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Given the broad and holistic scope of this curriculum, most exercises and activities provide only an initial introduction to the many theories, ideas, and practices of peace and peacebuilding.  Teachers should treat this curriculum as an introduction and should complement relevant exercises with follow-up activities.  In some instances, additional preparation may be required before engaging in exercises.  However, in most instances lessons are designed to stand-alone.  When and where possible, suggestions for additional resources are also provided.

The Teacher’s Guide includes:

• Notes on the Structure of the Curriculum
• Suggested Preparations and Follow-up
• Curricular Learning Goals
• Notes on Peacelearning Pedagogy

This activity was designed to help children connect their knowledge of peace to a concrete, action-oriented definition that is based upon the development of healthy, caring, interdependent and “right relationships.” Students are given the opportunity to explore the different types of relationships they experience in the world. As students begin to identify their personal, social, political, institutional, and ecological relationships they begin to think about the very nature of these relationships. Although some of these concepts may be new, such as “institutional” or “political” relationships, this activity serves as an introduction to the idea that many different relationships beyond the walls of home and school play a role in our lives. During this activity, students play a game where they build a web of relationships. This web is a representation of our interdependence. As students recognize the many different types of relationships that influence their lives, they are challenged to think about how their individual choices and actions influence those relationships. Through this game, students not only begin to realize how these relationships are dependent upon one another but also how their actions can build peace.

Students of all ages need practice in identifying and expressing their emotions. Young children often lack the vocabulary to express their emotions beyond words such as “happy” or “sad.” When challenging emotions arise, the physical nature of young children can lead some to react physically through hitting, biting, or kicking. With intentional practice in identifying and expressing emotions, students will be better equipped to understand and articulate their wants and needs peacefully. In order for an individual to sustain personal peace they must recognize strong emotions serve as a signal to stop and think about how they want to respond to the situation at hand. This consciousness takes a lot of modeling to be put into daily practice. Storytelling and acting are engaging ways for students to practice stopping and thinking about emotions through taking on the challenges of characters within a story. In this lesson, students are given the chance to review vocabulary that can be used to describe their feelings, identify the feelings of others, and brainstorm multiple ways a character could peacefully respond to a challenging situation. With much practice students will begin to see the connection between their emotions and their actions. This recognition can help students build personal peace by acting upon these emotions in ways that nurture healthy relationships with themselves and others.

Personal peace is sustained through peace processes that help us reflect on our thoughts, feelings, and actions. These reflections increase our clarity, helping us to act upon those reflections in ways that are aligned with our personal values. This clarity also enables us to communicate our wants and needs more effectively with others bringing peace from our inner lives outward. In order for students to effectively communicate with others, they need to develop these peace practices. This activity will give students the opportunity to engage in two different ways of identifying and processing their emotions: art and journaling.

Many conflicts have been waged over the inability to share scarce resources. This is true whether it be between children or nations. The most common conflicts between children are over sharing an object of desire. For children to begin problem-solving ways they can share resources, they need to first recognize the needs and wants of others. This lesson introduces students to the survival needs of all living creatures and compares differences in our personal wants. As described to students, needs may be for survival, such as food, clean water and air, or they could be emotional and physical needs. Wants fall more into the category of objects or experiences that make us feel momentarily happy but usually are not necessary for our long-term self-fulfillment. Thinking about the wants and needs of others is foundational for perspective taking, a capacity essential for conflict transformation. As students practice peacefully communicating needs and wants to others, they are taking important steps in building right relationships in the social sphere of peace.

In lesson 4 (social peace 1) students learned that all people have needs and wants. The ability to communicate needs, wants, and emotions in ways others can respond to peacefully is important in building social peace. When a conflict arises, expressing emotions using “I feel” statements can open up the conversation rather than put others in a defensive or reactive position. Using the words “I feel” communicates feelings clearly without blaming others for your emotions. Children can recognize the usefulness of “I feel” statements when they are given examples of responses to conflict: one using an “I feel” statement, the other without. This exercise will engage students in thinking about how they communicate their feelings during a conflict. It will also give students the opportunity to practice using “I feel” statements. “I feel” statements are tools for children to use as they begin to communicate their emotions. Communicating emotions and listening to others is a skill developed with much practice over time. This lesson is merely an introduction to the important communication skills needed to sustain peace within relationships.

Political engagement is an experience unknown to many children. Students may be familiar with the voting process or community dialogue if their parents are active in schools, religious institutions, or politics. With the busyness of modern life, community involvement is becoming less common in family life. Even with parental modeling, many students have never been given the opportunity to engage in the decision-making processes that impact their lives. Teachers and schools often dictate the rules students abide by while on campus. At home, parents decide the rules and consequences for breaking those rules. Through their high school years, students are given behavioral guidelines by the institutions they belong to, leaving them ill-equipped to engage in the dialogue which awaits them in the larger community. Students not only lack the skills to advocate for themselves, they also have little experience with processes that can help build peace in political decision-making.

The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the political sphere of peacebuilding by examining processes used in group decision-making and the concept that individual and communal responsibilities work to ensure the rights of all community members. Facilitating group decision-making processes of many kinds such as voting, consensus building, and collaborative projects along with student reflections on experiencing these processes can nurture the skills needed to build peace while engaging in the political sphere. Through personal experience, students can reflect upon which of these processes are effective and contribute to peacebuilding. Introducing the concepts of rights and their corresponding responsibilities can help students begin to see political involvement as a social responsibility that can help ensure the rights they hope to enjoy.

Intentional reflection on how opinions are formed and ways of managing differences in opinion can be useful for students of all ages. As students begin to develop opinions and see differences, it is important they are provided with many peacebuilding strategies they can utilize when faced with these conflicts. Through building perspective-taking skills, children can develop capacities to manage differences in opinions constructively. Knowing and acknowledging alternative per- spectives can lead to new solutions and conflict prevention. Students can rely on the skills used for building right relationships in the social sphere as they navigate new relationship challenges in larger group settings and the political sphere.

This activity was designed to help youth connect their knowledge of peace to a concrete, action-oriented definition that is based upon the development of healthy, caring, interdependent and “right relationships.” During this session, students use personal memories of peace to begin defining peace. The Earth Charter’s definition of peace is introduced, and students are challenged to think about peace as “right relationships” with oneself, other persons, other cultures, and other life. The National Peace Academy’s “5 Spheres of Peace” framework helps students identify spheres within our lives that need peacebuilding: the personal, social, political, institutional, and ecological. Although some of these concepts may be new, such as “institutional” or “political” relationships, this activity nurtures the idea that many different relationships beyond the walls of home and school play a role in our lives. Students identify the relationships involved in their memory of peace, and they create a web of peace images that demonstrates how peace can be experienced within each of these five spheres.

“Jump Journal” is an activity based on the Buddhist Six-Times Practice. This practice is designed to help individuals reflect on their values and actions throughout their day. Buddhists who use this practice engage in self-reflection six times a day, thinking about whether or not their actions are living in accordance with their principles. During each reflection they have a different principle to reflect upon, some of these values include honoring life or being truthful. This practice has been modified for this activity, to help students “jump” towards becoming the person they want to be through self-reflection and active decision-making. Each day students set personal goals or identify a value they want to work toward during the day. Students are given a short reflection period three times during the school day where they can reflect on their actions and be empowered to make changes to meet their personal goals. The small positive changes students make to their behaviors day after day will lead toward deeper personal transformation over time.

Sustaining personal peace is an ongoing process of being mindful of our thoughts and feelings and consciously acting upon these feelings in ways that uphold our values and relationships. The practices of self-reflection and mindfulness are essential skills in building personal peace. Creating a mandala can be an excellent tool for students to begin thinking about and expressing their thoughts and feelings in a safe and contained space. Mandalas have been used for thousands of years in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions as meditational tools to clear the mind. They have also been used in many therapeutic settings to help individuals uncover feelings that need to be expressed. The process of creating a mandala can help students become more conscious of their inner thoughts. This awareness can facilitate reflection on how the individual chooses to act upon these thoughts and feelings. This process can be very empowering, helping young people make positive changes in their lives through building clarity and consciousness.

Peace in the social sphere can be understood in the context of relationships. Often students can tell you what they think social peace looks like: helping someone in need, hugging your sister or brother, spending time with someone special. Many students have a difficult time envisioning how peace can be built in the midst of conflict. Conflict in the typical classroom usually leads to a disciplinary action by an authority figure. These actions have the potential to stunt students’ problem-solving capacities, teaching them to rely on authority figures or institutions to change circumstances for them. When students learn practices for resolving conflicts they build skills to listen to one another, resolve differences peacefully, and hopefully over time transform conflict rather than only resolve it. One way to support the development of these skills is through the establishment of a peace place within the classroom. A peace place, where students can go to openly problem-solve, sets the tone for open communication and collaboration rather than competition or domination. A quiet corner with two chairs and a table is ideal. Students can decorate the corner with posters of the simple three-step conflict resolution process introduced in this lesson. If you cannot provide a peace place within the classroom, reviewing the conflict resolution steps presented here though the follow-up activities will reinforce these concepts and empower students to resolve conflicts peacefully inside and beyond the classroom walls.

Many conflicts arise over miscommunication, not understanding someone else’s perspective, feelings, or intentions. Miscommunication can occur for many different reasons. Sometimes we have too many external or internal distractions to be a good listener. Sometimes we do not clarify what others say and misinterpret their intentions. Often we are not aware of how our statements impact the feelings of those around us. The process of active listening can be an important tool helping students communicate their wants, needs, and opinions effectively with others. Differences in opinions can become a catalyst for deepening their relationships rather than creating conflict. There are many different ways to practice active listening. Two essential steps are taking turns while listening or speaking and clarifying what others have said. The active listening game described in this lesson gives students the opportunity to practice active listening skills in a non-confrontational environment. This practice can strengthen these skills for use in everyday communication as well as during the conflict resolution process.

Political experiences during adolescents can help prepare students to take part in the political sphere as adults. In preparation for joining the larger societal political discourse, youth need ample experiences to explore their personal values and political opinions, as well as analyze the different methods used to engage in political discourse. Understanding the different social pur- poses, outcomes, benefits and deficits of models of political dialogue can nurture an awareness of how and why these models of discourse are used. Given the opportunity, youth can be a powerful voice of change and creative problem-solving within schools and communities.

The two activities for youth included within the Political Sphere will give students the opportunity to explore: 1) How do individuals form political opinions? Why do they hold on so tightly to their political ideals? 2) What are different methods of entering political discourse? Do all of these methods serve the same purposes? What skills within these methods can be used to help build peace within families, communities, and nations?

The activities provided within the political sphere of peacebuilding introduce youth to different models of political discourse and facilitate inquiry into how political opinions are formed. As students engage in these vastly different models of political discourse of debate, dialogue and consensus building, they will reflect on the benefits and deficits of these models. Students will think about what purposes these models serve.

This activity is an introduction to two important political processes: dialogue and consensus building. Both are used to resolve political conflict. Dialogue is intentionally used to explore the motivations, values, and perspectives or political positions of individuals within a group. Consensus building is a process used to find solutions to a conflict that meets the basic needs of all group members. Each group member has control over the final outcome. This model stands in stark contrast to voting or debate where one side wins out over the other. Dialogue used before consensus building can help facilitate the group consensus process as the group begins brainstorming solutions with a clear understanding of the needs and values of each group member. Providing youth with the opportunities to engage in political discourse and reflect on these processes will nurture a deeper understanding of how they can utilize these skills to build peace when engaged in political conflict.