Corps volunteer, it is unacceptable for women to expose their thighs, just as it is unacceptable for women in the United States to expose their breasts. As we move beyond ethnocentrism, we can help children see such practices as different rather than inferior or superior.

Children can learn about the strengths and struggles of the world's children through such books as A Life Like Mine: How Children Live Around the World, which covers the key elements of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNICEF, 2002). These rights include access to safe water, nourishing food, health care, and education, as well as assurance of protection and participation. Sadly, the United States is one of only two member countries of the United Nations that has not signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Older students could become advocates for the document by contacting legislators and urging them to vote in favor of ratification. The UNICEF Web site (www.unicef.org/crc/crc.htm) has extensive information about the Convention.

We must strive to develop classroom communities where affirmation and acceptance are the pattern, and rejection and exclusion have no place. Some believe that school violence between students stems from reactions to ongoing bullying and cruelty. Starting in our early childhood classrooms, we can begin to change this atmosphere by building the self-esteem of all students, stopping the bullying whenever it occurs, and providing models of caring, sharing, and helping. In The Kindness of Children, Vivian Paley (1999), a veteran kindergarten teacher and award-winning author, points out the need for adults to play a stronger role in working with children to stop the cruelty and emotional abuse that goes on in many classrooms. She also describes extraordinary acts of kindness by children she has observed.

Foster Cooperation Over Competition

Classrooms that promote cooperation over competition help plant the seed that the greater good comes when we work together rather than against each other. In cooperative learning classrooms, students help each other in groups or pairs to master a given task. According to Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec (1990), who have done extensive work related to this teaching strategy, "Cooperative learning should be used when we want students to learn more, like school better, like each other better, like themselves better, and learn more effective social skills" (p. 16). Cooperative work can be implemented in literacy, social studies, math, science, and technology lessons, as well as in the expressive arts, through such activities as painting murals, project work, and writing stories, songs, and plays. We need to rethink some common classroom practices that focus on competition and winning. Not only do such practices undermine a cooperative atmosphere, they often discourage, rather than encourage, struggling learners.

Youth can be taught to enjoy cooperative games as an alternative to competitive sports. In cooperative games, the players must work together toward a common goal rather than against one another. In volleyball, for example, children can play by rotating around the net with the objective of seeing how many times the ball can be volleyed back and forth. Such games can provide challenge, stimulation, self-validation, opportunities for success, and sheer fun, according to Orlick (1978), author of The Cooperative Sports & Games Book.

Teach Nonviolent Conflict Resolution Skills

The skills of nonviolent conflict resolution need to be taught and practiced on every developmental level. We need to encourage our students to apply these skills to their everyday lives. Even young children can learn and implement the steps: identify what the problem is, brainstorm possible solutions, agree on a solution to try, implement it, and evaluate its outcome. Gillespie and Chick (2001) describe how preschoolers were trained to be "fussbusters," with negotiations taking place at a "Peace Table." The authors concluded that with proper modeling and training, young children can take control of their conflicts and find peaceful solutions. Peer mediation at the elementary and secondary levels has been widely used and is a highly successful strategy.

Mediate the Media

Our children are surrounded by media that model violence and negative values. Children are encouraged to buy a myriad of action figures so they can re-enact the violent scenarios they see, and to wear the T-shirts and backpacks that glorify the characters. In Early Violence Prevention, Slaby, Roedell, Arezzo, and Hendrix (1995) discuss how television teaches aggression. In Remote Control Childhood? Combating the Hazards of Media Culture, Levin (1998) argues that it is imperative to create a different media culture--one that meets the needs of society. We must inoculate our children against the pervasive influence of the media by advocating for quality programming and by helping children develop critical viewing skills.

Provide Positive Prosocial Models

Books are a wonderful source of positive role models for children. It's Our World, Too!: Young People Who Are Making a Difference (Hoose, 2002) abounds with themes of kindness, concern, and social action. This book provides inspiring examples of students who have made real positive changes in the world in a variety of ways. Examples include Justin Lebo, who rebuilt bikes out of used parts and gave them away to children who were homeless or sick; 9-year-old James Ale, who, after seeing his friend hit by a car, persuaded city officials to build a neighborhood park where children could play in safety; and 5th-grader Dwaina Brooks, who helped to feed homeless people.

In Free the Children: A Young Man Fights Against Child Labor and Proves That Children Can Change the World, Craig Kielburger (1998) describes how, at the age of 12, he became concerned about child labor after reading a newspaper article about Iqbal Mashih, a freed child laborer from Pakistan, who was later killed. Kielburger eventually founded Free the Children, an organization dedicated to eliminating child labor. He traveled to Asia, where he personally witnessed child labor, and later wrote articles and gave speeches about what he saw. He received the Roosevelt Freedom Medal (with Free the Children) and the State of the World Forum Award.

Teachers also may share biographies and stories from the lives of well-known heroes and heroines such as Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Jimmy Carter, and Nelson Mandela. Several examples that show advocacy and caring in action are Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez (Krull, 2003), a picturebook, and Marion Wright Edelman: The Making of a Crusader (Siegal, 1995), a biography for older children.

Every community has positive models of caring, sharing, and helping behavior. Some may work in a local soup kitchen, build houses for Habitat for Humanity, raise money to supply animals to families in poor countries through the Heifer Project, demonstrate for peace, or collect signatures on a petition to save wildlife. These are just a few examples. Teachers can invite these people into the classroom to tell their stories and encourage students' involvement.

Promote Service Learning Projects and Encourage Advocacy

Students can participate in service learning projects in which they, too, are contributing to the greater good. The Kid's Guide to Service Projects (Lewis, 1995) describes over 500 service ideas. The National Dropout Prevention Center (www.dropoutprevention.org) has published a series of booklets for teachers on implementing service learning projects.

Teachers also can help children understand that if we want to make real change, volunteering is only one part of the process. In one of my previous articles (Miller, 2000), I discussed the importance of helping students explore some of the root causes of problems we face today and investigate what can be done about them. For example, soup kitchens help alleviate hunger, but they are not a long-term solution to the problems of poverty. Children and youth, along with adults, can become advocates for positive change. Service Learning for Youth Empowerment and Social Change (Claus & Ogden, 1999) is a resource for teachers on this issue, while The Kid% Guide to Social Action (Lewis, 1991) describes tools to help youth make a difference.

Help Children See Themselves As Global Citizens

If our goal is to build a peaceful and just world, it is important that we see ourselves as global citizens and impart that outlook to our students. Students need to learn about the commonality of our lives and the diversity of our cultures. Mem Fox (1997), in the picture book Whoever You Are, simply states this principle when she reminds us that skin, homes, schools, lands, lives, and words may be different, but our joy and pain are the same.

Many children in developed countries take for granted clean drinking water, decent shelter, good schools, and health care. Stories, videos, posters, and other teaching materials provided by such organizations as UNICEF (www.unicef.org), OXFAM (www. oxfam.org), and the Heifer Project (www.heifer.org) show how many children around the world lack those basic necessities and what we can do to help create change. The inequity of basic necessities throughout the world is depicted in the children's picture book If the World Were a Village (Smith, 2002); the accompanying teaching activities are available at the publisher's Web site (www.kidscanpress.com).

One service learning project done in many schools and communities is collecting for UNICEF through "Trick or Treat for UNICEF" or special fundraisers. UNICEF provides excellent classroom resources, including teaching materials and related activities, that integrate social studies, the arts, math, literacy, and literature. UNICEF videos bring alive for students the plight of children in developing countries and the work of UNICEF in response. When students learn how just a little bit of money can help buy basic classroom materials for children in a developing country, they realize that they can help make a positive difference. Second-grade students at Center Street Elementary School in Oneonta, New York, made posters showing how UNICEF money was used, presented the posters at a school assembly, and then displayed them in the halls of their school.

The challenge for all of us is to go beyond "what is best for me" to what is best for everyone--the basic well-being of all people. We live in a world where a very small portion of the overall population owns the major portion of its wealth. Many children are dying every day from malnutrition and preventable diseases. Therefore, we are challenged to help each other and our students to value, envision, and create a world in which the world's resources are shared and everyone's basic needs are met.

Encourage Children's Participation m Decision Making

Children's participation in decision making, from the classroom level to the global level, is crucial in bringing about the needed changes for a peaceful and just world. Allowing children to help make the classroom rules is a valuable learning process, while also helping to create a smoothly functioning classroom where children are more likely to follow the rules.

On the global level, a wonderful model of involving children in decision making occurred in May 2000, at the United Nations Special Session on Children. Many children served as official members of delegations during the session, representing governments and non-governmental organizations. In the outcome document of the Special Session, governments declared their commitment to changing the world for and with children. UN General Secretary Kofi Annan wrote about this Special Session in The State of the World's Children 2003, published by UNICEF. He said:

The children's presence transformed the atmosphere of the United Nations. Into our usually measured and diplomatic discussions, they introduced their passions, questions, fears, challenges, enthusiasm and optimism. They brought us their ideas, hopes and dreams. They gave life to the values of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And they contributed something only they could know: the experience of being young in the 21st century. (Bellamy, 2002, p. vii.)

After several days of discussion, some 400 young people agreed on a statement that was presented to the world leaders. It is called "A World Fit for Us" and ends with this statement:

We are the children of the world, and despite our different backgrounds, we share a common reality. We are united by our struggle to make the world a better place for all. You call us the future but we are also the present.

(Bellamy, 2002, p. 67)

Conclusion

Beginning with the children is the best hope we have for creating enduring peace and justice throughout the world. As educators, we have a wonderful and exciting opportunity to be on the forefront of working toward the goals of this Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World.

References

Bellamy, C. (2002). The state of the world's children 2003. New York: UNICEF.

Byrnes, D., & Kiger, G. (Eds.). (2005). Common bonds: Anti-bias teaching in a diverse society (3rd ed.). Olney, MD: Association for Childhood Education International.

Claus, J., & Ogden, C. (1999). Service learning for youth empowerment and social change. New York: Peter Lang.

Derman-Sparks, L. (1993/94). Empowering children to create a caring culture in a world of differences. Childhood Education, 70, 66-71.

Derman-Sparks, L. (1989). Anti-bias curriculum: Tools for empowering young children. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Fox, M. (1997). Whoever you are. New York: Scholastic.

Gillespie, C. W., & Chick, A. (2001). Fussbusters: Using peers to mediate conflict resolution in a Head Start classroom. Childhood Education, 77, 192-195.

Hoose, P. (2002). It's our world, too!: Young people who are making a difference. New York: Little, Brown & Co.

Johnson, D. S., Johnson, R. T., & Holubec, E.J. (1990). Cooperation in the classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Co.

Kielburger, C., & Major, K. (1998). Free the children: A young man fights against child labor and proves that children can change the world. New York: HarperCollins.

Krull, K. (2003). Harvesting hope: The story of Cesar Chavez. New York: Harcourt Children's Books.

Levin, D. E. (1998). Remote control childhood? Combating the hazards of media culture. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Lewis, B. (1991). The kid's guide to social action. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing.

Lewis, B. (1995). The kid's guide to service projects. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing.

Manifesto 2000 for a culture of peace and nonviolence [online]. Available at www3.unesco.org/manifesto2000/uk/uk_ manifeste.htm

Miller, S. (2000). Service learning as a pathway to insight and advocacy. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 21(2), 255-260.

Orlick, T. (1978). The cooperative sports & games book: Challenge without competition. New York: Pantheon Books.

Paley, V. G. (1999). The kindness of children. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Siegel, B. (1995). Marion Wright Edelman: The making of a crusader. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Slaby, R. G., Roedell, W. C., Arezzo, D., & Hendrix, K. (1995). Early violence prevention: Tools for teachers of young children. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Smith, D.J. (2002). If the world were a village: A book about the world's people. Tonawanda, NY: Kids Can Press.

UNICEF. (2002). A life like mine: How children live around the world. New York: DK Publishing.

GOALS AND STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING A PEACEFUL AND JUST WORLD

* Build caring, cooperative classrooms where diversity is celebrated

* Foster cooperation over competition

* Teach nonviolent conflict resolution skills

* Mediate the media

* Provide positive prosocial models

* Promote service learning and encourage advocacy

* Help children see themselves as global citizens

* Encourage children's participation in decision-making

Suzanne Miller is Associate Professor, State University of New York, College at Oneonta, Oneonta, New York.