Creating a Better and More Peaceful World

Every morning, we watch the news in our household to stay in touch with what is happening across Australia and the world. This week, the news has been dominated by examples of escalating violence. The murder of a police officer in my home state of Tasmania, the discovery of the body of a 17-year-old girl missing in Bundaberg, shootings in Sydney, and other equally disturbing stories.  

Beyond Australia, the bigger news has been Iran and Israel, and the daily escalation of air strikes on each country. Moving to the background is Ukraine, but on Thursday, after a direct hit on Kyiv, 28 people were killed. We have heard less about Gaza this week, but the impact of the ongoing conflict within Gaza is still unfolding as I write. We are also in a “wait and see” position over the next two weeks as Donald Trump vacillates about whether to join the conflict between Israel and Iran. 

With these depressing and hopeless stories, I have felt like pulling away from engaging with the news and its examples of immense tragedy. I feel like there is nothing I can do about it. In the cooler weather, we sometimes seek comfort, and likewise, when hearing negative news stories, we can easily want to switch off or escape by watching the latest binge-worthy series.  

It is important, though, to take the time to engage with what is happening around us and on a global scale and look beyond our backyards and local communities. When violence is escalating in other parts of the world, we can use these moments of sadness and tragedy to learn about and advocate for peace. As educators, we want our young people to develop their capacity for empathy, to engage with sadness and tragedy constructively, and to build resilience through the cultivation of hope. 

I have spent time over the last few years reading about peace education. When we think about peace, we often think about its opposite as well: war. When we study major world conflicts, that’s when we usually talk about peace education in our classrooms. We really talk about peace as a state of being in our communities and in our homes. We also rarely talk about peace education as about learning the attitudes and competencies to cultivate and nurture our communities, so that they are places of healing rather than harm. We rarely talk about peace education as about learning to put aside our differences, listen to perspectives that might make us uncomfortable and look for a middle way or path that unites rather than divides us.  

Peace education is about more than the opposite of war and conflict. 

Svi Shapiro in Educating Youth for a world beyond violence: A Pedagogy for Peace states that what is at stake in the pursuit of peace is “the question of whether we recognise the very humanity of those different from ourselves, or whether we continue to depersonalise and demean them.” (107).  Shapiro goes on to say that “the violence against bodies is preceded by the violence that makes the real human presence of the other invisible.” (109) Shapiro invites us to “look into the eyes of another person” where we “witness the mystery of the inexpressible and incomparable other.” I particularly like the way in which he describes looking into the eyes of someone different to ourselves as bearing “witness to the infinite complexity of each and every individual that stands before us.” (p. 111) 

This is a competency and one of the most important we can teach our children and students. At HVGS we want our young people to see the humanity in everyone. When we do this, we cultivate our capacity for empathy and compassion. Empathy is our ability to feel for someone. Compassion is our ability to feel for someone, and hold space for their experience, but also take action that is aligned with our values and that of the communities we belong to. Sometimes we can provide space to listen to the experiences and perspectives of another person, but also recognise that the behaviours and words of that person have caused harm. Such a moment calls for compassionate action, acknowledging the perspective or experience while taking action that reduces or repairs the harm caused by their behaviours.  

As I contemplate what is happening on a global scale, as well as the tragic deaths of people at the hands of others every day in Australia, I can’t help but wonder, are we really teaching about peace in our schools? Are we doing enough to help our young people develop the attitudes and competencies integral to cultivating peace? Are our students able to, and ready to, look into the “eyes of another person” and bear witness to that person’s complexity? Are some people invisible to ourselves or our students, such that we see them as bad and depersonalise them rather than see them as human beings grappling with the complexities of life just as we are?  

Recently, a man who was living on the streets in Maitland made camp close to my gym. In the early mornings, when everything else is shut on the high street of Maitland, this man would come and knock on the gym door, shout at us, imitate the trainers, and generally look for ways to “interact”. As I listened to the responses of other gym members, I heard everything from fear to indifference to anger. In the end, the man’s behaviour escalated; he broke a window, and the police arrived. Likely, there was a backstory combination of very bad life choices and trauma that led to his current state. I tell this story because this was a man without a home, cold, hungry, and nowhere to go, but we didn’t see any of this, really. For most of us in my gym, this man was depersonalised: he interrupted our morning routine, intimidated the coaches and clients, instilled fear and made a general nuisance of himself. I don’t know what would have happened if, at some point in this man’s life, someone had intervened by bearing witness to his humanity. Would his life trajectory have been different?  

Back to our students. When our students pause, seek to understand the perspective of another person, see the other person as a human being with a complex backstory that impacts how they act and talk, they become better at navigating the challenges that human interactions present.

Building a restorative culture at HVGS begins with this: intentionally creating opportunities for students to come together with a person to whom they have caused harm, or has harmed them, recognising their humanity and removing the veil of invisibility.  

Witnessing “the infinite complexity of each and every individual that stands before us” should be the aspiration of all of us. We should aspire to do this, and help our children do this. This aspiration gives me hope when I watch the news and see tragedy and violence unfolding. If we truly work hard to help our children not only learn the basics and be the best version of themselves but also be able to look into the eyes of others and see the mystery of their “inexpressible and incomparable” humanity, then we are creating a better and more peaceful world. Our children will then be the change we all hope to see.