Peace Education
We believe that the best way of preventing future conflicts is to educate people about non-violent conflict resolution and the power of peace.
One of our committee members, Paul Andrews, has been very active campaigning on this issue. This is his report:
"Peace Education in schools has been an agenda item of mine for some time now. There appears to be a growing interest within schools to raise the profile of conflict resolution and looking at alternative methods to violence. It is with this in mind that we have undertaken work with several secondary schools in the Lancaster area, alongside some helpful friends both young and old from Lancaster Quakers.
In September 2007, a number of young Friends from Lancaster undertook a project to present to two separate assemblies within Central Lancaster High School. The theme was Peace One Day, and despite some initial nerves it appears to have been well received.
In January 2009, I prepared some material with one of Lancaster's very own experienced and active peace campaigners: Mo Kelly. We presented this to a group of Queen Elizabeth's Sixth Form students in Kirkby Lonsdale. Our theme centered upon our personal journeys into the Peace movement and raised many questions for the thirty plus students who attended our two separate workshops. Our central theme was "Peace in the 21st Century", and with the aid of "CND at 50 -The Story of a Peace Movement" graphic displays we traced the last 50 years of campaigning since the Aldermaston marches. We emphasized the need to keep peace very much in the minds of all of us.
We connected up the wider aspects of peace both in the family, schools, community, and at a much larger scale within the wider world including the threatened use of nuclear weapons by many nations, including our own.
Since then we have continued the work in Lancaster area schools and in December 2009 we were fortunate to have renowned veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent visit us in Lancaster, along with Anna Liddle, CNDUK's Peace Education Officer, to mount an afternoon peace education session for Lancaster area sixth-formers in the Friends Meeting House in Lancaster, followed by a public session with Bruce in the evening.
A similar session is now planned for February 9 in 2012, again with Bruce Kent as visiting speaker both for the afternoon session and for a public event in the evening.
Watch this space for more information. Alternatively, if you have any ideas yourself, or would be interested in contributing in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01524 734915."
Paul Andrews
Peace Educator