Berkley Normal High School, New Zealand

Contributions from students.
Time-edition: 1999

Kia ora fellow peace lovers

Coincidently I found this old chinese proverb the other day.

There will be beauty in the person
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.

As a class we discussed this concept and the students came to see how fragile the link is between each step and how we all must work towards building links. 11- 13 year olds in our country still have difficulty in seeing that they too can make a difference and that their individual behaviour impacts the beauty that is "themselves". We discussed ideas about what they could do and decided it could start simply by the way they talk to each other. A morning greeting, the language used etc. We have just completed a unit on changes that take place at puberty and hopefully thay are more aware of the effect of hormonal changes and how their emotions can be strong one day and fragile the next. As adults we have a responsibility to recognise what is influencing our children 1 students and be prepared to take time to help them understand the beauty they have within themselves and allow 1 encourage that beauty to shine - then we have started the process of bringing peace to the world.