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Welcome to the Peace Education Center
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We have created this section at MontessoriConnections because many Montessori teachers and schools are actively engaged in teaching peace as part of their curriculum. Dr. Montessori believed that if we were ever to have peace in this world we had to teach it to our children first.
Certainly everywhere we look in the world today we see the divestating consequences of failing to teach peace and foster a reverence for all life. It is our hope that this section will become an active center for exchanging ideas and curriculum among teachers and parents for teaching peace to children.
If you are concerned about the direction we see the world headed and feel hopeless and helpless, please begin doing something about it by developing materials and ideas and lesson plans and sharing it with your fellow teachers here.
We also encourage you to share your stories and experiences bringing peace education into your classrooms.
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Introduction to Peace Education
Peace Education and the Peace Curriculum are based on the teachings of Dr. Maria Montessori and her son Mario Montessori. "Avoiding war is the work of politics, establishing peace is the work of education" is one of the basic tenets of Maria Montessori. Her vision and goal was the reconstruction of society and the establishment of world peace with the help of education.
For her efforts she was nominated for the Nobel Peace. To convey the true concept of peace to students from preschool to high school is intrinsic in the curricula she designed for them. On the preschool level it is the cumulative aspect of individual intellectual, spiritual and hands-on experiences which provide the child with an age appropriate comprehension of the concept of peace and the interdependence of life on Earth.
The people of the world, although extremely different, all share the same fundamental needs, which are fulfilled by the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms. At the advanced level of education this comprehension may empower students with the vision of a Science of Peace and the feasibility of World Peace.
In 1932 Dr. Montessori addressed the League of Nations in Geneva with the following words:
"The Science of Peace, were it to become a special discipline, would be the most noble of all, for the very life of humanity depends on it. So, also perhaps, does the question of whether our entire civilization evolves or disappears."
Montessori was convinced that peace, as a state of being, not just absence of hostility and war, is based on the peaceful development and unfoldment of children's innate potential. Individuals who have fulfilled their potential are self-actualized contributors to life, who have found their purpose in life, have self respect and consequent respect and appreciation of others contributions. They are peaceble. They appreciate and collaborate not only with their fellow humans but with all living creatures and the planet on which we live.
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