4 main content areas replace the decades old core educational document.
It was printed on the back of every Local Work Magazine and included in many a leader's information package. Some educationally minded staffs
made big posters of it to remind the leaders of what was the content of
their camp. It's name changed several times, but most people referred to it as the Peace Education Circle. I remember a bunch of smart juniors challenging the
content during the IBM(AIM) in Denmark 1998 - however the Brazilian
former Local Work chair of the times, who claimed to have invented it
(alone?), fended of this assault easily. Today this
seemingly holy part of CISV philosophy, the Peace Education Circle, has disappeared from the latest documents concerning Education, the
CISV Passport and Big Ed.
The four main areas of Peace education now are as follows:
Diversity
Explores the identity of the individual and then asks us to consider ourselves within our own and the wider community.
Human Rights
Considers how human rights af fect ever y aspect of our lives and how violations can lie at the root of problems such as poverty, violence and lawlessness.
Conflict and Resolution
Helps us to understand how conflicts can arise deliberately or other wise and what can be done to help bring a peaceful resolution.
Sustainable Development
Looks for integrated ways to promote economic and social well-being, while protecting the environment through the responsible use of natural resources.
While 2009 CISV focused on Human Rights, 2010 is the Year of Diversity. A great chance to dig deeper into the 4 areas and to become more precise in what CISV can make of it.
Personally, this is really a great achievement. Not only can anybody easily remember the four areas, but it all makes a lot more sense. Who the hell ever understood what "Small Peace Education" was supposed to be. The PEC was very complicated, but also exclusive towards certain themes, i.e. Homophobia got dumped in the "etc." of prejudices.
Something I really like is that "Sustainable Development" has achieved a more prominent status. It's all to easy to delegate areas such as global warming and nature conservation to other organizations such as WWF and Greenpeace, but really, it is a core part of our own educational philosophy.
The only thing that I miss at the moment is some form of graphical representation of these areas, that look a bit more professional than the silly comic pictured above.
(For nostalgic folks, the PEC can still be found on theResources CISV Saskatoon's website...)
It was printed on the back of every Local Work Magazine and included in many a leader's information package. Some educationally minded staffs
made big posters of it to remind the leaders of what was the content of
their camp. It's name changed several times, but most people referred to it as the Peace Education Circle. I remember a bunch of smart juniors challenging the
content during the IBM(AIM) in Denmark 1998 - however the Brazilian
former Local Work chair of the times, who claimed to have invented it
(alone?), fended of this assault easily. Today this
seemingly holy part of CISV philosophy, the Peace Education Circle, has disappeared from the latest documents concerning Education, the
CISV Passport and Big Ed. The four main areas of Peace education now are as follows:
Diversity
Explores the identity of the individual and then asks us to consider ourselves within our own and the wider community.
Human Rights
Considers how human rights af fect ever y aspect of our lives and how violations can lie at the root of problems such as poverty, violence and lawlessness.
Conflict and Resolution
Helps us to understand how conflicts can arise deliberately or other wise and what can be done to help bring a peaceful resolution.
Sustainable Development
Looks for integrated ways to promote economic and social well-being, while protecting the environment through the responsible use of natural resources.
While 2009 CISV focused on Human Rights, 2010 is the Year of Diversity. A great chance to dig deeper into the 4 areas and to become more precise in what CISV can make of it. Personally, this is really a great achievement. Not only can anybody easily remember the four areas, but it all makes a lot more sense. Who the hell ever understood what "Small Peace Education" was supposed to be. The PEC was very complicated, but also exclusive towards certain themes, i.e. Homophobia got dumped in the "etc." of prejudices.
Something I really like is that "Sustainable Development" has achieved a more prominent status. It's all to easy to delegate areas such as global warming and nature conservation to other organizations such as WWF and Greenpeace, but really, it is a core part of our own educational philosophy.
The only thing that I miss at the moment is some form of graphical representation of these areas, that look a bit more professional than the silly comic pictured above.
(For nostalgic folks, the PEC can still be found on the
i totally agree. especially to the point of "sustainable development".
i just wanted to add that it is important to not look at it only from the environmental side (saving the planet, greenpeace etc) but also the social part of it. how we treat each other for example....
but yes, one of my favourite of the four areas :)
At the Middle Eastern JB Workshop in Egypt last February, I got a key chain having four plastic cards each with the 4 areas of Peace Education and their explanation on one side and the above drawing and the CISV logo in the background on the other.
Since then, whenever someone asks me what is CISV and what does it stand for, I take out my key chain and show it to him/her and they get a very clear nice idea of what CISV stands for.
I'm a big fan of the four areas of Peace Education, all of them, since all of them say who we are exactly and what we do and why we do what we do.
For the first time in my life, I feel like I have succeeded in transmitting the real image of CISV to people who ask me what it is in a professional clear interesting BRIEF way :)
PS: I agree with Nick about the silly comic above.
I agree that it is a huge step forward to have broader, better looking and easier areas than the confusing education circle.
On the other hand, I do feel that there could be a little more clarification of each of the areas. Even despite being clear and pretty much explaining what is peace education, which is already very good, I think that CISVers at all levels (maybe even non-CISVers) could benefit from a little more "exploring" of each of the concepts, sort of what JB (and now YM) tries to do when releasing the theme packets we're working on each year.
The 4 educational areas are important for several reasons:
a) They help CISVers choose areas to plan activities
b) They help us "define" ourselves
c) They help explain who we are to others (i.e. for fundraising purposes)
I guess Zé's right that for a) there's still some homework to be done. Maybe the upcoming CISV Library will help out here.
For b) and c) I think we're almost there. I used to explain CISV as an organization "that does villages since 1951 and since recently also stuff for older kids". That's a definition by our programmes. Mosquito Tactics and also the new Passport help defining CISV to ourselves and to others more through the goals and content we provide. Our programmes are only the vehicles, really.
From the point of view that there is work to be done, of course there is. The way I see it,I totally agree with Ze. what should happen is something similar to the IJB/IYM theme packet that came out not so long ago: a CISV Peace Education Areas packet explaining in the intro what are they, why they are there, what they serve for etc... and then one section detailing each theme in the same manner as the Conflict Resolution & Peace Education theme packet was divided and the Identity theme packet is now in three sections.