Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Lori Daniels Peace Education

Lori Manzino-Daniels
Peace Education

“Peace education is directed to the free development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”(1)
As directresses we try and extend the messages of equality, acceptance and respect for everyone and everything around us. We guide the children through the modeling of our own behaviors inward and outward by the usage of patience and kindness with every occurrence within the environment. Encouragement in sharing thoughts and ideas through open discussions is practiced in our classroom, daily, as well as eliciting further oral communication in our language area by using open ended questions as we work with each child.
The children also freely express themselves non-verbally through the materials in practical life and sensorial. The activities are inviting and therapeutic in nature for the child as they are prepared by using various colors and textures to entice and engage the child. This aids them in the use of their minds and bodies through manipulation of the materials. We will strive to incooperate further materials working toward the cooperation of the mind and body as one entity for the child to explore.
Taking turns and sharing is practiced everyday in our classroom as well as during free play. The children learn respect for others time and length of work through observing and exercising patience. The simple lessons of grace and courtesy are exercised, daily, and extend outward into the other areas of the classroom to include peace making skills. Taking care of oneself and the environment reinforces love and respect for oneself as well as those around them. We will also extend our care of the environment from the classroom to the out of doors in nature that surrounds our school to include seasonal plantings as well as wildlife watching in our area.
We will try an extension of the already exercised silence game to include different music played; other than that which is quietly used all session long. We would also like to accompany this with a breathing exercise to help center the child’s mind and body before work time.
In our cultural and geography areas we will be discussing other countries to include their customs and beliefs. We will talk with the children about the similarities and differences that may notice. The heightening of the child’s awareness of others may help them to feel more comfortable with the “goings on” around the world. With this, a realization that we are all more alike than they might have previously thought prior may bring about a more conscious awareness of others feelings and basic needs around the world.
We also have an area for quiet thinking which is part of our language area. It is here, children may listen to or read a book; it is also an area for conflict resolution to take place. Children use their communication skills to express their differences and resolve the issue at hand on their own with a plan of action for the next (potential) conflict to be resolved. All this with gentle guidance from the teacher. We found, that the children seem more apt to implement their own resolutions that they discovered rather than that from the adult.
The children are also free to use their imagination and develop their individual creativities in the area of art in the classroom. Children seem to enjoy painting and drawing pictures, it services their inner feelings which help them to express themselves. The children take turns using the easel; on occasion they even complement the work of their friends. The self-expression displayed through use of their artistic talents is priceless. We will also try and incorporate art expression from the countries that we will explore, into the art area to aid in heightening the child’s awareness.
We will continuously try to create a welcoming, calm, accepting environment for all who enter. We will continue to observe and learn from the child as they observe and learn from us. We will work together in communicating our thoughts and ideas to create a peaceful union for all. We must remember to look inward and reflect upon the experiences of each day and use this reflection time as a tool to bring us closer to a more spiritual union of our mind and body leading us closer to perfection.
“Of course, this peace of inner illumination is not accomplished overnight; it is a continual process of self-observation, discrimination, and purification until one is able to experience true peace. Peace then becomes our inner teacher, our guide, and our inspiration that allows us to move out into the world in harmonious relationship with everyone and everything.” (2)
By following this, we can spread our message of peace throughout the world, one being at a time, beginning with the child.

Foot Notes

1. Article 26, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
2. Historical Peace Education by Sonnee McFarland. Montessori Connections.

1 comment:

Absorbent Mind said...

Lori,
You have written some lovely things about peace as it is practiced in the Montessori classroom. But you have not included a curriculum in this form. For instance,you begin with a paragraph on respect and equality. This could be one of the goals in your peace curriculum. To make a peace curriculum it is necessary to be specific; first with goals and then some procedures on how you will bring something new and specific to the class peace experience. Please think of lessons as you did in your curriculum development project: what aims, what materials, what procedure, is their a point of interest, what age ect.?