Dear Friends and Colleagues,
SOMEBODY HAS TO MAKE A START
"All
that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing."
Participants
of the 2006 Qatar Foundation Symposium were asked to consider forming
'task forces' to explore the Symposium's proposals and to report progress
to the Symposium in 2008. The program of the Haberman Foundation of
United States: 'Learning, Listening, Understanding', has the aim of
'reforming education in every country in the world, by bringing programs,
products and human compassion together every one or two years'. It is
to host a forum to this end - also in 2008. I am also in contact with
another U.S. foundation of merit, Seeds of Peace, and hope to learn
soon whether it will be possible to collaborate with them. Currently,
they seem to think so.
On November 4th EducationNews.org, the world's
largest online education journal, published a paper of mine called 'Teaching
Peace'. "Task Force", its sequel, is attached to this message.
It too will soon be published in EducationNews.
Our aim will be to reach and inspire with new
hope the millions of children who will get nothing from wars except
the loss of their fathers or mothers, home, school, hospital, clean
water, food - everything that makes a future worth living for.
We will do this by informing them of what this
third R - the third of Reading, W'riting, and A'rithmetic - can really
do.
Mathematics belongs to no culture and is owned
by no nation. It is the product of thousands of years of patient discovery
and the generosity of thousands of minds freely sharing their discoveries.
This is what human beings can achieve without wars.
Taught through discussion, mathematics can show
children how to think, to argue and to criticise ideas without fear
of ridicule and without creating resentment. As young adults they will
be ready to make democracy work as it should, for they should also know
that: 'A state without the means of change is without the means of its
own preservation.'
If this interests you, I will ask you first
to go to educationnews.org to find 'Teaching Peace'. After reading it,
please give your opinion. Then, if you wish to participate supply your
email address and some details about yourself and how you might be able
to participate: whether as a parent, a school teacher or university
scholar, journalist, politician - or just as yourself.
Sincerely,
Colin Hannaford.
