A child is a member of a family, a community and the world. It is important that schools integrate human education as an integral part of their education for the 21st century.
Human education consists of education for successful life as a member of a family, a community, and of the world. What are the values, knowledge, attitudes and skills that education must impart, in order that the individual may become a successful member of a family, a community and the world? Education must endeavor to impart such values as tolerance and respect for differences, eschewing all prejudices based on religion, caste, color of skin, and co-existence and respect for diversity of views, service to others, peacefulness and a wide concern for the welfare of all peoples of the world instead of narrow or parochial loyalties.
The ground new education has to cover is vast. For example, teachers today are increasingly more fearful of their students and schools have to frisk their children for weapons before they can enter schools. Another disturbing factor is growing criminality, prejudice and hatred in younger and younger children. From Littleton, Colorado, to Sarajevo and Bosnia, what has gone wrong? The perpetrators were innocent little children not long ago.
Children are themselves more apprehensive, insecure and fearful. Compounding factors that are more difficult to counter are the escalating volume of international terrorism around the world, deteriorating global environment, and growing levels of abuse and violence in communities. Many problems are global in nature and they relate to lack of a proper education in the three schools of humanity: the home, the school and society.
If future lies in part within the four walls of a school, can conflict and its elimination be possible in part through education? Can hearts be changed by proactively sowing the seeds of love from the youngest ages so that when children grow up, they cannot think of violence, conflict and war? Can the diverse views and people unite to work together for the common cause — the welfare of the children?
While formal schooling cannot fix all the problems facing humanity, schools can attempt to provide children with more balanced education that combines Human and Spiritual Education with Material Education. Is there demonstrable evidence that this kind of education leads to the outcomes we seek from it—a more tolerant world, for example?
Child to Child, Heart to Heart
Children need to learn not only how to work with each other and tolerate the other but also feel a deeper emotion of love for the other, irrespective of how different the other is in her views, habits, culture and tradition. Present form of multi-cultural education focuses on the 4 F’s: Food, Festivals, Flags and Fabrics of different countries and cultures. While it creates knowledge of the other, multi cultural education in its most prevalent form, often provides a limited understanding of human diversity and its richness. Coexistence cannot be taught unless diversity is first experienced. Such programs, though valuable, are not a sufficient antidote to the intolerance for difference we face today. These efforts are not by themselves sufficient to immunize a child, for example, against the kind of crimes that took place not long ago in Littleton and Kosovo, whose perpetrators were little children who played together and who often went to the same school, not long before.
The time has come when the children are taught to recognize the fundamental unity of the human race, a unity based on diversity and not on sameness. M. Scott Peck most beautifully puts it. We must learn to “share our similarities, celebrate our differences.” We are all different and yet the same. Children need to learn to appreciate and embrace diversity even more than they appreciate sameness. Imagine a garden full of flowers of the same color, size and perfume. It is the diversity of the flowers in a garden that makes a garden beautiful. Likewise, the diversity of the human race makes the world more beautiful. Diversity allows for creative growth and inquiry. Unity in diversity is an expression of unity without uniformity and diversity without fragmentation.
Children are never born prejudiced. Instead, it is the environment in which they learn the prejudices their elders have taught them. We need to teach our children to be open minded to other possible ways of thinking and being, and to appreciate the diversity of the human race. These are essential ingredients of an education for the 21st Century.
Global understanding must go a step beyond academic appreciation to experiencing diversity. International exchanges and diverse school communities are a wonderful way for children to appreciate the good in the ‘other’ from the earliest age. When they visit other countries or have children visit them from other countries through Children’s International Summer Villages (CISV) or the International School to School Experience (ISSE) Programmes, for example, they never forget these experiences. These programs build bridges of understanding that go far beyond any intellectual understanding. They create love and understanding for the ‘other’. They touch the hearts. Children never forget these experiences. When a school hosts a student delegation, it can be a rewarding experience for all. The impact is often life changing.
CMS experience has shown how a school can bring hearts together from diverse countries and nations to focus on issues of common concern, and in particular, on issues that concern the welfare of children, to make a world safe for them.
To create a culture of peace and develop a love for diversity, CMS creates a myriad opportunities for personal interaction among its diverse student body. It organizes, for example, some 32 international exchanges and events at its World Unity Convention Center, complete with two guest houses which CMS has custom built for the specific purpose of these exchanges and events.
[http://www.cmseducation.org/events.html].
Since 1997, 5659 schools from all 29 States and 6 Union Territories of India and a total of 67 countries of the world have participated in CMS conferences and events to date, where not only have they had the opportunity to learn from each other, but they have also been able to better understand the Education for Protection and Security as being implemented by CMS. They not only appreciate such a model, they also take back to their schools and communities some of the lessons learned.
CMS started sending out teams of 10-11 year old students for Children’s International Summer Village (CISV) international exchange programmes around the world as early as 1972. CMS children also regularly attend International School to School Experience (ISSE) programmes which began in 1975 with the first month long exchange to the Olinca Springfield School in Mexico. A total of 474 delegates have been sent to both these exchanges abroad since 1972.
CMS has also hosted some 1043 participants in these international exchanges through month long CISV and ISSE programs on its own campus. In these camps, children from different countries live, eat and play together for a month. The bonds of friendship formed at this age and the love for diversity of humanity thus developed are so powerful, they last a lifetime.
A separate Department to teach World Unity and World Peace: A separate “World Unity and Peace Education Department” (WUED) is working to promote world unity through its manifold activities.
Service to Humanity
Service-learning combines service to the community with learning outside the classroom. Through service learning students are involved in meaningful community service with the components of instruction and reflection built in. Many see it as a great way to bring alive the curriculum and connect learning to real life.
In Education for Protection and Security, however, service learning is more directed to prepare students for a life of service. The focus of service learning is to strengthen student resolve and build in the students leadership skills in order that they may look forward to work for the benefit of those less privileged than themselves—to serve their communities and use their talents for the benefit of society. These concepts of service, therefore, go beyond charity to recognize service as a way of life. Such training both prepares students more fully for a life of service. Children become, over time, proactive agents of social transformation. Research has shown children have a desire to serve. This desire must be supported and nurtured through education.
At the experience level of the child, CMS frequently organizes service and environment related activities that nurture in children a desire to serve.
CMS students participate in environment and conservation projects with the objective to promote environmental awareness and to involve the masses in cleaning up the environment. In the Clean Gomti Campaign, for example, CMS joined forces with local volunteers to clean up river Gomti. This proved to be a source of inspiration for students of Riverlands School in Australia, for example, who subsequently replicated a similar project in their own country.
CMS students also organize massive campaigns against noise pollution each year in the fall. The campaign aims at persuading children, as also the public at large, to desist lighting high-decibel fire crackers and celebrate a pollution-free Diwali. Valentine’s Day, for example, is celebrated by CMS as a Family Day.
CMS Floats and Marches
CMS peace floats and marches are a regular feature of the annual Republic Day Parade in January each year which is watched avidly and appreciated by millions of viewers city and state wide. CMS floats are always based on the theme of peace. They have won the Governor Trophy and the Best Float Award a record number of times during the last 26 years.
CMS students and teachers often carry out marches to raise awareness of various issues of local, regional or international importance.
Bringing in the Diverse Religious Communities
CMS organises interfaith dialogues, debates and discussions to build a more tolerant community. A world parliament of children is organised each time a school function is held. This is an impressive setting in which tens of children sit in a semi circular arrangement. Play-acting as representatives of different countries of the world, they take up issues of global concern and come up with solutions to world problems. A distinguishing point is that even while they represent different countries, they represent their views from the vantage point of being citizens of the world. They thus think in terms of welfare of the entire human race and not just the welfare of their own countries.
For the past twelve years, CMS has been hosting the World Unity Satsang which is a non-denominational gathering of peoples of different faiths, the parents and other community member and leaders. The Satsang addresses the need for tolerance, non-violence and world peace and how these goals may be realized. Some of the most well known religious and civic leaders that have addressed these Satsangs include Sri Sri Ravishankar and Dada Vaswani, among others. Several well-known musicians and singers have also rendered their devotional creatives and hymns at these gatherings.
Prayer for World Peace
A unique World Peace Prayer Ceremony graces every occasion. In this simple yet effective ceremony, children hold flags of different nations of the world and pray for peace in every country and continent of the world. An equally powerful All Religions Prayer is an integral part of children’s morning assemblies and used to start every CMS event. Children of different backgrounds say prayers that are sacred to their religion in the presence of children and parents of all faiths. This has a tremendous salutary effect on the psychology of both parents and students.
All these activities build peace loving individuals who are tolerant of differences and who are citizens of the world.
In a city historically torn by conflicts, especially religious, CMS has created a climate of peaceful coexistence and also succeeded in diffusing tensions and violence between Hindus and Muslims. At a time when the Babri Masjid was attacked by Hindu fundamentalists in a city not far away from the capital city of Lucknow, entire India was engulfed in violence. Lucknow largely escaped this violence. Many have credited this to the impact of this large school on the populations of Lucknow over a period of time.
When the Ayodhya Mosque was destroyed in 1992, violence and death occurred throughout the state of Uttar Pradesh, of which Lucknow is the capital city. In the capital, however, because of initiatives of the school, no one was killed. Religious leaders were invited to the school each evening to agree on an interfaith statement designed to calm the violence; students and parents toured the city with loudspeakers proclaiming theses messages of tolerance.” [http://www.cmseducation.org/lucknow_uk.html]
Eyewitness accounts of this phenomenon have been documented in ‘War Prevention Works: 50 Stories of People Resolving Conflict’ by UK’s Oxford Research Group and in ‘People Building Peace: 35 Inspiring Stories From Around the World’, [http://www.cmseducation.org/impact/peacebuildingactivities.html] This has also been documented in a book published by the European Centre for Conflict Prevention. The Netherlands [http://www.cmseducation.org/ impact/peacebuildingactivities.html].
’A Bold Experiment In Teaching Values’, an article by Carolyn Cottom in Educational Leadership, ASCD, USA in 1996, states: “As the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India with 140 million people and just 80 miles from the site of violence (Ayodhya), Lucknow was especially vulnerable to violence. Indeed, Uttar Pradesh’s government collapsed because of this issue. Yet, in Lucknow, not one casualty occurred.
[http://www.cmseducation.org/impact/peacebuildingactivities.html]
The UK based Keighley Interfaith Group and a Civil Society Organization Peace Direct invited CMS students and representatives to the UK to share their Lucknow experience with coexistence education. They wanted to “…establish links with those who have transformed similar situations and will reinforce the feeling in our communities that something can be done to resolve conflicts…, foster harmonious relations between and among the diverse communities which make up the population of and to share their experiences with communities in Keighley, Bradford, Leeds, Loughborough, London, and Dover.” This is because, they wrote: “Their [CMS school] experience is extraordinary.”
CMS strains every nerve to impart human education in two ways: Firstly, it exerts every effort to inculcate those values and attitudes in children that are conducive to bringing about peace, protection and security of the world. To do this, CMS has created a detailed moral education curriculum. Secondly, it organizes a range of activities that promote such attitudes and values in students – some of these activities are listed below and others that are detailed in the Supporting Document ‘Exerting Every Effort’.
Secondly, CMS also works tirelessly to directly enhance the protection and security of the two billion children of the world and of generations yet-to-be-born, by engaging a range of influential stakeholders in dialogue about issues of children’s welfare and protection. It does this by organizing 33 international events that serve as forums for the discussion of these ideas.
The Indo-Pak Children’s Initiative
The Indo-Pak conflict resolution project came into existence in 1999 when the Indian and Pakistani armies were locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation at Kargil, a border area between India and Pakistan. CMS children took initiative to build bridges of understanding with their neighboring country by initiating a letter exchange with students across the border. The Indo-Pak Children’s Friendship Club, “Aao Dosti Karein,” has facilitated letter exchanges between thousands of CMS students with their Pakistani counterparts. This connected ordinary children on both sides of the border.
Later, this bond of friendship led to exchange visits between students of CMS and Pakistani schools. Not only children but also hundreds of people on both sides of the border have been brought together for sports and other activities under this meaningful exchange.
A few extracts of letters sent to and received from the schools in Pakistan are posted on the following links:
[http://www.cmseducation.org/aaodostikarein/habib.html]
[http://www.cmseducation.org/aaodostikarein/karanchi.html]
[http://www.cmseducation.org/aaodostikarein/foundation.html]
[http://www.cmseducation.org/aaodostikarein/foundation.html]
[http://www.cmseducation.org/aaodostikarein/aghakhan.html]
[http://www.cmseducation.org/aaodostikarein/beaconhouse.html
[http://www.cmseducation.org/aaodostikarein/abbottabad.html]
Children’s Appeal to the Chief Justices and Policy Makers of the World
The children are apprehensive and concerned about their future. Their security lies in the security of the world as a whole. It is clear that global problems like international terrorism, deteriorating global environment, trafficking of women and children, threat of wars and other regional and global problems cannot be solved by individual governments on their own. Needed is a new model of global governance free from the veto power, in which all peoples of the world feel equally represented.
Children need the reassurance that their school, their elders and their government are making efforts to solve these global problems. The future of CMS children and the other children of India is linked intrinsically with the future of the world’s children because issues are common and global. Addressing these problems is integral to the education and welfare of CMS students.
CMS children collected some 1 lakh (100,000) signatures from their parents and the community, which they sent to Kofi Annan in 1999 requesting him to form a new system of global governance based on these new principles. Kofi Annan wrote back. In his response, he wrote that he is unable to do anything on his own and that, “The strength of the UN lies in its member states, when they agree to act together for the common good.” He further wrote: “I am counting on you all. It is up to you to make sure that your leaders come to New York for the Millennium Summit (of world leaders) thoroughly resolved to take decisions which could lead to a better world for all of us and the children of the world.”
CMS children then wrote systematically to the heads of governments and heads of state of all UN member nations, to convince them to come resolved in turn to the century’s most important Millennium Summit in New York, 6-8 September, 2000, to take decisive action to form a new economic, social and political order of the world to which Dr Annan had referred to in his letter. Unfortunately, at the bidding of a veto power, this agenda item was deleted from the Millennium Summit’s agenda at the last minute and therefore was never discussed.
Why a Conference of the Chief Justices of the World?
This is when the children’s attention turned to the world’s judiciary as the last hope for humanity’s future, to help children in their dream of creating a better world for all. The World’s Judiciary is seen as an unbiased body that can help safeguard the future of the world’s children.
CMS called for the first meeting of the World’s Chief Justices in May 2001. That same year, a second meeting was convened in December 2001. CMS has held a Conference of the Chief Justices of the World, also called the World Judiciary Summits, every year since then.
The Chief Justices and Justices have supported and endorsed Article 51 of the Constitution of India and acknowledged it as an answer to the safety and well-being of the world’s children and to create a peaceful world for them.
[www.cmseducation.org/article51]
Article 51, Constitution of India
The State shall endeavour to —
(a) promote international peace and security;
(b) maintain just and honourable relations between nations;
(c) foster respect for international law and
(d) encourage settlement of international disputes by arbitration.
Such a conference would have been hard to pull off by many governments, let alone a school based in Lucknow, India! Yet, they did it and the results are impressive. No less than 358 Chief Justices and Justices of Supreme and High Courts from 92 countries, including 102 Chief Justices and Justices of Supreme and High Courts of India have participated in these Summits since 2001, precisely because they endorse the children’s appeal. Along with the International Conference of Chief Justices, CMS also organizes an annual Global Symposium for civil society organizations in which 396 participants from 220 organizations and 61 countries have participated thus far.
Many CMS students have been inspired by these conferences and many have taken the initiative to get into the field of law and order to promote the cause of justice.
This appeal has been far more effective than the previous efforts of the CMS children to get world leadership involved via the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. The children did not give up on their original vision, however, and they have been impressing upon the government of India and its leadership to call a meeting of the world’s leaders and heads to India, to discuss plausible models of global governance that may be acceptable to all or a vast majority of countries, a global governance capable of dealing effectively with issues that transcend national boundaries: issues of displaced populations, trafficking of women and children across borders, the state of poverty in which majority of the world’s children live, international terrorism, global environment, and for a secure future of the world’s children, to act as a deterrent to wars, for example.
A recent and massive media campaign by the school, quoting an Article of the Constitution of India, has called for the promotion of international peace and security. For this, the school has secured the support of a large number of people from all parts of India including commitments of support from individuals within the government. For example, after reading the school’s appeal in a letter dated 20th January, 2010, Member of Parliament, Mr Shanta Kumar, wrote: “The appeal made by the students of City Montessori School is well taken. I can assure you of my support to such legislation if it comes before the Parliament.”
[http://www.cmseducation.org/response.html]
The children feel that that India, being as it is the world’s largest and most mature democracy, has the moral authority to call such a meeting of world leaders. Also, India’s deep founded belief in the concepts of Vasudhaiv Kutumbakum (the Earth is one Home) and strong provisions in Article 51 of its Constitution provide strong rationale to call for such a meeting.
The CMS request to the government of India as per the provisions of Article 51 of the constitution of India to call a meeting of the world leaders, to discuss possible models of global governance, the children feel, is legitimate.
Sticking The Neck Out
The Indian National Curriculum adopted by the present government has also laid down exhaustive educational policy in the form of “National Curriculum Framework, 2005” prepared by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) which all Boards including all State Boards, the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) are required to follow.
[http://www.ncert.nic.in/html/pdf/schoolcurriculum/framework05/prelims.pdf]
Chapter 1 of this policy states: “This document aims to provide a framework within which teachers and schools can choose and plan experiences that they think children should have. In order to realize the educational objectives, the curriculum has been conceptualized as a structure which articulates required experiences. For this, it should address some basic questions:
a. What educational purposes should the schools seek to achieve?
b. What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to achieve these purposes?
c. How can these educational experiences be meaningfully organized?
d. How do we ensure that these educational purposes are indeed being accomplished?”
In paragraph 1.2, the NCERT quotes: “Mahatma Gandhi had visualized education as a means of awakening the nation’s conscience to injustice, violence and inequality entrenched in the social order. ‘Nai Taleem’ (new education) emphasized self reliance and dignity of the individual which would form the basis of social relations characterized by non-violence within and across society.” Gandhi Ji recommended use of immediate environment, including the mother tongue and work, as a resource for socializing the child into a transformative vision of society. He dreamt of an India in which every individual discovers and realizes her or his talents and potential by working with others towards restructuring the world, which continues to be characterized by conflicts between nations, within society and between humanity and nature.”
In Chapter 3, paragraph 3.8 dealing with the curricular activities of the school, special mention has been made regarding EDUCATION FOR PEACE. It states: “We live in an age of unprecedented violence with constant threats posed by intolerance, fanaticism, disputes and discordance. Ethical action, peace and welfare are facing new challenges. The space for peace education in the frame work of national school curriculum document is compellingly clear in the light of the escalating trends of and taste for, violence globally, nationally and locally. Education is a significant dimension of the long-term process of building peace, tolerance, justice, inter-cultural understanding and civic responsibility. However, education as practiced in schools often promotes forms of violence both real and symbolic. In these circumstances, the need to reorient education and therefore the school curriculum takes priority. As a value, it cuts across all other curricular areas, and coincides and complements the values emphasized there-in. It is therefore, a concern cutting across the curriculum and the concern of all teachers.”
“Education for peace seeks to nurture ethical development, with values, attitudes and skills required for living in harmony within oneself and with others including nature. It embodies joy of living and encompasses respect for human rights, justice, tolerance, cooperation, social responsibility, respect for cultural diversities, in addition, to a firm commitment to democracy and resolving conflicts non-violently. Hence the need for the development of a personality with inner resources of love, hope and courage. Peace education must be a concern that permeates the entire school life-curriculum, co-curriculum, classroom environment, school management, teacher-pupils relationship teaching-learning processes and the entire gamut of school activities. Hence it is important to examine the curriculum and examinations from the point of view of how it may contribute to children’s sense of inadequacy, frustration, impatience and insecurity. Also the need to consciously counter the negative influence of growing violence around and its representation in the media, on the minds of children and in its place promote a reflective engagement with deeper aspects living an ethical and peaceful life. Education in true sense should empower individuals to clarify their values: to enable them to take conscious and deliberate decisions, taking into cognizance the consequences of their actions; to choose the way of peace rather than violence; to enable them to be makers of peace rather than only consumer of peace.”
In the same Chapter in paragraph 3.8.1 dealing with suggestions for peace activities are given in the report as below:
a. Set up special clubs and reading rooms in schools that concentrate on Peace News.
b. Create a list of films – documentaries and feature films – that promote the values of justice and peace. Screen them from time to time in schools.
c. Co opt the media as a stakeholder in education for peace. Invite influential journalists and editors to address children. Ask for space for children’s views to be published at least once a month.
d. Celebrate the cultural and religious diversity of India in schools
e. Organize programs to promote an attitude of respect and responsibility towards women.
It has also been suggested by the NCERT, as is clear from the above extract, that the school should create films, documentaries, and feature films that promote the values of peace and screen them from time to time in school and also to incorporate the media as a stakeholder in education for peace.
Thus holding Conferences of the Chief Justices of the World and its popular appeal in Indian media are in complete harmony, CMS believes, with the goals and objectives enshrined in the National Curriculum Framework 2005 that is applicable to all schools of India.
Countering Narrow Views
Thus the holding of the International Conference of the Chief Justices of the World is commensurate with the directives of education from all perspectives. It can be legitimately claimed that the Conference has not only been successful in building a global consensus for the concerns of the CMS children, it has also had a powerful and positive impact on the students of CMS.
Now, it is not expected that every school should go out and create a forum for chief justices or leaders!!
Some people take a narrow view of education as being limited to classroom activities and teaching of the three R’s. But a modern school must be concerned with the affairs of the age.
Baha’i Writings state, “Do not busy yourselves in your own concerns; let your thoughts be fixed upon that which will rehabilitate the fortunes of mankind and sanctify the hearts and souls of men.”
The point is that in its lighthouse role, a school can bring in the community at the local, regional or global levels. Schools and the community members can thereby discuss issues of concern to the children and come up with pliable solutions. Children too should be encouraged to think about world affairs and participate in brainstorming sessions to seek solutions to the world’s problems. They should also be familiar with the provisions of their constitution and become concerned citizens of a country and the world. Instead of being seen as one-off events, these directions should be seen as fully integral to a process of a Education for Protection and Security in the 21st century.
Footprints in the Sands of Time
Against prevalent norms that focus on narrow nationalism, CMS adopted the clarion call of ‘Jai Jagat!’ – ‘Hail the World’ and not ‘Jai Hind’ – ‘Hail India’, the prevalent greeting. This is consistent with Hindu scriptures that say ‘vashudhaiv kutumbakam’ (’the whole world is my family’). The school vowed to create through education world citizens endowed with a global mindset who cannot imagine conflict and war, and who will become, in time, proactive agents of social transformation.
Using a multi-pronged approach, and inspired by the vision to make school a lighthouse of society, CMS began to educate not only the children but also parents and society at large. As a result, all began to witness remarkable benefits of such a comprehensive approach on their children’s mindset and on parents and society.
Parents and the population at large began to buy into the school’s vision. Initially, the parents objected to such programs as the All Religions Prayer in which children recite prayers on the same platform from all major scriptures. But gradually, the same parents began to see these directions for children from the earliest ages as important in creating a more tolerant world through education.
It is remarkable to note that the diverse factions of Lucknow have been more agreeable to this dose of unity education at CMS precisely because children are the common concern of these diverse communities.
The CMS experiment has shown how schools can play a critical and vital role in bringing about peace and unity in otherwise diverse and divisive communities precisely because children are the gel. Schools can play a binding role better than any other group, policy making or religious institution. This fact has not been used to advantage by schools worldwide as it could have been. Only if schools were to realize the important role they play in the lives of children and therefore the world!
If the fundamental unit of every society is the family, schools can best help improve the conditions, create unity among diverse communities and secure the future of the world.
The problem of apartheid in South Africa or the problem of disunity faced by minority populations everywhere on grounds of their religious, political or economic backgrounds, may be solved in a better way, as the Lucknow experience has shown, by giving children from these diverse communities a common education founded on principles of mutual understanding. Trust relationships can thus be built from the earliest ages through a comprehensive and directed program structured within the schooling process itself by arranging that the children learn, play and pray together. A school can also more proactively undertake outreach programs that involve the three stakeholders in creating a better future: children, families and the community at large.
As a result of these consistent and relentless efforts, CMS has become known for its world unity education, and the motto of Jai Jagat! – Hail the World! has reached far corners of the world. The experimental work at CMS has had a demonstrable impact, for example, in creating relative peace within the local community. Its efforts have shown that it is possible to achieve tangible unity by the efforts of a school community.
A school has become a model to the world on how to build the ‘defenses of peace in the minds of men’, so that children may be inoculated forever from thoughts of communal and religious hatred and violence, and who from their earliest childhood, will consider every human being on planet earth as a brother or a sister.
CMS has received a number of endorsements for its multifarious efforts to create a world safe for children. For example, CMS was awarded in 2004 the Nuclear-Free Future Special Achievement Award “for its visionary new world order peace campaign and for its mission on behalf of the world’s children and the coming generations to create a nuclear free future.” CMS also received the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, Sweden, by an international jury of the world’s children.
■ True education releases capacities, develops analytical abilities, confidence in oneself, will power and goal setting competencies, and instills the vision that will enable a person to become, one day, a self-motivated agent of social transformation, a person capable of serving the best interests of the community.
■ Education in the 21st century needs a more expanded definition that frees it from today’s economic context and acknowledges its role in transforming both individual lives and entire societies.
■ The aim of education, which is a continuous and creative process, is to develop the capacities latent in human nature and to coordinate their expression for the enrichment and progress of society, by equipping children with spiritual, human and material knowledge.
