Schools and Youth
Every year the Peace Run visits countless schools in more than 100 countries around the world. Students get to meet the runners, hold the torch and express their own hopes and dreams for a more harmonious world. This page contains many ideas for bringing the experience of peace into the classroom.
Preparing for the Peace Run
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Learning about a Country
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Invite students to choose a nation or a few nations, perhaps some of our international team members nations, and research that nations culture and what it has done towards peace. Investigate if the Peace Run/World Harmony Run has travelled through that country. In researching the country the students could contact a school in that country that has been a part of the Peace Run. Find traditional songs, costumes or games from that nation. When the Peace Run arrives at the school the students would present this to the school and to the Peace Run Team. Or sent to us to post onto our website. |
Students discover their Community
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Each community in the world strives for peace and cultural understanding in its own unique way. We all want to live in a place where there is a feeling of oneness. Each small step for peace in a community adds to the giant steps our world takes together towards this lofty goal. Invite the students to go out into the community to find the beautiful, unique ways that one individual, the school or community at large are making the place you live in one of peace and friendship. This could then be presented by the students to the Peace Run Team on their arrival at the school. Or sent to us to post onto our website. |
Student Peace Pledges
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Ask the students to look at their own lives and examine their interactions with people, family, school, community and the world at large. From this they will be able to find small ways in which they can make a difference in the world. Ask the students to make a 'Pledge for Peace'. Each student can write down their pledges and present these to the Peace Run Team when they arrive at the school. Or sent to us to post onto our website. Pledges can include things like: smiling more than frowning, visiting their neighbours or volunteering for the community. Anything they wish to pledge will be received happily by the Team. |
Peace through Poetry and Writing
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Encourage children to write down poetry and prayers, ideas about world peace that can be read out and shared. Display your writing pieces in your school. Publish your writing in your school or city newspaper. Send to us at and we will post them on our website. |
Peace Using Music
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Invite the children to close their eyes and listen to some calm, inspiring music. Discuss how the music made them feel.
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How do I create Peace at school?
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We can start creating peace by acting with respect and tolerance toward others. We can create peace by deciding that we will always try to solve problems without violence. We can learn how to make peace when problems happen. Learn the five steps of creating peace:
Become an official Peace Builder in your school. |
What if there was Peace in the Whole World?
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Draw a large map of the world and invite the children to follow the Peace Run journey with a red line – place thoughts and peace prayers on the map where peace is most needed. Imagine what it would be like if we lived as one world family. Imagine people in the whole world happy and helping each other. Imagine our whole planet as one big community, where each person is respected and appreciated. We would love to see any of the stories that the children have written on peace and any pictures the children have drawn about peace. With your approval we can post the artwork and stories on our website for other children around the world to see and enjoy. |
Resources
Definition of Peace
PEACE
noun \ˈpēs\
1: a state of tranquility or quiet; a: freedom from civil disturbance; b: a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom.
2: freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions.
3: harmony in personal relations.
4 a: a state or period of mutual concord between governments; b: a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity.
5: used interjectionally to ask for silence or calm or as a greeting or farewell.
Peace in 35 Languages
1. Afrikaans: Vrede | 18. Thai: สันติภาพ (santipap) |
2. Aragonese: Patz | 19. Basque: Baké |
3. Arabic: سلام (salām) | 20. Persian/Farsi: صلح (solh) |
4. Haitian Creole: Lapè | 21. French: Paix |
5. Aymara: Hacaña | 22. Irish: Síocháin |
6. Bulgarian: Мир (mir) | 23. Manx: Shee |
7. Bengali: শান্তি (śānti) | 24. Hebrew: שלום (shalom) |
8. Tibetan: ཞི་བདེ (zhi-bde) | 25. Hindi: शांति (śānti) |
9. Catalan: Pau | 26. Igbo: Udo |
10. Chamorro: Minaggen | 27. Icelandic: Friður |
11. Cherokee: ᏙᎯᏱ (dohiyi) | 28. Japanese: 平和 (heiwa) |
12. Welsh: heddwch | 29. Maori: Rangima’arie, Nohopuku, Rongo |
13. Danish: Fred | 30. Dutch: Vrede |
14. German: Friede | 31. Polish: Pokój |
15. Greek: Ειρήνη (iríni) | 32. Russian: Мир (mir) |
16. Esperanto: Paco | 33. Scots: Pace |
17. Spanish: Paz | 34. Turkish: Barış |
35. Italian: Pace |
Torch as a Symbol The torch is a common emblem of both enlightenment and hope. Thus the Statue of Liberty, actually entitled “Liberty Enlightening the World”, lifts her torch. Crossed reversed torches were signs of mourning that appear on Greek and Roman funerary monuments—a torch pointed downwards symbolizes death, while a torch held up symbolizes life, truth and the regenerative power of flame. The torch is also a symbol used by political parties, for instance by both Labor (from 1918 to 1980) and the Conservatives (from 1983 to 2006) in the UK, and the Malta Labor Party. In the seals of schools in the Philippines, the torch symbolizes the vision of education to provide enlightenment to all the students. A torch carried in relay by cross-country runners is used to light the Olympic flame which burns without interruption until the end of the Games. These torches and the relay tradition were introduced in the 1936 Summer Olympics by Carl Diem, the chairman of the event, because during the duration of the Ancient Olympic Games in Olympia, a sacred flame burnt inside of the temple of Hera, kept in custody by her priestess. (from Wikipedia) |
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