With the many outbreaks of war there peace is increasingly at risk. The world of education is mobilizing to defend children's right to peace and with it their future. There FIMEM(International Federation of Modern School Movements) and the MCE (Educational Cooperation Movement) they say enough to war, proposing for il 19 mayo next a international webinarbut by with the participation of schools and active school teachers from different parts of the world. The webinar can be followed on the channel YouTube.
Don't steal the children's peace
The dialogue between many operators of the world school wants to affirm everyone's commitment to peace and the development of a culture tending towards the non-violent resolution of conflictsi. “It's an opportunity for give voice to girls and boys, boys and girls on the Right to Peace and to foster the shared commitment for the peace of peoples, despite the great geographical distances", say the organizers Lanfranco Genito e Roberto Lovattinthe. “The goal is to reflect together on the meaning of Peace Education today, taking into account not only the numerous conflicts, but also the spread of the creeping and often not hidden war education and the growing habit of the combination friend-enemy". Today there is a tendency to no longer communicate with one's neighbor and to sow hatred and revenge that last over time, while the various relationship difficulties should be overcome peacefully. Children are the most affected from all this, because by robbing them of their peace they are deprived of their future.
Ma how can one educate to peace? Many of us have asked ourselves to what extent it is right to talk about war with children and above all how to do it correctly, avoiding scaring and upsetting them. Second Frank Lorenzoni, teacher of the MCE, we can talk about war to the little ones, listening to their thoughts, "because war is something that scares, that is frightening, we must try to working through the fear together. We are all faced with something that is difficult to understand because even we adults don't know how it will end. I believe that confronting the issue of uncertainty, admitting our difficulties, fully belongs to educating about complexity today”. The educator Daniel Novara think instead that we can talk about war to children aged 9-10, before they are too young, we need to protect them. An important mistake to avoid, according to Novara, is to compare children's quarrels to war conflicts while "it is by learning to quarrel that one learns to manage conflicts". Basically it is possible educate for peace without necessarily talking about war. This is the suggestion that we feel like giving to teachers and parents.
The world needs a popular pedagogy
The best education for peace we can do is education for cooperation. The French educator Celestin Freinet and the Educational Cooperation Movement have shown how the process education can be developed around the construction of a sense of being and doing togetherand, in situations defined by rules of real cooperation between children and teachers. The cooperatively organized class uses life techniques and listening to constitute itself as an open group that interacts with other groups, respecting the rights and duties of all.
This is why popular pedagogy is one Pedagogy of Peace, which values every person, culture, every diversity, seen as a possible enrichment and not as an element to be opposed. As walls spread throughout the world grow, there is even more need for a popular pedagogy that can foster the belief that we all belong to the same humanity and that we are all interconnected and interdependent. With the international webinar for the right to peace for children and adolescents, a path of reflection and exchange on the pedagogical assumptions and teaching practices of peace education. Teachers from all over the world, especially those of the Freinet Movements, united by their commitment to justice and equality of peoples, will tell us what's new for the education of future citizens of the world.
