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G.M. Oguire: Education through Service in Building a Culture of Peace
Written by George M. Oguire, Vice President, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification-Nigeria
Saturday, September 21, 2013
EDUCATION THROUGH SERVICE IN BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE
By George M. Ogurie
Vice President, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification-Nigeria
Commemoration of the United Nations International Day of Peace, Abuja, Nigeria, September 21, 2013
Our dear country, Nigeria, is beset with socio-political problems and there must be a comprehensive way of addressing them. That is why, on this international day of peace, the organizers of this conference have decided to put forth a theme like this. It sounds like an attempt to address our problems holistically.
The Role of Education
Generally speaking, education is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, habits, ethics and values of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training, or research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of others, but may also be achieved by oneself – teaching oneself. In other words, any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered education.
We may classify education into formal, informal and non-formal.
Formal education is institutionalized. A clear curriculum is drawn and goals set with a clear system of evaluation to determine the attainment of learning goals. Formal education is hierarchical, divided into levels, with one level as prerequisite for the next, as in the school system – primary, secondary and tertiary. It is regulated by governmental authority. Therefore all formal educational institutions within the jurisdiction of a governmental authority are similar in operation and in content.
Non-formal education is a system in which skills, information, and knowledge are shared without hierarchy or the institutional environment of formal schooling. Most vocational education in which trade and crafts are learned through apprenticeship system are non-formal. Methods of self instruction through the use of libraries, the internet etc are also non-formal.
Informal education mostly refers to indigenous education in which customs, habits, values, methods, models are learned. It is a natural system of assimilation through learning by doing. Teachers here are older family members, mentors and peers. Learning is through participation in every activity of daily life.
How can education foster a Culture of Peace? It depends on the underlying philosophy of education or the paradigms by such philosophies are built. So far contemporary education has been heavily influenced by the likes of Adam Smith, Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud. Such has not brought about a culture of peace. We must therefore seek new paradigms and educational philosophy that will foster bring about the desire culture of peace.
In the above classification of education we can further categorize education into two broad categories, based on what is learned, namely moral/spiritual education and technical/vocational education. These two may be delivered and received formally, non-formally or informally.
These two broad classifications of education correspond to the two dimensions of a human being: the spiritual dimension and the physical dimension, internal dimension and external dimension, the mind and the body. The human mind seeks for truth, beauty, goodness and love. Whereas the body seeks for food, shelter, wealth and comfort. A balanced education therefore is one in which these two dimensions of human needs are taken into account and harmonized for the attainment of human well-being and wholesome happiness. Therefore the traditional role of education has been:
1. Passing on knowledge and cultural values
2. Teaching moral standards and social responsibilities
3. Preparing good citizens
Education in which ever form should have the moral goal producing persons with mature character, who are able to engage in loving relationships and family and then make positive contributions to society.
Culture of Peace
The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the year 2000 as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and issued a document titled The Manifesto 2000 Pledge. The document outlined six areas of focus:
1. Respect the life and dignity of each human being without discrimination and prejudice.
2. Practice active non-violence, rejecting violence in all its forms: physical, sexual, psychological, economical and social, in particular towards the most deprived and vulnerable such as children and adolescents.
3. Share time and material resources in a spirit of generosity to put an end to exclusion, injustice and political and economic oppression.
4. Defend freedom of expression and cultural diversity giving preference always to dialogue and listening without engaging in fanaticism, defamation and the rejection of others.
5. Promote consumer behavior that is responsible and development practices that respect all forms of life and preserve the balance of nature on the planet.
6. Contribute to the development of community, with the full participation of women and respect for democratic principles, in order to create together new forms of solidarity.
Expanding the time frame of this initiative, the General Assembly declared the period 2001-2010 the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World. The 2001 Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded jointly to the United Nations and its Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. These U.N. initiatives reflect the desire for peace and harmony among the peoples of the world. However, even as the Manifesto 2000 Pledge was issued, 68 nations around the world were involved in armed conflict.[1] In the following year, a new cycle of war began in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. On the local front there has been a series of inter-ethnic conflicts, militancy in the Niger Delta and at the moment we have the Boko Haram insurgency which has claimed more than 3,600 lives. The proliferation of local, regional, ethnic and religious conflicts around the world illustrates the urgent need for a transition from a culture of strife to a culture of peace.
A culture of peace is not the same as the politics of peace. The term culture of peace focuses on the internal factors that contribute to the way to peace. Culture suggests people’s mindset, identity and way of living. It is the shared set of assumptions, values and beliefs of a group of people by which they organize their common life. Culture is linked in profound ways to ethnicity, religion, the arts and traditions. Thus, focusing on a culture of peace challenges us to look more deeply at our human condition. It is helpful to have a principle that can energize us and unify our efforts for peace. The organizing principle of a culture of peace is to live for the sake of others. A culture of peace cannot be imposed from the outside; it is cultivated in the hearts of peace-loving people and ripples outward like a pebble tossed into a lake. Starting with the daily life of individuals of good character, the culture of peace extends in a natural fashion to harmonious families and to communities and nations guided by universal values and principles.
The Manifesto 2000 Pledge echoes this model of expansion from a core in stating that peace “begins within oneself and the home, spreads out to the community, then on to the regional, national and international levels.”
A culture of peace develops over time and is transmitted through the various educational processes. For example, the action words in the Manifesto 2000 Pledge refer to the past (defend, preserve), present (respect, practice, share, dialogue, listen, contribute, participate) and future (develop, create). Thus, a culture of peace finds roots in core universal values, develops through interaction and collaboration, and aims for shared goals.
Thus, in addition to fostering material development, a culture of peace brings separated groups into relationship and helps diverse people discover what they have in common as human beings.
Inter-cultural experiences are greatly enriched when participants from diverse backgrounds collaborate to meet the needs of others. As we work together for worthy purposes, we begin to see beyond the externals and realize how much we have in common as human beings. Living for the sake of others and promoting the greater good help dissolve barriers and build bridges of peace. Thus, service and peace are fundamentally linked.
This presentation explores the foundations for a culture of peace and promotes education through service as a way to foster it. It explores various ways that service and peace intersect, advocating a lifestyle of service.
The Foundations of a Culture of Peace
A culture of peace is not something that can be achieved by magic. Neither can it come about just because it has been declared by the declared by the United Nations. It is rooted in people of mature character and deep heart. Since a culture is shaped by the character of its people, a culture of peace depends on peaceable people whose thoughts, feelings and actions promote peace. Deep-hearted people look for ways to broaden their scope of caring. Such individuals can expand the culture of peace to the family, community, nation and beyond by serving others and working for the greater good.
Serving others deepens our understanding of ourselves, increases our capacity to love others, and empowers us to contribute to the well-being of society and a culture of peace. These basic life goals of a mature character, loving relationships and family, and making a contribution to society which are the moral goals of education are the foundation for a culture of peace.
Mature Character and Inner Peace
A culture of peace begins within the individual. It is rooted in inner peace. Character involves our whole life— what we think, feel, and do, and why. Therefore, cultivation of character and heart deserves special focus. Educator Kevin Ryan defines good character as “Knowing the good, loving
the good, and doing the good.” Opportunities for service stimulate people to act on what they know to be good and develop a love for what is good. Thus, mature character is congruence of knowledge, emotions and actions. People of mature character:
• Can distinguish between right and wrong.
• Make choices that benefit the greater good as well as themselves.
• Carry out their commitments.
• Develop a love for living for the sake of others.
People of mature character are guided by their conscience to serve the greater good. They recognize what is good and are willing to take responsibility. This conscience is cultivated at home, school and in the community.
Our conscience urges us to follow through on our commitments. Serving others provides direct opportunities to learn the importance of integrity. If I say to some people “I’m coming to visit you”, they should be able to trust that I will actually come.
People of mature character put the needs of others above their self-interest and open their hearts to the giving and receiving of love. Such training in humility, respect, generosity and service provides a foundation for a mature character.
To learn to care, people need to put care into practice. UPF founder, Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, states: “True love is to be gained through life experience and understood through internal realization. True love is not something that can be learned through words, a written text or schooling. It is experienced completely only in life.”[2]
Our heart, intellect, will and actions intersect most fully through serving others. We experience personal peace and fulfillment when we carry out our heart’s desire to live for the sake of others. This is the core foundation for a culture of peace. And such exemplary lifestyle is a concrete educational material.
Harmonious and Loving Relationships
Family experiences help prepare people for the many dimensions of harmonious relationships that promote a culture of peace. The root of family peace is a husband and wife who recognize that they were born for the sake of each other, devote themselves to living for the sake of each other, and are willing even to die for the sake of each other. Such devotion deepens their heart and character, and it shapes the culture of the family.
The family offers an opportunity to develop many kinds of emotional bonds and to cultivate four realms of heart. The child’s heart grows through receiving and responding to parental love. The sibling’s heart grows through interaction among brothers and sisters, friends and peers. The spouse’s heart develops in the intimacy of the marriage relationship.
Finally, the parent’s heart develops through loving and caring for children. Parental love is the vertical axis of harmony and peace. Harmonious interactions among siblings and between husband and wife establish the horizontal axis of harmony and peace.
Thus, a loving family is preparation for developing the loving, harmonious relationships that constitute our second life goal. Such relationships are the initial expression of the realm of peace and energize its expansion to all social relationships.
Caring experiences at home promote a well-balanced character and enable us to relate well with many kinds of people. An old man on the street can be respected as our grandfather. A woman our age can be treated as our sister. Little children playing in the schoolyard can be regarded as our children, or our younger brothers and sisters.
Service offers a way to expand our heart by connecting with people we would not otherwise meet. There is a natural human longing for caring relationships. This longing for caring communities and a caring world finds its fulfillment in a culture of peace. A study on how people learn to care includes the following observation: “People are hungry for connecting with others and helping is a wonderful avenue for it…. Offering a vision of how to help can liberate their energies, open their hearts, and enable them to also serve their own needs by joining with and helping others.”[3]
The most persistent problems come from a basic lack of respect, understanding and love for “the other”—whoever that may be. It might be the elderly person down the street, or the neighbor who doesn’t look or speak like we do, or the one with a serious physical handicap. It could even be someone in our own family.
Through service, people come face to face with that “other” person. Service projects often target those who are different or who need special care and support. In this way, participants learn to understand, respect, have compassion for, and love those in their school, their community and the world who may be different.
The highest form of service fosters a balance, with everyone having opportunities to give and opportunities to receive. If there is an imbalance between giving and receiving, both sides diminish. The key to balance in relationships is experiencing balance within ourselves.
Each one has something to give, whether tangible or intangible, and contributes to the whole. To be willing to receive love from someone is a gift.
Each one of us has the capacity to give and receive care, love and compassion. The more that natural capacity is stimulated and exercised, the stronger it becomes. Each opportunity to serve and connect with people who are different from us develops a new facet of our heart and contributes to a culture of peace.
In working for the greater good, friendships are forged that go beyond culture and nationality. Such friendships develop not from discussing differences but from working for a common purpose in the service of others. Such bonds develop when people respect and value others, work side-by-side for the greater good, and demonstrate compassion and understanding. These are the seeds of peace. When service becomes a natural, joyful, freely offered act of giving, it is an expression of love. By receiving and responding to that gift, the recipient is also offering an expression of love.
Contributing to a Peaceful Society
The third moral goal of education involves making a contribution to society. There is a fundamental human aspiration to develop our potential for creativity and mastery, in order to improve the quality of life and leave a legacy for future generations.
Motivated by true love, people respond to social and environmental needs. As our circle of service broadens, the culture of peace expands. The most exemplary people are those who devote themselves to the well-being of all humankind.
Service can impact people’s relationship to society and the environment in several ways. For example,
People see things in a different light. They become aware of the damage that uncaring, self-centered behavior can cause.
People gain a sense of responsibility. When there is a problem, it is not always necessary to look to others to take care of it. Those who have a stake in the well-being of their community take the initiative to solve its problems.
People gain a sense of belonging. They feel that they are a valued member of the community. Those who serve discover that they are important resources in the community and are more likely to participate in the general affairs of their community. This sense of belonging is especially important for young people and makes them less at risk for substance abuse, violence and promiscuity.
People gain the satisfaction of accomplishing something significant. They can see the positive results of their activity and feel valuable and needed. Such experiences increase the probability of people continuing to look for ways to contribute to the greater good.
Such experiences can empower people to realize that each individual has the capacity to make a meaningful contribution through service, and such service can contribute to a culture of peace.
Surveys show that people who volunteer are far more likely than those who do not volunteer to be concerned about other people and about social issues.[4] As people assess pollution levels or clean up a neighborhood, they come to realize their role in taking care of the world around them and the difference their simple contribution makes both to the environment and to the quality of life of their neighbors.
This observation is affirmed by Dr. Helen LeGette in her book, Parents, Kids and Character. She notes that children with low self-esteem and low academic scores change when they have helping roles in the community: “Youth who have opportunities to care for others through service have higher levels of self-esteem, less depression, better school attendance, and a greater sense of social responsibility.”[5]
Service can expand the horizons for people of any age. Contributing to the greater good lays a foundation for a culture of peace as it stimulates a growing sense of identity and responsibility. A person’s focus expands beyond “myself” to “my” family and “my” community and, potentially, “my” world.
Service directly confronts the selfishness that is the source of so many of the world’s problems. Rather than just pursuing the things we want for our own happiness, liberty and well-being, we try to make these resources accessible to all people. Such experiences lie at the very heart of a culture of peace.
Promoting Service
Serving others plays a vital role in our personal development as members of the human family, as well as sustaining society on all levels. There are many contexts for serving. These can include schools, non-governmental organizations and government programs. The scope of service may be local, national or international. Service may be for a short time or an ongoing involvement. People can serve as part of an organized project or spontaneously in response to a need.
People do not have to look far away for opportunities to serve. Students can develop a sense of pride and responsibility for their school through cleaning the building, beautifying the grounds and helping fellow students. In the home, children help their parents, and families care for relatives and neighbors. People of any age can devote their time and talents to benefiting a larger purpose.
Stimulating an Interest in Serving
There are several approaches to promoting an interest in serving others:
Publicize needs. When people’s hearts are touched by a need that they have the potential to help meet, their conscience urges them to respond.
Identify role models. Family members, teachers, neighbors and other respected people who live for the sake of others serve as models of altruism.
Use mass media. Incorporate altruism in the popular culture.
Spotlight people who are making a difference in the lives of others.
Encourage reciprocity. The experience of receiving help can generate a desire to give in return, either to the helper or to others in need. No one is so rich that they do not need to receive, or so poor that they cannot give.
Promote opportunities for personal growth. Service opportunities can be promoted as a way to meet new people, broaden life experiences, learn useful skills and make a meaningful contribution.
Integrate service with other activities. Stimulating and challenging service opportunities can be integrated into educational, social and cultural activities.
Service Learning
To seriously and proactively create a culture of peace we strongly recommend the integration of service learning into the secondary school and tertiary institutions’ curricula. Service learning means providing opportunities for people to learn and to develop character and heart through serving others. It refers to programs in which participants develop their sense of caring, compassion and responsibility as well as their intellect through serving and living for the sake of others in a meaningful way.
Service learning typically has several aspects:
Teachers and lecturers are actively engaged with the students as and mentors.
Students gain knowledge and skills that contribute to their education.
Students have the opportunity to reflect critically upon their experiences.
The service meets a need identified by the community being served.
Those who receive the service have significant involvement and control over the activities of the students and teachers.[6]
Like many forms of community service and field work, service learning offers students opportunities to use their skills and knowledge in real-life situations. Service learning has the special features of being integrated into an academic curriculum and providing structured time for reflection. Its focus is on cultivating a caring spirit.
The theme of serving is an integral part of moral education. Simply learning about the value of caring may increase people’s moral knowledge but it does not necessarily develop their commitment to caring, their confidence that they can help, or the skills they need in order to help effectively. To cultivate a sense of caring and responsibility, as with any other moral quality, requires an experiential approach that integrates all three aspects of character: knowing (cognitive), feeling (affective) and action (behavioral).
One of the most important ways a service project can facilitate learning is by scheduling regular opportunities for participants to reflect, write and talk about their service experiences. Reflection gives participants the opportunity to make a commitment to connect the experiences from the service project to daily life and develop a lifestyle of service.
Studies of school-based service programs have shown that people who participated in these programs do develop a sense of responsibility and personal integrity. In fact, students with poor academic
performance, discipline problems and low self-esteem frequently gain the most through serving others. In essence, they learn that they can change, take responsibility and be problem solvers.[7]
Almost any type of service activity can promote learning, especially when opportunities are provided for group and individual reflection.
Types of Service Projects
Several types of service projects offer excellent learning opportunities. These include disaster-based, intergenerational, educational, environmental and social issue-based. Projects that create bonds among people from diverse cultures, nations and races make important contributions to culture of peace.
Disaster-based activities allow participants to support a community or region that has been devastated by a natural or man-made disaster. Projects might include rebuilding houses, businesses or community buildings; assessing needs; helping the homeless; assembling care packages for disaster areas; or working to prevent similar tragedies and destruction from happening again. Disaster-based projects challenge participants to put the needs of the community ahead of their own and to realize how much we need each other’s support.
Projects that bring generations together can be created in many communities; they can be particularly appropriate for adolescents. There are several means by which young people can serve their elders. These can include: doing household jobs for people living alone, providing meals for the homebound, working in eldercare facilities and nursing homes, teaching classes to senior citizens, or advocating for issues of concern to senior citizens.
There may be opportunities for the young and the old to work side by side. Many people continue to be very active into their seventies and even beyond. Young people who work with them can inherit their expertise and willingness to serve.
Connecting senior citizens and young people can be the basis of a very valuable program. Both age groups benefit from these projects. The younger partners learn from the rich historical resources and wisdom offered by the elderly, and the older partners feel a new sense of worth and value by having someone to whom they can pass on their experiences.
Educational activities are also a common focus of service learning programs. Mentoring and peer counseling are probably some of the most common projects within this category. However, there are many other project possibilities. Activities may include designing a big brother/big sister program in which older youth are paired with younger children or youth who are new to the community.
Other projects include organizing fundraisers and benefits for playground equipment or computers for a local school. Students can lobby about community concerns. Again, these projects draw participants into a dynamic relationship that challenges them to give of themselves to others. In addition to gaining skills and knowledge, participants develop their sense of caring and responsibility.
Environmental and ecological issues can be a source of creative projects. These might involve assessing the pollution level of local bodies of water, planting trees, cleaning up a community park or riverfront area, advocating for cleaner rivers and lakes, protecting wildlife, monitoring soil quality, finding ways to lower air pollution, promoting recycling programs, and cleaning up graffiti.
Environmental projects encourage participants to take responsibility for the natural world and to recognize our relationship as stewards in this world. Through dealing with the results of apathy and neglect of our environment, people can develop vital insights into what it means to be a responsible and caring individual.
Finally, service projects can focus on a social issue or advocate for improved conditions. Such projects allow participants to target an issue that is important to a particular community or region. Service projects can target such issues as hunger, homelessness, disease, poverty, child abuse, drug abuse, family breakdown, deteriorating values and escalating conflict.
Once a service project is completed, people may wonder how to sustain momentum. Local leaders can be incorporated into the planning and implementation of the project and encouraged to develop it further. Ideally, staff, participants and recipients develop connections of heart that will promote further involvement.
Ongoing connections of heart among people from diverse backgrounds promote a culture of peace. In the following section we explore a variety of links between service and a culture of peace.
The Intersection of Service and Peace
Everybody can reach out to serve in some way and thus help promote a culture of peace. Each person we meet is a gateway to all humanity. Thus, we serve each person with the heart that he or she represents all humankind.
A Circle of Learning
Opportunities for service provide new and interesting perspectives on life and its challenges. They stimulate a deeper understanding of others and also ourselves.
In the process of serving, we learn more about ourselves. It touches the deepest core of our being: our heart and conscience. We come face to face with our own limitations in our capacity for compassion and caring. Our stereotypes and prejudices may be challenged by first-hand experiences with people who are different from us. A different environment can give us a healthier perspective of our own situation— including the personal problems and challenges we face. The challenges we face may seem less significant when we become involved with people whose problems are far greater than ours. This may stimulate us to explore solutions to our problems and work to carry them out.
Personal growth comes when we are willing to leave our “comfort zones” and challenge ourselves. Only through transcending our own limitations can we achieve excellence. Service that stimulates us to reach beyond our previous experiences helps us recognize that limitations lie within ourselves rather than in the surrounding environment. Then, anything becomes possible.
Serving also helps us understand others and catalyze love and compassion. When we spend time working together for a common purpose with people of different racial, religious or ethnic groups, we have an opportunity to understand each other more deeply. We learn to know each other as individuals and not as stereotyped members of an unknown, feared or hated group. Teamwork offers a natural setting for developing non-violent conflict resolution skills. As we work side by side, we grow to love and respect each other and share the joys of accomplishment.
Through serving together, we gain insights about the causes of social and environmental problems. We are challenged to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Such experiences can stimulate people to develop the knowledge, skills and leadership to make a difference.
The lessons we learn through serving are valuable assets we can bring into any relationship. What we learn through working together as a team can impact relationships at home, at school, at work, in the community, etc. It extends the family bonds and responsibilities into the wider community. People need to learn civic responsibility in order to participate fully in their communities. People who engage in service projects learn that individuals working together can make a difference.
Personal contact with those who suffer can counterbalance people’s preoccupation with themselves.
People can realize that the challenges they face are not so unique or unsolvable, and that there are many things they can be grateful for. Teachers have found that when service is incorporated into the
school curriculum, it reduces cliques and peer rivalry.1 Learning to work together helps students discover new talents and sensibilities in one another.
Linking service to a culture of peace means integrating service with the development of heart and character, promoting understanding and cooperation among diverse people, and making a substantial contribution to solving social and environmental problems. This helps create a circle of learning.
Service becomes more meaningful when time is set aside for reflection. People can learn a great deal by reflecting on their motivations, their observations, their reactions, their contributions and the relationships they are developing. Reflection can be spontaneous or planned, a one-time activity or an integral part of the schedule. The balance between action and reflection gives the experience of service a lasting impact. Change and development occur when people take such time for reflection or listen to other people share their reflections.
When we enter the realm of another culture—absorbing its stories, rituals and wisdom—we can return to our own tradition with new-found insight.
Linking People Together
Our natural tendency is to live as social beings. This means that as individuals we are naturally oriented to live for a purpose beyond ourselves. However, this potential needs cultivation.
The health of our communities depends on the joint efforts of their citizens. There is a growing recognition that opportunities for service build trust and reciprocity, creating more cohesive societies. As American educator Thomas Lickona has noted, “Service, not self-interest, holds our world together. If more children learned early in life that they have responsibilities as well as rights, there’d be fewer teenagers, and fewer adults, who are always demanding their rights but have no sense of their obligations.”
Parents and children serving together develop stronger bonds and create a legacy of serving others. For example, family members can work together preparing and distributing food, painting a building or cleaning up a public area.
Individuals are members of families, and family members have a common purpose to sustain their family and the family to sustain the individuals. Families together constitute a community, and thus families have a common purpose to sustain their community. In turn, the community seeks to sustain its families. In a similar fashion, communities constitute the larger society and nation and thus have a common purpose to sustain them. In turn, the larger society needs to sustain its communities. Global peace is promoted when nations work for the welfare of the world and the world sustains the nations. Thus, people at every level are connected by interlinking purposes.
While the public purposes link all levels of society together, the individual purposes maintain the integrity of the individuals, families, etc. The public purposes and individual purposes need not be viewed as contradictory.
In a healthy society, the whole supports the welfare of its constituents. In turn, prosperous constituents have more to contribute to the whole.
When service projects include participants and local residents from different races, faiths and nationalities, the opportunities for understanding and healing can be quite profound. When people of different races, nationalities, faiths and ethnic groups work side by side for the sake of others, barriers begin to melt as people experience their common humanity. People can challenge their limitations and learn to work harmoniously together. This helps them broaden their heart and expand their zone of comfort in relating to those who are different. Service best promotes a culture of peace when ongoing relationships develop among those involved in serving. Thus, a serving community provides a model for harmony within diversity.
Seeds of peace are sown when people who would otherwise never meet are drawn together in the act of service. This broadening of the sense of identity and of community is one of the most profound fruits of service.
Empowerment
Sometimes there is an imbalance between the people who are serving and the people being served. Service is often done for people, rather than with them. When those who serve seem superior to those in need, it can be deeming to human dignity. As a result, the poor and abused may see themselves as victims, and those with more resources may consider material wealth to be the source of one’s value and identity.
In contrast, everyone can be invited to join the network of cooperation and collaboration. A culture of peace values everyone’s contributions—no matter how big or how small.
The ethic of living for the sake of others is not just for those who are blessed materially; it applies to all members of the human family.
Some organizations are noted for this approach. For example, when Habitat for Humanity builds a house, the family who will live in the house invests hundreds of hours working side by side with volunteers to build it. Recipients of Heifer Project animals, such as a cow, pig or chicken, promise to donate a female offspring to another family. When Laubach Literacy volunteers teach someone to read, that person makes a commitment to teach another person to read.
This approach is expressed in the common saying, “If you give a person a fish, he can eat for a day. If you show him how to make a fishing pole and teach him how to fish, he and his family can eat for a lifetime.”
Holistic Development
Human beings consist of both a physical nature and a spiritual nature. Therefore, holistic development is a collaborative physical and spiritual process. As long as developmental aid concentrates on alleviating poverty, hunger, disease and violence through financial and material means alone, people will continue to be plagued by such problems. Lack of money or access to goods and services has not been the real source of social problems. Therefore, unlimited amounts of money and goods will not solve these problems either.
The fundamental problems have always been moral, ethical and spiritual. Greed, selfishness and hatred cannot be solved with the allocation of financial resources alone. Therefore, it is essential to address the moral and ethical dimensions of development.
Many cultures have traditional patterns of mutual assistance. When conflict, dislocation and disaster disrupt these patterns, holistic development seeks ways to restore them. The ideal of development stimulates people to live selflessly, practice mutual love and respect, and strive to go beyond their cultural, political, religious and personal boundaries to create communities of peace and ultimately a culture of peace.
Dissolving Barriers
Sincerely offering one’s service for the sake of another helps overcome resentments. People of one group may harbor deep-seated fears and resentments against people of another group because of bigotry, racism, injustice, oppression and war. Thus, service projects that aim for a culture of peace invite representatives from conflicting groups to go to a new setting and work for the benefit of others.
When people see representatives from an enemy group reach out in sincere service to others, it can open hearts on all sides.
Exploitation has a long history of sparking conflict. Individuals, groups and nations who feel superior to others have used one another in the cruelest ways. Service is the way to reverse exploitation. In the process of service, whether locally or internationally, people begin to see each other as members of one extended family.
Service involves restoring right relationships. Therefore, we should expect interpersonal difficulties and even welcome them as opportunities to establish better relationships. It is challenging to build positive relationships with difficult people and work with people from various cultures and races. It is especially difficult to continue serving, even in the face of rejection. Any service done with a heart of love will have some positive effect, even if none is immediately apparent.
In its purest form, service is an expression of love, and it can be a powerful means of reducing tensions and dissolving barriers. Thus, service can be a catalyst for a culture of peace.
Historic resentments endure for centuries and millennia without resolution. Negotiations and treaties do not change people’s hearts. Service has the greatest potential to change people’s hearts.
Transformation of Heart
Service has the potential to transform both recipient and the giver. In the act of serving, volunteers find their own value enhanced as others recognize and appreciate their service. In addition, the beneficiaries can experience an enhanced value by the fact that someone is willing to sacrifice their time, comfort and resources for their sake.
By the time the project is finished and the objectives fulfilled, all the participants have been affected in some way. When people express their ideals through selfless service, it stimulates both the participants and the surrounding community. Psychologists Anne Colby and William Damon point out: “The sight of a highly virtuous person living a life dedicated to a moral cause can have a powerfully influential effect on other people’s moral behavior. As a rule, people are far more captivated by the example of a human life than by an ideational treatise.”[8]
People who serve often become the symbols of goodness and a rallying point for others. When we go into a community with the motivation to serve and embody that desire with concrete practice we provide a symbol of what the community can become.
Social scientists have found that when the minority’s behavior is perceived by the majority as both extreme and virtuous, sooner or later the majority will move in the direction of the admired minority. For example, Sere Moscovici stated: “When an individual adopts a behavior that most individuals would themselves like to carry out, he or she serves as an example and has a liberating effect.”[9] A focus on serving others can initiate a transformation that makes living for the sake of others an integral part of everyday life.
The basis of world peace is a culture of service in which we learn to relate as one human family. In the process of service, whether locally or internationally, people develop a sense of interrelatedness and begin to see each other as members of one extended family.
Happiness and Fulfillment
French physician and philosopher Albert Schweitzer observed: “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
The experience of peace is closely linked with the experience of joy. We experience joy through resemblance, when our inner ideals are manifested in external reality. Furthermore, to develop relationships with other people who have similar values, aspirations, experiences and interests is very rewarding. Direct experiences of transcending barriers that divide people teach us that as human beings our similarities far outnumber our differences.
Through working together on a project, people experience a shared joy of accomplishment. Such experiences influence the way we function in our family, community and nation. The culture that grows out of these understandings and experiences will be a culture of peace.
This lecture was adapted from the International Educational Foundation’s Searching for Life’s True Purpose - Perspectives on Morality and Ethics - Fostering a Culture of Peace through Service
References
1. “2000 World Conflict List.” Annual compilation of the (U.S.) National Defense Council Foundation. Ndcf.org/Home3.htm.
2. Sun Myung Moon, “View of the Principle of the Providential History of Salvation.” Address to the Washington Times Foundation, April 16, 1996.
3. Ervin Staub, “How People Learn to Care,” in Paul G. Schervish, et al., Care and Community in Modern Society (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1995), p. 64.
4. Virginia Hodgkinson, “Key Factors Influencing Caring, Involvement and Community,” In Paul G. Schervish, et al., Care and Community in Modern Society: Passing on the Tradition of Service to Future Generations (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995), p. 48.
5. Helen LeGette, Parents, Kids and Character: 21 Strategies to Help Your Kids Develop Good Character (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Character Development Group, 1999).
6. Adapted from Ruth Marcous Bounous, ed., New Directions: Teaching and Research (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, Working Papers Series on Service-Learning, v. 1, 1997), p. 5.
7. Dwight Giles and Janet Eyler surveyed 1500 students and found that service-learning improves students’ ability to understand and analyze complex problems and formulate complex solutions. They published their findings a book entitled, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning? (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999).
8. Ann Colby and William Damon, Some Do Care: Contemporary Lives on Moral Commitment (New York: Free Press, 1992), p. 23.
9. S. Moscovici, Social Influences and Social Change (London: Academie Press, 1976).