GUIDELINES FOR INTERNATIONAL CURRICULAR PEACE THREAD

Our goal is to encourage the development of an International Curricular Peace Thread that can be taught in as many countries as possible from pre-school through college and university. A particular topic would be studied each year in this ongoing Thread, by means of an active project and a poster. Every country and school system are different, so each piece would be tailored to the local situation. Yet the same essential topic will be taught at each age level around the world. In constructing the Thread, we hope to involve educators from around the world so that it will not be solely an American undertaking, so that it will reflect a genuinely global perspective, and so that it will be generated by many minds and voices.

1. Every strand of the Thread should be universally applicable to any culture.
2. Every strand should be constructed around some kind of activity.
3. Some levels, if not all, should involve learning cycles, in which students encounter a problem for the first time, find a solution to it, and apply it to a new situation.
4. Every piece of the Thread should be designed to stimulate critical thinking.
5. Each aspect of the Thread should involve one or more of the Nine Intelligences posited by Howard Gardner: verbal-linguistic,logical-mathematical,visual-spatial, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, naturalist, existential.
6. Poster should be designed for each level to tie in with the designated activity, stimulate thinking, and appeal to one or more of the intelligences. The poster should be easily transportable to and replicable in any language and culture.

Topics should address issues such as the relation between development and indigenous cultures; interaction between ethnic, religious, or racial groups; inequalities between the rich and poor; international control of resources and environment. Conflict is endemic to these concerns and to the modern world in general. Yet the curricular thread would introduce a positive approach. The search for common ground is central to the concept of an international peace thread, as are the skills of mediation and conciliation. At the core of this idea is the assumption that peace is preferable to war, hatred, or oppression of one group by another.