SELF-AWARENESS AS A PRE-REQUISITE FOR PEACE

"Bring your work back to the workshop twenty times. Polish it continuously, and polish it again." —Nicolas Boileau

SELF-AWARENESS AS A PRE-REQUISITE FOR PEACE

In the Exchange guidebook on peace education, Hearing Everyone's Voice: Educating Young Children for Peace and a Democratic Community, Edited by Susan Hopkins, discusses self-awareness as foundation of a caring community:

"A positive self-image lies at the root of trusting human relationships. Children's self awareness grows tremendously in the early years, the time of recognizing the self as autonomous. Many factors contribute to this process. The most basic is security, a feeling that comes with having had many experiences of being accepted rather than rejected, of feeling safe and nurtured rather than threatened and ignored. Trust is built when a child knows that, no matter what, she is valued and accepted and that, no matter what, adults will set reasonable limits and keep the world safe. From this base, children reach out, acquire skills, and become competent. This learning by doing, if it is built on self confidence and independence, requires unrushed time, room for mistakes, patient adults, and plenty of opportunities to experiment and express feelings. Along with this learning, children can cultivate positive feelings about their sexual and ethnic heritage, thus developing a healthy body image. Altogether, a positive self-image brings feelings of trust, competence, and joy and reduces helplessness, apathy, and inability to respond. Furthermore, acceptance and love of self prepare the ground for accepting and loving others.