One of us had a vision, a "what if" sort of dream. And she talked
to others of us, gently, and asked, "Do you think it could be done?" And
we thought about it, and we said, "Yes, yes, maybe it could." And we
talked about it to others, and they agreed that education was the only way
it could be done. And so we thought we would share our idea with you. 

	A group of college faculty, educators, and citizens from the local
community in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA, have embarked on a project of
developing ideas for a curricular thread, from pre-school through college,
that will eventually be used internationally. Through education for peace, our
goal
is to change the global response to conflict at all levels--interpersonal,
cultural, ethnic, and political--so that mediation and understanding take
the place of force and violence. Ultimately, we hope to integrate, into
educational programs everywhere, a collection of 18 courses embracing
conflict prevention and 
conflict resolution, cultural understanding, and global interdependence in
schools, colleges and universities throughout the world. The content of
those courses, however, will be developed by small teams of educators from
various countries, working together to create various pieces of the "thread."

	Such a curricular thread would cross academic disciplines, reflect
human progress, and involve social concerns. It would include study of the
conflict between development, the environment, and endangered or
traditional cultures; efforts at developing awareness of how major
religions and ethnic groups impact on each other; and skills in personal
and peer mediation as alternatives to conflict. Since peace has to begin
with children, it was decided that these approaches would start with
pre-school (age 4) and continue through college and university, a total of
18 years. A particular topic will be studied at each level, until the
thread is complete. Every country and school system is different, so each
course would have to be designed in such a way that it can be "tailored"
to the local situation. Yet the same essential topic will be taught at
each age level around the world. 

	This project may take two or three generations to complete, but
eventually the majority of all peoples would be interacting from the
common premise of a global perspective that had taught each of them the
enormous benefits of conflict prevention and conflict resolution, as well
as an understanding and
awareness of each other's cultures, ethnicity, and politics.  Eventually,
the same curricular thread, individually "tailored" as necessary, would be
taught in a Chicago ghetto as well as an African village. Although some
countries will inevitably resist using such a curricular thread, it would
conceivably have a profound effect on leadership at all levels for those
who use it. 

	A curricular thread may best be understood as a collection of
courses which run like webs through existing curricula in various
countries. They could be envisioned as ways of thinking about the earth,
its people, and how we encounter each other. Thus one might ask, in a
course dealing with indigenous peoples, "Who were the first people to live
in this place?" "What was the earth like then?" "Who were the next people
to come?" "And how did they rub elbows with each other?" "What ideas did
each bring to that encounter?" "If the encounter was violent, how might it
have been otherwise?" "What sort of ideas, needs, or goals did these
groups have in common?" "How did the earth suffer from their conflict?"

	Conflict prevention in the guise of social studies can emphasize
common human experience by focusing on ways in which families of divergent
cultures celebrate rites of passage: birth, puberty, marriage,
death--these can be compared with one's own. Festivals in general are
fascinating to children of all ages, leading to explorations of reasons
for holidays, certain festive customs, and foods which can be cooked and
tasted. Even practices that are repugnant or threatening need to be
approached in this way. Children must also be encouraged to ask questions
like, "What is it like to be a child in a Palestinian (or Hindu or
Catholic or Jewish or Hispanic) family?" "How is that life different from
mine?" "How is it the same?" "What do we hold in common?"

	  Geography further provides an opportunity to trade eyes with
children in other parts of the world or even other parts of one's own
nation or continent. "What is it like to be a boy/girl growing up in the
deserts of Africa, the rainforests of South America, or along a major
river in Asia?" "How would I spend my time?" "What sort of house would we
live in?" "What would we eat?" "What would my parents do all day?" "Where
would I go to school?" "What sort of animals would be important to my
life?" "How would we work to live in harmony with our environment?" "What
can we do to ensure peace and harmony with peoples living nearby?" "How
would we accomodate our differences?"

	At more advanced levels, students might be encouraged to explore
the concept of global interdependence, to take an economic, cultural, and
environmental look at the earth as an organism. Corollary to this
consideration would be others such as an examination of world hunger and
its relation to the environment; or the way in which developed nations are
consuming the world's resources and less developed nations impacting upon
the earth in their race to catch up economically. Religious and ethnic
conflicts need to be studied, with careful examination of the concerns and
needs put forward by all parties. But in addition, efforts at mediating
these conflicts also need to be examined. Who are the mediators? What
avenues have been explored? What historical factors impinge upon the
present? Is there any common ground? What perpetuates the conflict? What
are the prospects for resolution?

	Some underlying concerns, already briefly addressed, include the
relation between colonialism and development, the relation between
development and traditional cultures, the impact of major religions on
each other and on indigenous cultures, the interface between racial
groups, the conflict between development and the environment, global
inequalities between rich nations and poor nations, international control
of resources and environment, world population issues. 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 curricular thread, as it is to the actual
skills of mediation and conciliation. At the virtual core of this search,
however, is the assumption that peace or absence of conflict is preferable
to war, hatred, or oppression of one group by another. 

	As we approach the twenty-first century, we must acknowledge
certain facts about the world we live in: 1. All of the world's nations
are linked in a political organization known as the United Nations and
governed by certain dominant countries which form the Security Council. 2.
As a consequence of instant electronic communication and rapid
transportation, remote places of the globe are easily accessible; thus,
everyone's problems are shared, out of either political or humanitarian
concerns, or both. 3. Global capitalism links third-world producer nations
with affluent consumer nations, often with oppressive results. 4.
Religious and racial intolerance has grown to an alarming extreme in the
past decade. 5. Human encroachment on the delicate ecological balance of
planet Earth has produced disturbing consequences requiring immediate
attention.

	The problems sometimes seem too great. Where does one begin to
tackle them? In addition, each corner of the world has its particular
difficulties that must be addressed locally. Our idea, therefore, is to
begin with a set of assumptions, formulated above, about which
cooperative projects
may be constructed. Out of these grow a set of methods. The most
significant approach is to focus on similarities rather than differences.
What do individuals, racial, ethnic, and religious groups; countries have
in common? Where can they find common ground? Looking for what is shared
or could be shared is also at the heart of specific conflict resolution
vskills: negotiation, mediation, arbitration. These skills also need to be
taught at various levels.

	What must be changed, however, is our way of seeing. What do we
see when we encounter another? Skin color? Religious belief? A different
language? Another human being? A person who hopes, and feels, and loves?
If we must classify or distinguish, then we must also emphasize a common
humanity and imagine how those distinctions look from another's eyes. Thus
the practical classroom projects which grow out of an effort at trading
eyes may emphasize exploring ways in which others think and express
themselves. Trading eyes is a habit which, cultivated young, will reward
the individual with a richness of vision that will not abandon him or her
in adulthood. We speak of what it feels like to walk in another's
moccasins, see as another sees, put on another's mask. In learning to do
these things, we also learn valuable skills in problem-solving and of
human relations in general.

	Another important attitude that must be embraced is that of shared
resources, the idea that the pie is always large enough. If children are
taught to share instead of to hoard; if adults could say, "Perhaps I have
more than enough, when others have nothing; if corporations could accept
the responsibility of assessing environmental and human costs along with
their other debits, then we might come to understand that we do not have
to deprive others in order to meet our own needs. We are talking about
attitude transformation, mine, yours, ours, theirs, but especially those
of children because the future is in their hands. Teachers especially must
reexamine attitudes underlying class experiences: competition and winning,
acquiring the most good marks, or wanting more or the best when resources
are already adequate. 

		To question the concept of competition is to do something
dangerous, for the ability to compete is often needed for personal
survival. Yet clearly something unpleasant is sensed in every society
where human values have been superseded by individuals, families, or
corporations piling up more than can be conceivably utilized. Young people
need to envision how an entire community benefits when resources are
shared more equitably, to see that healthy and happy people are much less
likely to indulge in crime or other acts of desperation. They need to see
how helping others to help themselves requires more than the gift of
resources, but in many cases also demands mentoring or training. They need
to experience the selfless act of empowering someone else and to follow up
the original act of involvement with ongoing concern. They need to ask
always, "What if I were in his/her shoes?" "What would I need?" "How would
I feel?" 

	Teachers also need to model other ways of achieving goals,
particularly those in which teamwork is involved. One such example might
involve dividing the class into groups, each of which attains its goal
when everyone in the group can do a particular kind of arithmetic problem.
When everyone can do it, then they may go on to applying that knowledge to
some problem in the community, such as the amount of garbage collected in
that town or village every week, or the number of hungry people fed at a
homeless shelter, or the number of cows walking the streets in a Hindu
city, or the number of illiterate people in a village. And as the project
expands, each team may be assigned a piece of it to complete, so that the
information collected and the arithmetic required to participate becomes
collaborative, with each piece of team research impacting upon another.

	Students need to develop skills in socio-emotional literacy,
including sensitivity to other ways of thinking, as well as negotiation,
mediation, and
arbitration,  both in class and out. In every case, learning to use language
that is not inflammatory is important. Learning to ask what the other
person needs and wants is also central. Being able to assert one's own
needs and wants without getting angry or insulting is crucial. These
skills lend themselves well to class demonstrations, one-on-one practice,
small-group activity. Other students, who show particular talent with
negotiation can be trained as peer mediators who cruise the school
playground or the village road offering their help to others who have
become embroiled in conflict. We need to increase by the hundreds,
thousands, and millions, the number of people who know the rules for
conflict resolution, who instinctively search for common ground, who
insist that everyone's needs must be heard and met. It's a simple process,
yet the results are enormously beneficial.

	"Do you think it can be done?" We said, "Yes, yes, maybe it can."
And we talk about it to others, and they all agree that education is the
only way it can be done. Here, there, everywhere.
Even where you are, especially there. 


Janet M. Powers				Conflict Resolution and Global
Tricia Pitney					Interdependence Project
Elizabeth Scott				
Lou Hammann				Gettysburg, PA  USA
Bob Fredrickson		
Nancy Whitman
Gretchen Stuempfle
Marge Mattson
Tim Rupe