Peace begins with me

I had the honour of being invited by the Ministry of Education to deliver the feature address at a conference of principals (primary and secondary) and school supervisors of the Caroni Education District, which was held last Monday at Couva. The conference was merged with the dedication of the impressive new administrative office facilities for the Central school supervisory unit. By the time the programme began, the entire Camden Court location of the office, was a sea of cars. Interest was high and participation of schools, principals and school supervisors was at maximum. Despite a slightly late start due to a bit of inclement weather, the programme was a well organised and interesting one. Perhaps the most commendable of all was the theme: “The Role of Religion in Maintaining a Culture of Peace in Our Schools.” The relevance of this theme was primarily a common observation among the many distinguished persons who brought greetings, or made remarks publicly. This spiritual focus provides a very healthy signal in our education. In delivering the feature address, yours truly made the point that religion, apart from basically being the common denominator among all our peoples, is essentially the bedrock of character development and a sound value system. Peace is emphasised by all our religions: it’s a common theme. Therefore, if the principles and philosophies of peace are inculcated into our children in a meaningful way, a culture of peace would not be difficult to forge and maintain.

In making this point, I called attention to the famous song line: “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” As the saying goes, having the beginning is having half the job done. How do we begin? We begin our process of developing this peace culture by the “me” rule...peace begins with me. Each individual in the school environment (as well as parents) must take personal responsibility for what obtains in the environment and what needs to be fostered. When each person holds himself/herself responsible, the attitude which tends to isolate and exonerate self, while blaming others, will find no place. In many ways, religion teaches this to us. The Bible itself says, “Every man must bear his burden” (Gal. 6:5) Yours truly also noted the characteristics of God-fearing people, making the point that if these qualities — love, honesty, kindness, temperance, personal integrity, modesty and the like — were healthily cultivated in our children, by developing in them a fear of God, fashioning a culture of peace will certainly not be an elusive dream. The awareness that God is ever-present with us, and we are therefore accountable to Him for our behaviour, (even if our actions are hidden from others) does make a significant difference in the way we conduct ourselves. When, in the fear of God, we are consciously aware that “you can hide from man, but you can’t hide from God,” there is a definite sobering, restraining factor. Also forming part of the feature address was the matter of the role of religion in self-discipline, a virtue which is at the heart of culture of peace and success. “Religion makes disciples and a disciple is a disciplined one,” I gently reminded the esteemed, attentive crowd.

Training in discipline is therefore very central in religion. This fact makes religion an invaluable asset in achieving desired goals in school discipline. Identity crisis, along with the big self esteem and self-image problem were also highlighted. Added to this were self-confidence, self-management and self-motivation, with supporting religious facts. The rapidly growing complexities, as they relate to teen depression and psychosomatic challenges, and the capacity of religion to play a vital role in the prevention and management of these difficulties, were also included in my offering. This was followed by exhortation on the use of the dynamics of religion to enhance communication skills, coping skills, conflict resolution, anger management and interpersonal skills — all imperatives in developing and maintaining a culture of peace. It was also established that prayer and peace were synonymous. The Scripture indicates that when we pray, “the peace of God will keep your hearts...” (Phil 4:7). In her vote of thanks School Supervisor II, Claire Mathias showered high praise upon Director of School Supervision, Janice Blackman and School Supervisor III, Bernard Gibbs, along with “others who work very hard over the years” to ensure that proper facilities finally came to the supervisors. Speaker after speaker had earlier spoken of the very trying conditions under which the supervisors functioned in their old facilities. Everyone agreed that School Supervisor III, Krishna Jeelal did an excellent job as chairman of proceedings — serving a full diet of good humour. Following the feature address, Blackman created quite an impact in her reply, which glittered with her wealth of experience (some 42 years) in the field of education. She quoted and reinforced key points of the feature address and heavily supported the idea of spiritual and moral values education as an absolute essential for schools. Also bringing enlightening words of greetings were Nanram Maharaj and Sushil Pargass of the Principals’ Association. Quality items of entertainment came from Freeport Hindu School, Montrose Government School, Couva Holy Faith Convent and Felicity Presbyterian School. Prayers were offered by Pundit Lutchmidath Persad-Maharaj, Imam Shazaad Mohammed and Pastor/Principal Jorsling Peters.