Peace Education in Schools

Violence is emerging in an unprecedented manner in human society. Looking at the Kashmir today any sensible person feels disheartened and even horrified to see the kind of violent acts being committed by man against man and nature. It is sad to realize that we live in an era of unprecedented violence in the forms of war, crimes, injustice and oppression and exploitation amidst a seemingly outward development enjoyed by a few. The majority of Kashmiri today live in stark poverty, struggling for bare survival. They suffer from free floating anxiety , mental inertia and feeling of hollowness.
There is so much disorder and confusion in the society man has built for himself. The saddest part of the story is that this state of disorder and confusion in the Kashmiri society is affecting the children's innocent minds. Children naturally absorb the spirit of violence in the atmosphere and will soon grow to be the next generation of perpetuators of violence. Therefore the need to nurture peace in the hearts of children has arisen as urgent issues to be addressed. Education is narrowing down into the teaching of certain subject matters necessary only for passing examinations. Due to such subject- centered and examination-oriented learning at school the purpose and the beauty of whole education seems to have much lost. The joy of learning is taken away from children. They are trained to cope with the rat race of the corrupt society. Today school is no more a place of leisure or of peace as the very word 'school' means.
Today teachers complain about increasing disciplinary problems in schools. One teacher says, "I am appalled to see the mindless behaviour of the adolescents in school. Their mentality seems so different from us!" The public criticizes the youth whom we produce at schools as insensitive to the problems of society, selfish, narrow minded, lacking in intellectual depth and susceptible to the violent and corrupt social pressures. The excellence of a few