Planting the value of peace to the students, Peace Education
“This is a very complex subject. But just like all journey starts with a first step, raising the awareness of peace should be done for the most basic level. Through this education, children understood that they have the power to do good acts on their level. They can actually change their lives and the lives of their family in the future. I try to make them see the importance of the value of respect, helping others, and tolerance that create better students as righteous adults,” said Mr. Dumitru Marius-Gabriel, a teacher of 1 Mai Technical High-school of Ploiesti, who has operated the peace education.
“Working with HWPL for this project brought me much joy and fulfillment because I could blend my normal lessons with the message of peace. I realized how important it is for us, teachers, to become a role model of our students. I’d like to add this peace education exists to create a peaceful world for future generation to cease all wars. Furthermore, this education should spread not only to our students but to all the students everywhere. They are the future of our peace,” he added.
One of the distinguishing aspects of this education was the collaboration between a local organization and an international NGO to proceed with the curriculum. The teachers belong to Master Peace, a local Romanian youth group, have carried out the peace education. And the curriculum and materials for peace education were provided by an international peace NGO called HWPL.
According to the official of HWPL, the peace education is designed with the aim of to leave peace as a legacy to the future generations by raising the awareness of the importance of realizing peace and fostering a culture of peace. It recently provides the books, which contains the worldwide peace activities and peace agreements that HWPL has carried out, to the schools and libraries to encourage every citizen to participate in peace work.
As a part of peace initiatives, more than 200 educational institutions in 21 countries including Romania, Republic of South Africa, India, Israel, Kosovo, the Philippines are designated as HWPL Peace Academies to train the educators and students with the value of peace beyond boundaries, races, and religions.
Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL said “As you can see the name of our organization, “Heavenly Culture” refers to the highest culture from heaven above worldly cultures that can realize peace by harmonizing all the people in the world. Even if you are born in a family or in a country with great wealth, you may feel infernal when there’s no peace in your family or your country. The first start is important, so the peace education should start from the family, and then to the schools and society. Everything you see, hear, feel, and learn should be engaged with peace education. We can call it practical peace education. And it starts with the mindset that we can achieve peace. HWPL aims to create a world like this. That’s the reason why we designed the peace materials and textbooks under several times of advice so that we send the materials to every educational institute to help encourage peace education.”
Since last year, Romanian schools and organizations including Comuna Sotrile College, 1 Mai Technical High-school of Ploiesti, and Master Peace have signed MOUs for further participation-based peace education and activities that customized for European culture using the peace materials provided by HWPL