Fernando Reimers is an associate professor of international education policy at Harvard University’s graduate school of education, in Cambridge, Mass.
Earlier this fall, President Bush announced that the United States would return to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, after an 18-year absence. (“Bush Decision to Rejoin UNESCO Applauded,” Sept. 25, 2002.) While this is a wise decision, it will only make a difference to global peace and security if the organization can rekindle its original mission: to focus attention on what is taught in schools throughout the world. This will require significant internal dialogue on the organization’s commitment to this moral purpose, greater participation of American educators, and more vigorous intellectual collaboration between UNESCO and universities in the United States.
UNESCO’s early goals grew out of the devastation and pain of World War II, when a group of nations had the good judgment to articulate one of the most remarkable ideas of our times: that each and every person on the planet had certain basic, inalienable rights, including the right to be educated.
The United Nations created UNESCO to facilitate the achievement of this right. As a result of these ideas, and UNESCO’s leadership in implementing them, the world experienced the most dramatic rise in access to education in recent history. The number of children enrolled in school worldwide, from kindergarten through college, skyrocketed. In 1950, 206 million children attended elementary school; by 1997, that number was 668 million. At the secondary level, enrollments increased from 40 million to 398 million, and at the college level, the growth is even more staggering: Enrollments jumped from 6.5 million to 88.2 million during the same period.
We are just beginning to understand the implications of this transformation. That today many children around the world have exceeded the education levels of their parents is a testament to the success of that vision. On the other hand, the fact that parental education continues to be one of the most important predictors of educational attainment and achievement throughout the world is a reminder of how much we still have to accomplish to ensure equal educational opportunities.
But UNESCO’s early vision was not just about promoting education for all; it was a political vision that dealt squarely with the purposes of schooling. Fresh memories of the Holocaust and the realization that the Nazis had used schools for political indoctrination made it easy to see why this growing number of schoolchildren needed to learn in an environment that fostered peace and international understanding. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights reflects a moral clarity about the necessary commitment to solidarity and peace that was absent in successive declarative and operational activities of UNESCO or the U.N. family. The authors of this declaration considered this moral component of education part of the basic right of education, and included it in the document: “It shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.” Out of the rubble of World War II, the urgency to expand access to education was perceived as the same thing as focusing on the moral purposes of schooling for all children of the human race.
Despite decades of workshops, conferences, and meetings that have addressed this moral issue, the outcomes are clearly insufficient as measured by today’s challenges to peace and global stability. In 1946, UNESCO first invited member states to review history and civics textbooks to ensure that they indeed fostered international tolerance and understanding. The organization continues to sponsor seminars on whether textbooks foster international understanding.
Unfortunately, these conferences have not been sufficiently effective, as evidenced by the fact that there are still government-sanctioned textbooks in use that teach students to hate people of other cultures. To this day, some history textbooks distort accounts of crimes against humanity. These are powerful reminders of how much work remains before UNESCO achieves its mission, as stated in the first line of its constitution: “That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.”
The assassins that smashed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, killing thousands of people from all over the world not engaged in combat, had received many educational opportunities. By global standards, they were highly schooled. Where did their education fail them? What did their textbooks fail to teach them? The seeds to the genocide in Kosovo were planted and cultivated in the images presented in textbooks and classrooms for decades. It was only after thousands of innocent citizens were murdered that the international community finally acted by producing books that discussed peace and tolerance.
UNESCO's early vision was not just about promoting education for all; it was a political vision that dealt squarely with the purposes of schooling.
Much work remains to be done to align the textbooks in the Palestinian Authority with a long-term commitment to peaceful coexistence with Israel. History textbooks in Japan do not mention the government’s atrocities of war against the people of Korea, depriving students of the opportunity to develop a moral awareness that will make such violence less likely. And only three years ago, textbooks on civic and military instruction produced in Venezuela— with government approval—presented Venezuelan adolescents with negative stereotypes of immigrants and blamed them for the country’s ills, planting the seeds of hatred and creating the conditions for future political violence.
Over the last 20 years, many nations have seen their schools give up their moral purposes. Under attack by politicians and activists who believe the principal function of schools is to produce workers who can compete in the world economy, rather than citizens and people of good judgment committed to universal human values, school budgets have declined, and their curricula have been diluted. The past two decades of failed reforms have left us with children and young adults who cannot read with understanding and, worse yet, are morally illiterate. It should not surprise us that we begin the 21st century with global instability and with a peace that is fragile and uncertain.
If we want schools to teach peace, we need comprehensive approaches that support the reduction of poverty and social exclusion. In expanding educational opportunities to include the most overlooked groups, we also need to focus on how policies are defined and implemented, by holding policymakers accountable to children and their parents, particularly to the most impoverished and overlooked groups.
We need to focus on attracting the most imaginative, talented, and hardworking people of each generation into the classroom. And finally, we need to focus especially on classroom-management practices, on the curriculum, and on how the social composition of classrooms and children’s experiences in school enable them to develop an appreciation for diversity and the ability to trust and engage in collective action with others, especially those whose cultural background differs from their own.
To teach peace and understanding is to attend not just to the images and contents presented in textbooks, but to the very way education systems are organized and managed, to how students of different backgrounds are integrated (or not) in schools, and to how students and teachers spend their time together.
The United States’ return to UNESCO is an important step in the long journey of constructing lasting peace and security. This must be followed by increasing significantly the numbers of highly skilled American educators working in and collaborating with the organization. Today, only 23 people out of a staff of 2,000 are American.
To teach peace and understanding is to attend not just to the images and contents presented in textbooks, but to the very way education systems are organized and managed.
UNESCO also needs to intensify its relationship with American colleges that do the best work on how children should be taught to understand, appreciate, and collaborate with people from other cultures, and who can help to update ideas about how to teach for peace from a sole emphasis on textbook content to more comprehensive and effective approaches. It should enable American educators to learn from what goes on in schools around the world, from how children are taught, and from what they are taught.
Finally, UNESCO should use current telecommunication technologies to facilitate exchanges between teachers and students throughout the world, all the while knowing that this will be resisted by governments who fear the freedom of their people to think for themselves and act independently. As a supranational organization, it cannot depend exclusively on the will of national states to implement international covenants and treaties, particularly its mandate to advance universal human rights and promote international understanding and peace.
This new era of educational dialogue will enable the full integration of American educators into the world community. This will achieve two goals. It will demonstrate to a large number of teachers throughout the world that Americans truly believe that all people are created equal and are ready to join in the struggles of those who labor to make societies open and just for all. More importantly, it will contribute intellectual resources to UNESCO’s yet-unachieved goal: to build the defenses of peace in the minds of people, making sure that our children—indeed, all children—learn to understand our interdependence.
At the beginning of the 21st century, we are living in treacherous times that call for moral clarity. The means of destruction available to nations, groups, and individuals have grown in horrific ways, but they are not greater than our means to mobilize persons of goodwill in making the peaceful coexistence of all people a reality.
It is high time to push aside the corrosive effects of cynicism, moral relativism, and corrupt authoritarianism and go forth in a renewal of the purposes of schools, so that they empower all of us to be free, to have equal options in life, and to be able to live in peace with one another.
A version of this article appeared in the December 11, 2002 edition of Education Week as War, Education, and Peace
Fernando Reimers ni profesa msaidizi wa sera ya elimu ya kimataifa katika Chuo Kikuu cha Harvard cha shule ya kuhitimu ya elimu, huko Cambridge, Mass. Rais Bush alitangaza kuwa Marekani itarudi katika shirika la Umoja wa Mataifa la elimu, sayansi na utamaduni baada ya miaka 18 ya kutokuwepo. (Bush's Decision to Re-join UNESCO Applauded, Sept. 25, 2002) Ingawa uamuzi huu ni wa busara, utafanya tofauti tu kwa amani na usalama wa kimataifa ikiwa shirika linaweza kuamsha tena utume wake wa awali: kuzingatia kile kinachofundishwa katika shule ulimwenguni kote. Hii itahitaji majadiliano makubwa ya ndani juu ya kujitolea kwa shirika kwa kusudi hili la maadili, ushiriki mkubwa wa walimu wa Marekani, na ushirikiano mkubwa wa kiakili kati ya UNESCO na vyuo vikuu nchini Marekani. """Lengo la kwanza la UNESCO lilitokana na uharibifu na maumivu ya Vita Kuu ya Pili, wakati kikundi cha mataifa kilikuwa na uamuzi mzuri wa kuelezea moja ya mawazo ya ajabu zaidi ya nyakati zetu: kwamba kila mtu duniani ana haki fulani za msingi, zisizohamishika, ikiwa ni pamoja na haki ya kupata elimu." Umoja wa Mataifa ulianzisha UNESCO ili kuwezesha kutimizwa kwa haki hii. Kama matokeo ya mawazo haya, na uongozi wa UNESCO katika kutekeleza yao, ulimwengu ulipata ongezeko kubwa zaidi la upatikanaji wa elimu katika historia ya hivi karibuni. Idadi ya watoto waliojiandikisha shuleni ulimwenguni pote, kuanzia shule ya chekechea hadi chuo kikuu, iliongezeka sana. Mwaka 1950, watoto milioni 206 walihudhuria shule ya msingi; kufikia mwaka 1997, idadi hiyo ilikuwa milioni 668. Katika shule za sekondari, idadi ya wanafunzi iliongezeka kutoka milioni 40 hadi milioni 398, na katika vyuo vikuu, ongezeko hilo ni kubwa zaidi: idadi ya wanafunzi iliongezeka kutoka milioni 6.5 hadi milioni 88. Tunaanza tu kuelewa maana ya badiliko hili. """Kwa kuwa leo watoto wengi duniani kote wamezidi viwango vya elimu vya wazazi wao, ni ushahidi wa mafanikio ya maono hayo." Kwa upande mwingine, ukweli kwamba elimu ya wazazi inaendelea kuwa moja ya predictors muhimu zaidi ya mafanikio ya elimu na mafanikio duniani kote ni kumbukumbu ya jinsi mengi bado tuna kutimiza kuhakikisha fursa sawa za elimu. Lakini maono ya mapema ya UNESCO hayakuwa tu juu ya kukuza elimu kwa wote; ilikuwa maono ya kisiasa ambayo ilishughulika moja kwa moja na madhumuni ya shule. "Kumbuka upya kwa Holocaust na kutambua kwamba Wanazi walikuwa wametumia shule kwa indoctrination ya kisiasa ilifanya iwe rahisi kuona kwa nini idadi hii ya kuongezeka kwa watoto wa shule zinahitajika kujifunza katika mazingira ambayo kukuza amani na uelewevu wa kimataifa. """ Taarifa ya Haki za Binadamu ya Ulimwenguni inaonyesha uwazi wa maadili kuhusu kujitolea muhimu kwa mshikamano na amani ambayo haikuwapo katika shughuli za mfululizo za tangazo na utendaji wa UNESCO au familia ya UN. "Wanahabari wa Azimio hilo waliona sehemu hii ya maadili ya elimu kama sehemu ya haki ya msingi ya elimu, na kuijumuisha katika hati hiyo: ""Itatekeleza uelewevu, uvumilivu, na urafiki kati ya mataifa yote, makundi ya rangi au dini, na itasaidia shughuli za Umoja wa Mataifa kwa ajili ya kudumisha amani."" - Mhariri wa Umoja wa Mataifa, John F." Licha ya miongo ya warsha, mikutano na mikutano ambayo imeshughulikia suala hili la maadili, matokeo ni wazi ya kutosha kama kupimwa na changamoto za leo kwa amani na utulivu wa kimataifa. UNESCO iliwakaribisha mataifa wanachama kuchunguza vitabu vya historia na elimu ya kiraia ili kuhakikisha kwamba vinakuza uvumilivu na uelewevu wa kimataifa. Shirika hilo linaendelea kufadhili semina kuhusu ikiwa vitabu vya masomo huendeleza uelewevu wa kimataifa. Kwa bahati mbaya, mikutano hii haijawa na matokeo ya kutosha, kama inavyoonyeshwa na ukweli kwamba bado kuna vitabu vya masomo vilivyokubaliwa na serikali vinavyofundisha wanafunzi kuchukia watu wa tamaduni nyingine. Hadi leo hii, vitabu fulani vya historia vinapotosha masimulizi ya uhalifu dhidi ya wanadamu. "Hizi ni kumbukumbu zenye nguvu za kazi nyingi inayobaki kabla ya UNESCO kufikia utume wake, kama ilivyoelezwa katika mstari wa kwanza wa katiba yake: ""Kwa kuwa vita huanza katika akili za watu, ni katika akili za watu kwamba ulinzi wa amani lazima ujengwa."" - UNESCO, Septemba 11, 2001" Kwa viwango vya ulimwengu, walikuwa na elimu ya juu. Elimu yao iliwavunja wapi? Vitabu vyao vya masomo vilishindwa kuwafundisha nini? Mbegu za mauaji ya kimbari huko Kosovo zilipandwa na kulimwa katika picha zilizowasilishwa katika vitabu vya masomo na madarasa kwa miongo mingi. Ni baada tu ya maelfu ya raia wasio na hatia kuuawa kwamba jamii ya kimataifa hatimaye ilitenda kwa kutengeneza vitabu vilivyozungumzia amani na uvumilivu. Maono ya mapema ya UNESCO hayakuwa juu ya kukuza elimu kwa wote; ilikuwa maono ya kisiasa ambayo ilishughulika moja kwa moja na madhumuni ya shule. Kazi nyingi bado zinahitaji kufanywa ili kuunganisha vitabu vya masomo katika Mamlaka ya Palestina na kujitolea kwa muda mrefu kwa kuishi pamoja kwa amani na Israeli. Vitabu vya historia vya Japani havitajwi vitendo vya kikatili vya serikali dhidi ya watu wa Korea, na hivyo kuwazuia wanafunzi kuendeleza ufahamu wa maadili ambao utafanya vurugu kama hizo zisiwezekane. "Kulingana na ripoti hiyo, ""vitabu vya masomo juu ya mafundisho ya kiraia na kijeshi vilivyotengenezwa nchini Venezuela na idhini ya serikali, viliwasilisha vijana wa Venezuela na mitazamo hasi ya wahamiaji na kuwapa lawama kwa magonjwa ya nchi, kupanda mbegu za chuki na kuunda hali ya vurugu za kisiasa za baadaye.""" Katika miaka 20 iliyopita, mataifa mengi yameona shule zao zikiacha makusudi yao ya maadili. "Wakati wanasiasa na wanaharakati wanaamini kazi kuu ya shule ni kuzalisha wafanyakazi ambao wanaweza kushindana katika uchumi wa dunia, badala ya wananchi na watu wa uamuzi mzuri waliojitolea kwa maadili ya kibinadamu ya ulimwengu, bajeti za shule zimepungua, na mtaala wao umepunguzwa.""" """Makumi mawili ya miaka iliyopita ya mageuzi yaliyoshindwa yametuacha na watoto na vijana ambao hawawezi kusoma kwa uelewa na, mbaya zaidi, ni wasiojua kusoma na kuandika." "Hatuwezi kushangaa kwamba tunaanza karne ya 21 na ukosefu wa utulivu wa kimataifa na amani ambayo ni dhaifu na isiyo na uhakika. """ """Ikiwa tunataka shule zifundishe amani, tunahitaji mbinu kamili zinazounga mkono kupunguza umaskini na kutengwa kijamii." """Kupitia kupanua fursa za elimu ili kujumuisha vikundi vilivyopuuzwa zaidi, tunahitaji pia kuzingatia jinsi sera zinavyofafanuliwa na kutekelezwa, kwa kuwajibisha watunga sera kwa watoto na wazazi wao, haswa kwa vikundi vilivyo maskini na vilivyopuuzwa zaidi." Tunahitaji kuzingatia kuvutia watu wenye mawazo mengi, wenye vipaji, na wanaofanya kazi kwa bidii zaidi wa kila kizazi katika darasa. "Hata hivyo, ni muhimu kuzingatia hasa juu ya mazoea ya usimamizi wa darasa, juu ya mtaala, na jinsi muundo wa kijamii wa darasa na uzoefu wa watoto katika shule huwawezesha kuendeleza uthamini wa utofauti na uwezo wa kuamini na kushiriki katika hatua ya pamoja na wengine, hasa wale ambao asili yao ya kitamaduni inatofautiana na yao.""" """Kufundisha amani na uelewevu ni kuzingatia sio tu picha na yaliyomo katika vitabu vya masomo, lakini kwa njia ambayo mifumo ya elimu imepangwa na kusimamiwa, jinsi wanafunzi wa asili tofauti wanavyojumuishwa (au sio) katika shule, na jinsi wanafunzi na walimu hutumia wakati wao pamoja." """Kurejea kwa Marekani katika UNESCO ni hatua muhimu katika safari ndefu ya kujenga amani na usalama wa kudumu." Hii lazima ifuatiwe na kuongezeka kwa idadi ya walimu wa Marekani wenye ujuzi wa hali ya juu wanaofanya kazi na kushirikiana na shirika hilo. Leo, ni watu 23 tu kati ya wafanyakazi 2,000 ni Wamarekani. """Kufundisha amani na uelewevu ni kuzingatia sio tu picha na yaliyomo katika vitabu vya masomo, lakini kwa njia ambayo mifumo ya elimu imepangwa na kusimamiwa." UNESCO pia inahitaji kuimarisha uhusiano wake na vyuo vikuu vya Marekani ambavyo hufanya kazi bora juu ya jinsi watoto wanapaswa kufundishwa kuelewa, kuthamini, na kushirikiana na watu kutoka tamaduni nyingine, na ambao wanaweza kusaidia kusasisha mawazo juu ya jinsi ya kufundisha kwa amani kutoka kwa msisitizo pekee kwenye yaliyomo kwenye vitabu vya masomo hadi mbinu kamili na bora. "Mafundisho hayo yanapaswa kuwawezesha walimu wa Marekani kujifunza kutokana na yale yanayofanyika katika shule duniani kote, kutokana na jinsi watoto wanavyofundishwa na kutokana na kile wanachofundishwa.""" "Mwishowe, UNESCO inapaswa kutumia teknolojia za sasa za mawasiliano ya simu ili kuwezesha kubadilishana kati ya walimu na wanafunzi duniani kote, wakati wote ikijua kwamba hii itapingwa na serikali ambazo zinaogopa uhuru wa watu wao kufikiri kwa wenyewe na kutenda kwa kujitegemea. """ Kama shirika la kimataifa, halitaweza kutegemea tu mapenzi ya mataifa ya kitaifa kutekeleza mikataba na mikataba ya kimataifa, haswa kwa utume wake wa kukuza haki za binadamu za ulimwengu na kukuza uelewevu wa kimataifa na amani. Enzi hii mpya ya mazungumzo ya elimu itawezesha ushirikiano kamili wa walimu wa Marekani katika jamii ya dunia. Hilo litatimiza malengo mawili. "Itaonyesha idadi kubwa ya walimu duniani kote kwamba Wamarekani wanaamini kweli kwamba watu wote wameumbwa sawa na wako tayari kujiunga na mapambano ya wale wanaofanya kazi ya kufanya jamii wazi na haki kwa wote. """ "Kitu muhimu zaidi, itasaidia rasilimali za kiakili kwa lengo la UNESCO ambalo bado halijafikika: kujenga ulinzi wa amani katika akili za watu, kuhakikisha kwamba watoto wetu - kwa kweli, watoto wote - wanajifunza kuelewa kutegemeana kwetu. """ Katika karne ya 21, tunaishi katika nyakati zenye hatari ambazo zinahitaji uelewevu wa maadili. """Vitu vya uharibifu vinavyopatikana kwa mataifa, vikundi, na watu binafsi vimeongezeka kwa njia ya kutisha, lakini si kubwa kuliko njia zetu za kuwahamasisha watu wenye nia njema katika kufanya kuishi pamoja kwa amani kwa watu wote kuwa ukweli." Ni wakati wa kuondoa athari za uchongezi za uchongezi, ubinadamu wa maadili, na udanganyifu wa mamlaka na kuendelea katika upya wa malengo ya shule, ili kutupa sisi sote uhuru, kuwa na chaguzi sawa katika maisha, na kuweza kuishi kwa amani. "Mchoro huu ulichapishwa katika toleo la Desemba 11, 2002 la ""Jumla ya Elimu"" kama ""Vita, Elimu, na Amani."""