Peace Is The Way

How do you observe the holidays in your school?  Is your school ethnically diverse?  Are there more than three religious groups represented?  Is there extreme socio-economic disparity?

The holiday season can be complicated but it doesn’t have to be.   At the core of the Christian Christmas is a celebration of the possibilities and a hope for peace. Teaching students that peace is a way of being can be the theme for your school during the holidays.

So how do you teach peace to children? 

Mahatma Gandhi said, “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.”  In order for children to practice peace they first have to learn it’s language.  The language of peace relies on the rational thinking of the higher brain.  Our lower brain is instinctive because our emotions are centered there.  Unfortunately for children their emotional responses feed their egos.  They feel hurt, sad, offended, and inferior; it’s a long list when you begin to consider those negative responses.   But the lower brain is also the chief agent for bonding.  When you look into someone’s eyes and recognize a loving expression, what’s happening is irrational, in the pure sense that your brain is bypassing the cortex and going directly to its intuitive and emotional centers. 

The first lesson for peace is to model and practice the look of loving kindness every day.  Children can learn this by observing your own personal greeting to them.  Do you smile from the heart?  Teach your students that the first rule of good manners in your classroom is to greet each other with a smile.   Now maybe for some that smile will be forced but eventually that smile will become automatic.  Scientists know that the very act of smiling increases the production of healthy hormones in the brain. 

As your students practice smiling they can begin the school day with a simple Metta mediation, metta means loving kindness.   One way to do this is to begin the day by meeting in a circle holding hands.  Students should close their eyes as they recite along with you:

May I be filled with loving-kindness,

May I be peaceful and at ease

May I be well,

May I be happy.  

A variation of this mediation is for each student is to recite the name of a classmate. You might suggest they say the name of the student next to them.  In this way each student is sending their good intentions to someone else.

This is a practice of undoing the chemistry of negativity, of anger and frustration.  Making an intention to create a kind loving environment is the first step in achieving that goal. Children react well to habits and structure, the standard of smiling, patience, and acceptance is powerful. 

Since the higher brain is our rational center you can challenge your students to create expressions of peaceful resolutions with stories, artwork, and music.  Teach them the values of character (respect, forgiveness, honesty) as you guide their creations.  

Whatever your core religious or moral beliefs are what better expression this holiday season than to establish a peace community within your own classroom and perhaps your entire school.   Peace is a vision, one that must grow on its own.  But the vision can follow your inner desires for a better world.