Education

Peace
begins with education.

Over the years, we’ve developed a truly global education resource that advances active learning in the areas of peace, non-violence and intercultural cooperation. Access our free resources now and explore our lesson plans with ideas for Peace Day activities.

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11,550 global educators are currently accessing Peace One Day Education Resources. We are proud to support these teachers as they spread peace in their classrooms, in more than 175 countries around the world.

Testimonials

"Active Citizenship is a key theme of the citizenship curriculum. Peace One Day as an organisation, the UN resolution, the resource pack and Peace Day itself are all the result of one person's idea and determination to see it become a reality. The Peace One Day Resource Pack capitalises on this and uses this, and other examples, to allow pupils to discover the opportunities for individuals and bring about social change. This concept fits in directly with the participation and responsible action section of the citizenship curriculum and could also be used to emphasise the importance of voting and participation in the democratic process. There are many lesson plans which link with other areas of the Citizenship Programmes of Study for Key Stages 3 and 4 including teaching pupils to think about topical political, spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues, problems and events. Pupils are also encouraged to contribute to group and exploratory class discussions, and take part in debates. Several of the lesson plans look at the workings of the United Nations, which could be used as a starting point to explore other democratic institutions. There is also a wealth of information and ideas to deal with the issues of bullying, learning to resolve conflict fairly, human rights and criminal justice."
Elaine Sweeney, UK Government, Department for Education & Skills, PSHE & Citizenship Team, UK

CISV International is a global Peace Education organisation, working in over 60 countries worldwide. We have been so impressed with the Peace One Day Global Resource that we will be using the lesson plans and other resources on Conflict and Resolution in all of our Peace Education programmes next year. Our volunteers around the world are extremely excited about using the Global Resource, as it is of a high quality and can be readily adapted for use in an informal, non-classroom situation for children and young people from a diversity of national and cultural backgrounds. That the Global Resource is available in different languages helps ensure that it is truly accessible.
Kiran Hingorani, Education Officer, CISV International

Thanks you very much for making this very important resource material available to us. The issues contained in these lessons (peace, non-violence, conflict resolution, global citizenship, intercultural cooperation etc.) are very important for us Somalis.
Ahmed Ibrahim Awale, Somali Education Promotion Network

The education resource was extremely helpful and thought-provoking and we used it as the basis of two days of solid seminar work with our secondary students, as well as inspiration for activities our primary students were involved. It proved to be the ideal catalyst for raising awareness.
Mark Angus, Principal, The British International School, Nanxiang, Shanghai

"Here in our school district we focus on creating relevant and rigorous learning opportunities with our students. Activities are often project based and have social, academic and technology expectations. Students in 8th and 12th grade are required to complete a community based service learning project. This curriculum goes a long way in reinforcing this kind of work and connects to many aspects of our curriculum in social studies - (history, geography, economics, religion, cultures, civic responsibility etc.) and literacy".
Aron Merrill, Teacher, Williston Central School, Burlington, VT, USA

"In Port Glasgow High School we observed the UN International Day of Peace on 21 September. One of the most dramatic outcomes of the day was the massive drop in behaviour referrals that day, to just one referral, as a result of staff and pupils ‘being nice to one another'."
Lorna Anderson, Teacher, Port Glasgow High School, Scotland, UK

"Viewing the DVD changed, broadened and deepened my views on Peace. Seeing my students react as they have, was a wonderful experience. These are tough kids, kids that have little to support their growth. They do not live in a peaceful world. But this material touched them, gave them courage to speak their minds and has changed their attitude for the better...I honestly found this material to be the best I have encountered in my years as a teacher".
Debora Ghoreyeb, Teacher, Capital High School, Santa Fe, NM, USA

"Peace One Day...allows 21st-century children to scrutinise specific issues of peace and war and of peace and justice in open debate, without limiting their study merely to theories of pro or anti-war."
Terence Copley, TES Teacher, UK

"Teachers here have been asking after it [USA Resource]. Their excitement is pretty thrilling, and makes spreading the word enjoyable. I'll make sure it gets to the education undergraduate and graduate students here, too. I suspect it will spread like wildfire, to be honest".
Stefanie Kendall, PhD Student, Michigan State University, MI, USA

"One lad at school (and bearing in mind these children are from an Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties school, all with violent tendencies) told me instead of getting angry with his Dad, which is what he usually does, he now takes himself away and meditates! These kinds of breakthroughs are achieved through the hard work of initiatives like yours. It really does work."
James Cootes, Teacher, Mount Tamar School, UK

"Thank you Jeremy for making us one of your stops in New Hampshire. The kids are still talking about Peace One Day. Paul and I have already registered on the education site and downloaded the resource. It looks terrific. We are starting advisories next year and plan to use some of the lessons in the advisories starting the first day of school to get the students psyched for September 21st. We are sharing the website with the entire staff as well as those we know outside of the school."
Tricia Taylor, teacher at Stevens High School, Claremont, NH, USA

"You see war, gang crimes and murders on the television all the time. I think Peace Day would mean less bullying and it would cut crime because the day would raise awareness. Now if I see anyone being bullied I would want to go over and stop it."
Ayman Khokhar, aged 13, UK

"My hope is that all schools across the US will begin to use these lessons to promote POD. Even if we can start with the month of September - doing one lesson a day until Sept. 21st - that would be a great start".
Christyn Pope, Teacher, Chula Vista Community Charter School, San Diego, CA, USA

One teacher’s story

My name is Betsy Sawyer, I am a middle school teacher in Groton, Massachusetts and I run an after school peace club called the Bookmakers and Dreamers club. Our goal has been to build the largest size book in the world, all about peace, and to share it with other students worldwide. Our club has grown from 7 students to over 125 and they range in ages from 10 -17 years old. We meet weekly after school and recently began using Jeremy Gilley’s education plans.

My students and I have had a wonderful experience using the Intercultural Cooperation lesson plan from Jeremy’s Peace One Day Education Resource. We contacted a group of Afghan teens through a group called Youth Peace Volunteers. Two of our club members, Hannah and Sam, had recently learned that their older brother Zack, who was a Sergeant in the Army stationed in Afghanistan, had been killed when his tank was hit by an IED. This led our group to want to speak with teens in Afghanistan, to try to understand how they felt about the war, and ask what peace meant to them.

The Skype call was led by a volunteer in Afghanistan who had gathered a small group of boys in a mountainous village about 7 hours outside Kabul. It was a very moving and informative call. The students that participated were very surprised at how close they felt to the Afghan teens. The kids we talked to live in this small area outside of Kabul.

A recent military raid killed 15 in their area and they told us that over 3,000 college students took to the streets to demonstrate. They asked the Groton kids how they thought they would react if 15 people in their town were killed. Many said they have never known a peaceful time; their entire lives have been scarred by constant war and battling. Several of the Afghan teens said peace meant feeling safe, a quiet time, time to think and just be themselves. This seemed to shock my students, who all come from very wealthy families and have time to themselves and every convenience you can think of.

My students asked many interesting questions and I could see in their faces they were connecting very closely with these students a world away. They were all very excited that we had set up another time to Skype and that we might become close friends. Many comments were made about how much we are alike. We will be Skyping again with these same teens this Sunday. Two of my boys have kept in contact with two of the Afghan teens; this has been a marvelous connection.

It shows us all, first hand, that we are all similar and the more we get to know one another, the less there is to fight about. I believe these students and this generation will change the world through technology that allows for greater, first-hand understanding. They were not talking about “what they could do,” but were “doing it!” This program needs to be shared and used worldwide, it’s these little steps that will bring our big world together.

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