Samsara World Academy Leads the New Era of Peace Education
The Zeitgeist of Peace – HWPL Peace Education Takes Her First Step
To make our world more peaceful, peace should be established in our daily lives as a culture that binds us together with the same identity. For the prosperity of a new era of peace, understanding peace is the starting point of transition.
Behavioral change based on understanding through education enables creating and spreading the zeitgeist – peace. Peace education in this regard paves the way to the road of peace for the global community, which transforms the past of conflict into the future of coexistence. This is why HWPL is dedicated to making peace an everlasting legacy for future generations.
On 29 August, the HWPL Peace Education in Samsara World Academy of India initiated its first step. The first topic of the curriculum, “Are we safe?” led students to understand that both war and peace are always around them. Inspired by the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War (DPCW), peace education for youth by HWPL emphasizes the spirit of togetherness transcending barriers of differences from religion, thought, nationality, and ethnicity.
In the class, students were able to learn the spirit of peace through the historical context by the comparison of Gandhi and Hitler. The two contrasting characters, which left distinctly different footprints in the modern history, resulted in the independence of a nation through the non-violent peace movement and deaths of millions of innocent of people through the most violent war. “I came to know that the power of achieving peace comes from our hearts”, said a school staff who participated in the class.
The ensuing role-playing activity allowed students to experience how different consequences in their lives can be made by war and peace. Through the hands-on interactions, peace education for students and citizens are crucial for developing the environment of culture of peace and civic consciousness.
Presentations by students at the end of the class were also provided. A female student said, “In the role-play, we could not only think about conflicts that can happen in our everyday lives but also learned how to deal with the situations.”
The members of Samsara World Academy are committed to offering quality education for their students, with the vision and hope that the students acquired the spirit of peace through the education will dedicate themselves to help their communities more. As of September this year, 41 schools were designated as the HWPL Peace Academies in India. More teachers who specialize in the subject of peace are being trained and the related curricula are being developed.
