Skip to main content

Tag: Peace Education

International Day of Peace, 2021

The International Day of Peace, sometimes unofficially known as World Peace Day, is observed annually on the 21st of September. It is dedicated to world peace and specifically the absence of war and violence. For a number of years now, FMSL has celebrated this important day.

This year, in honor of International Day of Peace, our students and staff gathered on the field to celebrate together.  Jenn Carrino, a toddler teacher from Stars, spoke to us about peace and then we sang and signed Light a Candle for Peace.

The 6th years from Uinta carried the Peace Dove and led us on our Peace Walk.

We are honored to support Dr. Montessori in her desire to teach peace to children around the world.

International Day of Peace

“Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of educators.”

~Maria Montessori

Montessori’s peace education establishes a mindset and practice of advocacy, love, and respect. Dr. Maria Montessori was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on three different occasions. Her legacy lives on as she is now widely recognized as an advocate for peace and her educational philosophy is practiced throughout the world.

Montessori education addresses peace in a variety of ways, encouraging children to first develop inner peace. At its most basic level, the Montessori method does this by honoring the individual interests, passions and ability of each child; giving children space to develop confidence with making mistakes as they explore and the courage to fix mistakes; and inspiring them to be part of a community. Because each student is recognized as an individual, you will find children working on a variety of activities at any given time. This gives children space and encouragement to accept that differences between humans exist at varying degrees.

Inner peace gives children the foundation for supporting peace within their classroom, school, social and family communities. Communities are an important aspect of the Montessori philosophy in that there is an emphasis on the whole person and learning to function within a community is essential to the success of human endeavor. A successful community is made up of a variety of different talents, strengths, skills and goals. As our students engage in peaceful conflict resolution, modeled by the adults in the community, they learn to function as many parts making up a whole. As they assist in the management of the environment, including caring for the physical space, taking on important leadership roles within the classroom, and engaging in group discussion about how to make change for the better, students practice life long skills of considering others and building functioning communities.

Peace is at the center of the curriculum at FMSL. This month each of the classes is engaged in creating space for peace as we prepare to celebrate International Peace Day on September 21st. Studies show that a proactive curriculum that promotes communication, community and self-advocacy is more effective than a punishing approach to bullying in schools. Ours is an approach that we expect will follow our students far beyond their structured educational experience.

Promote Peace. Be Peace.

By honoring each individual and supporting children in becoming their most authentic, passionate, courageous and determined selves, we provide the world with a powerful force for change for the better.

“Peace is a goal that can only be attained through common accord, and the means to achieve this unity for peace are twofold: first, an immediate effort to resolve conflicts without recourse to violence—in other words, to prevent war—and second, a long-term effort to establish a lasting peace among men”

(Education and Peace, Montessori, 1949, p. 27).

May you all find inner peace and enjoy a most lovely day of celebrating the beauty and hope of mankind on this day set aside for celebrating peace on earth.

Victory and Peace…Marc Seldin

This morning, after spending several hours in one of our classrooms for a most lovely observation, I was lucky enough to open my email and find this beautifully inspiring message waiting for me from our Montessori friends at CGMS.  Written by Marc Seldin.

Click here to read full blog post on CGMS’s site. 

The four-year old girls were good friends, but now they’re angry. One said something to the other, tempers flared, and a friendship is in jeopardy. Fortunately, the children are in a Montessori classroom. Montessori schools use many techniques for harmony, but in this classroom they have a peace rose. One little girl retrieves the flower from its shelf, expresses her hurt, and passes the rose to her friend. Together they explore their feelings, and conflict is transmuted into understanding. The children have learned a process to maintain harmony.

In a time of resurging intolerance, we may turn to our classrooms for reassurance. They are gardens of peace, the fields where we sow the seeds of a better world. We may seek solace in the work we do, knowing that the beauty we nurture will in time blossom into magnificent flowers of justice, kindness and equality.

Recently I have found myself thinking again and again about victory. We know that peace is more than just an absence of war. But what is a Montessori victory? Do we conquer our enemies? No. We will not repair this world by subduing those who disagree with us.

Do we shout down the bigot? How much better for the world if the bigot abandons their bigotry? How much better if the criminal no longer commits crimes, if the sinner no longer sins? The second World War was conceived when the victors of the first war mistreated the vanquished; a third world war was averted when the conquered became allies. Force without justice is domination, not victory.

A Montessori call to arms is a call to the classroom. This is where we cultivate real victory.

True and lasting peace will arise from our schools, where we prepare the next generation of peaceful leaders. The work we do is ever more vital, and I urge you not to despair at the territory we still have to cover.

Let’s recall how far we have traveled from 1907, when Dr. Montessori opened the Casa dei Bambini in Rome. Nominated three times during her life for the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Montessori worked tirelessly to improve the rights and conditions of women and children. Justice informed her methodology, and peace infuses the very DNA of our classrooms. The strides made for liberty in the past century – the advances made for children, for women, for minorities, for gays and lesbians – do not doubt that even today we see the ripples of her work throughout all the social progress we’ve made.

That the task is not yet complete should not surprise us.

Wherever we look globally, we see the anger and the outrage of those who have felt excluded from the political process. Income inequality is at an all-time high. Far-right parties are rising across the world, fueled by bigotry, economic uncertainty and a populism born of the sense of neglect by elite powers. The political turmoil is only one of the symptoms of our broken world. We do not forget the millions of refugees fleeing war, and the victims of the terrible wars themselves.

Do not be disheartened, for as long as we teach peace there will be a light in this world.

Yes, our work begins in the classroom, but shall we stop there? What else can our school communities do?

It will not be enough for us just to stall some current agenda. When we work to defeat ISIS in the Middle East, Boko Haram in Africa, or unseat some political adversary at home, we earn but a moment’s respite. Unaddressed, hatred and violence will always return in a new form. A lasting peace requires us to heal the deeper wounds of this earth.

Dr. Montessori taught us that when children act out, it is because they have unmet needs. Is this not true of adults as well? Perhaps at no time since the second World War has the planet been so united in angst about the future. Montessori has a healing message for a broken world, and this is the time for us to recommit to telling the story, both inside and outside of our classrooms.

We can begin by speaking our healing message. Shout it from the mountaintop, whisper it in the halls of your school. Organize, promote justice, discuss difficult topics. Model peace in and out of your classrooms. Educate the children and adults in your community. Participate. Engage.

It begins and ends with our conviction that Montessori has a message of peace which will mend this world’s wounds.

Here is my attempt to formulate a Montessori statement on peace. We urge every school to create such a statement and share it. Feel free to use or modify mine as you see fit.

A Montessori Statement on Peace

  • We believe that we can change the world.
  • We believe that when you work with children, you touch the future.
  • We believe that peace is more than the absence of war. We will repair this planet by building a lasting peace.
  • We believe that anger comes from hurt and that hatred comes from fear.
  • We believe that a lasting peace comes from understanding, respect and love for all life.
  • We believe that Montessori is education for the 21st century, and the 22nd, and the 23rd – that this is the best and truest method for preparing children to become the next generation of leaders.
  • We will prepare the peace by addressing the causes of suffering, and prepare the children in our classrooms to look suffering in the eye and say “no more.”
  • We believe in the dignity of the child and of the adult. We believe that it is possible for mankind to live in peace and harmony. Moreover, we are going to make that happen.
  • We believe that all people have a place at our circles. We commit to bringing into our circles those who have been most excluded.
  • We believe that all voices should be heard. We know that when people shout, it is because they do not feel that we are listening.
  • We will always stand with the oppressed, but never fail to hold a hand out in peace to the oppressor – for we know that someday they will take it. On that day we will all be free.
  • We believe the world may be made forever safe from demagogues and dictators. As Montessorians, we know our students will laugh off the shackles of fear that tyrants use to bind the populace. Furthermore, what tyrant could ever arise from our beautiful, peaceful classrooms?
  • We believe that we may go forward so that we will never go back again.
  • We know that when we march forward from dark spaces, we will bring all of our sisters and brothers with us into the light – and leave none behind.May we all increase our efforts to make peace.  May we all have peaceful hearts.  May we all believe in the beauty of a future full of hope, love and peace.With love,
    Britney

Spreading Peace

Last week our school community shared in the beautiful gift of celebrating peace as a community and as part of a world-wide event. Each member of our school, from the tiniest toddler to the tallest elementary student, joined together on the field to sing “Light a Candle for Peace.”  Then, our elementary students sang “What a Wonderful World” and one of our elementary teachers, Christian, spoke to our students briefly about sharing compassion around the world.  He invited the students to imagine a mirror that allows them to look at themselves full of love and compassion, then invited them to turn that mirror and extend the same love to their friends, their family, their community, their city, their state, their country and, finally, to the entire world.

As stewards over these each of these beautiful little humans, we take great joy and responsibility in the privilege and responsibility of teaching peace to the students of Montessori Community School. MCS teachers touch on many different aspects of peace throughout the year.  Our peace curriculum, written to create a culture of cooperation and compassion, acts much like the other subjects taught in a Montessori environment.  The following ideas are touched on year after year and at varying levels, depending on the development of the students and the make up of each classroom.

  • Creating a space for peace
  • Supporting peace
  • Acknowledging peace
  • Advocating for peace
  • Developing inner peace
  • Intentional acts of peace
  • Cultivating peace
  • Nurturing peace
  • Celebrating peace

Peace truly does begin within.  However, just like addition and history and penmanship, our children must be taught to develop and emanate peace.  We teach through lessons, we teach through experience, and we teach by example.

May each of us be filled with intention to develop our own sense of inner peace and compassion and may we seek opportunity to spread compassion and light to our fellow man. May the love of our wonderful MCS students be given the respect and attention it deserves to grow and spread and make a sincere difference in the world.

Two friends, one Toddler and one Early Childhood, gleefully meet on the playground and dance, providing great pre-program entertainment for the rest of us

Peace Education

These Aspens class students hold a sign that says “Peace” during the program

MCS students, toddler through elementary, gather together to sing “Light a Candle for Peace.”

Younger students are paired with older student while they hold hands and walk around the campus to look at the peace flags made by their peers.

This mother and son look at the peace flags during the peace walk.

An Upper Elementary student signs “Peace.

Upper Elementary teacher, Christian, talks to the students about self compassion and sharing compassion with the greater community.

Peace flags are decorated by MCS students and staff and then hung along the Outdoor Classroom fence.

Peace in any language.

Creating a Place for Peace

“Find a time and place of solitude.
Look into the distance and into the future.
Visualize the tomorrow you are going to build;
and begin to build that tomorrow, today.”
-Jonathan Lockwood Huie

ild means that each child is considered individually and opportunities to further develop special skills and talents is honored along with opportunity for extra, repetitive practice of more difficult tasks.

-Class meetings and agenda books allow children to bring up issues or concerns and decide, with adult guidance, how to overcome challenges as a group. It also allows a sacred place for celebrating one another’s accomplishments.

-Peace areas in each classroom provide a place for children to go when they need to find inner peace. Meditation, breathing and various other exercises are encouraged to help students look within.

-Outdoor education and care for living things (plants and animals throughout the school and in each classroom) give children the opportunity to practice care for and consideration of the needs of all living things and help them develop a love and advocacy for our earth and all it has to offer.

By honoring each individual and supporting children in becoming their most authentic, passionate, courageous and determined selves, we provide the world with a powerful force for change for the better.

May you all find inner peace and enjoy a most lovely day of celebrating the beauty and hope of mankind on this day set aside for celebrating Peace on earth.

Great Summer Reading….Teaching Kids Empathy

I happened upon this lovely little post from Tinybop this morning that shares the most wonderful list of children’s books that teach empathy.  These are hard times and an important time to teach our kids how to handle the world’s turmoil in a healthy way.  What a great summer read!

13 kids books to spark conversations about empathy

Lately, it seems like every other day, we turn on the news or open up our social media to find that another tragedy has occurred. Each time we’re faced with these events, we may be overcome with sadness, frustration, and hopelessness. But in these times, it’s important to have conversations with the children around us about inclusion and empathy.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It’s what helps us connect to other humans, and what makes us better humans. You may be surprised to learn that empathy isn’t an inborn trait, but rather one that must be learned – preferably during early childhood.

Keep reading…

United as Parents

We, unfortunately, missed the opportunity on June 1 to honor all parents around the globe for the “Global Day of Parents.”  I found this short blog post on Montessorium very sweet as the things that unite us as parents and that we likely all have in common included:

1. A sense of wonder at bringing a new life into the world.
2. Joy in the small, daily accomplishments of a child.
3. Trepidation about the responsibility parenthood brings.
4. Hope for their child’s future.
5. A desire to see their family grow in health and happiness.

And so, just a few weeks late but with extra attention due to the heartache and disunion going on around the world, I feel inclined to stand as a global citizen and honor my fellow parents throughout the world.

Keep shining,
Britney

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education…”

“Everyone talks about peace but no one educates for peace. In this world, they educate for competition, and competition is the beginning of any war. When we educate to cooperate and be in solidarity with one another, that day we will be educating for peace.”
María Montessori
 
Each year MCS staff and students decorate peace flags, share a peace walk through our campus, and hang a peace dove in our gardens as a way to support, honor, and celebrate peace on earth. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times, Dr. Montessori was a strong advocate for peace. She firmly believed that the education of children was the key to future peace. Her vision was the reconstruction of society and formation of world peace through education.
A teacher walks with Toddler students past our Outdoor Classroom where the student’s peace flags have been hung.
Upper Elementary students prepare to carry the Peace Dove to the Outdoor Classroom, where it will be visible to the Salt Lake Community.
An Early Childhood student decorates a peace flag with images that remind her of peace.  Her flag will be hung outside with the intent of spreading love and peace.
Another peace flag.
Elementary students help their younger peers locate their flags in the Outdoor Classroom, where the breeze blows the students wishes for peace.
Siblings share a moment.
Friendship is honored and celebrated.