City Montessori School is probably the world's only
school to have a separate World Unity & Peace
Education Department (WUPED). The concept of "educating
for Unity" is undoubtedly a daunting task. But
then, we feel that educating for Unity is the best
solution. Education is at the core of fundamental
social change in our world. We believe in the power
of education to influence and shape society that values
social justice, respect for others and a belief in
the dignity and rights of every human life - in short,
a culture of Unity.
We are living in an age where we know more about
what Unity is not, than what Unity is. Violence is
emerging in an unprecedented manner in the world today.
In fact, despite today's so-called highly developed
state of society, we are actually living in an era
of unprecedented violence in varied forms viz., terrorism,
war, crimes, injustice, oppression and exploitation.
Children have a natural tendency to absorb and assimilate
things from the environment. Given the all-pervading
presence of violence in today's world, violence often
echoes in the actions and behavior of school students
as well. The prospect of these children absorbing
the spirit of violence and growing into being the
next generation of perpetrators of violence cannot
be ruled out. Hence, the urgent need to nurture Unity
in the hearts of children.
UNITY EDUCATION is the transmission of knowledge
about the requirements of, the obstacles to, and possibilities
for achieving and maintaining unity, training in skills
for interpreting the knowledge and the development
of reflective and participatory capacities for applying
the knowledge to overcoming problems and achieving
possibilities. In simple terms, it is concerned mainly
with Unity building and emphasizes the learning process
on all levels. Unity education deals with "positive
unity" - a concern with areas and problems of
economic deprivation, environment, resources, universal
human rights and social justice ie., having a concern
for the affairs of the age.
The philosophy of unity education is not to simply
meet, talk and be friendly but to investigate the
roots and causes that create violence in order to
determine how education can interrupt or stop this
cycle. The general purpose is to promote the development
of authentic consciousness that will enable us to
function as "global citizens" rather than
restricting oneself to the confines of national boundaries.
Thus, the values promoted by unity education include
rejection of violence, behavioural as well as institutional
change and, last but not least, a change in the system
of values. In other words, unity education is not
simply advocating mutual acceptance but promoting
a change in thinking.
CMS also believes in according equal importance to
unity within and without. CMS emphasizes on all three
aspects of education - material, human and divine.
Moral education is a part and parcel of CMS curriculum
and is integrated fully within its fabric. In fact,
spiritual perception is one of the four building blocks
of CMS education along with knowledge, wisdom and
eloquent speech. WUPED facilitates all this through
a series of activities organized by the school on
a regular basis.
