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According to Housman's Peace
Directory, there are over 3000 organisations world-wide promoting peace.
Two well-known and well-respected organisations in the United Kingdom
are the National Peace Council and the Peace Pledge Union. Many peace
organisations promote peace education with well-prepared and carefully
thought out information packs and activities.
However, on the face of it, peace
education is not working. Despite all the literature, classroom
materials, internet sites and talks explaining in detail why war is
terrible:
- People
(including children) are currently fighting in over 100 wars
-
Producers still make war films and people flock to see them
- People
write and buy war books
- People
make and play computer games based on war
- In
school grounds and in neighbourhoods, children willingly form gangs to
"make war" on other gangs
- We use
terms such as “war on drugs” and “war on crime” as if this is a good
thing to do
Peace education is ineffective for
four main reasons. Peace educators may not like to hear them, because
making peace education more effective will mean changes in the
traditional way of doing things.
1. Peace education has not been
adequately defined
What exactly is peace education?
Is there an agreed, or any, definition? What are its aims? How do we
know if all the resources spent on peace education are having the
desired effect? Unless the larger peace-promoting organisations can
explain straightforwardly what peace education is, we can't expect
education officials and practical educators to take it on.
2. Peace educators have been doing
too much telling
Almost all adults want to protect
children. We want to help them avoid the pain caused by wrong choices.
From experience, we have experienced the pain and have developed
principles which if followed by children will lead them away from
danger. However, while telling and conditioning are necessary and
acceptable with toddlers, telling does not work once children are past
ten years of age. Children (and adults) know that hitting others and
bullying are "bad" but they still do them; they know that smoking kills
them early and that unprotected sex will result in pregnancy and all the
upheaval that causes. Merely supplying more and more information (even
if it is shocking) about how horrible war is and the pain it causes,
does not change attitudes.
3. Peace educators concentrate on
symptoms instead of the causes of war
Trying to ban war-like toys and
films and books that glorify war; exposing the arms trade and trying to
stop arms manufacture are basically a waste of time. We indulge in these
measures because it makes us feel good - we feel as if we are doing
something - anything. However, surely in our heart-of-hearts we know
that we are dealing only with the symptoms. Without the fundamental work
to change values (the causes) the symptoms will perennially re-appear.
If children demand war-like toys, manufacturers will make them or the
children will make them themselves. People who want to see violent war
films are the cause of films being made. A generation that wants war
machines is the cause of governments spending hundreds of billions a
year on weapons. Peace educators will be more effective if they
concentrate on changing values. But how many are willing to so this? It
is very difficult and uncomfortable as the next reason shows.
4. Peace educators have not
answered tough values questions for themselves
For example: What is war?
Should I seek peace at all costs? If a thug is attempting to kill my
child do I not have the right to hit him over the head with a cricket
bat? If a large powerful nation invades a smaller nation to take its
resources, are we not morally obligated to help the smaller nation and
repulse the invaders? If a dictator decides to kill a section of his
people just because he doesn't like them, are we not morally obliged to
stop him - by force if necessary? Unless peace educators make their
values explicit, they will have little success in changing youngsters'
values. What exactly do we as peace educators want from youngsters?
Values education is at the heart
of peace education
Attitude and behaviour change
comes not from more information transmission but helping youngsters to
penetrate to their own realisation that treating others well, ultimately
results in me being treated well. Instead of telling and informing we
should, in open respectful discussion, help youngsters to answer the
same questions we as peace educators are struggling with. In the values
education approach the educator's view counts for no more and no less
than the pupils'. This open, reasoned and non-authoritarian but focussed
discussion gets people to change. They come to their own realisation,
that protecting the human dignity of others will ultimately protect
their own dignity. Values education works on a paradox, without trying
to convince people to behave responsibly, and allowing them to take the
time (maybe even six months) to come to their own realisation of what is
right and wrong, most people come round to a way of behaving that is
generally acceptable. A values education approach results in children
coming to know (without being told) that war is bad and that when
aggressors attack, they should be repulsed using the least force
possible.
To some the values education
approach may seem "airy-fairy". But isn't this just denial: there is an
extensive literature and there is evidence that values education works
for several social problems. Some peace educators may feel uncomfortable
with a values education approach because it is unfamiliar, but won’t our
discomfort be worth it if it leads to a more peaceful world?
Bill Robb is a management and
education consultant based in Aberdeen, Scotland. For more information
and resources on values education or to invite Dr Robb to speak at your
event go to www.valueseducation.co.uk
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