APCJ_1528_Win2010_00i_122_4 12/30/10 3:22 PM Page 58 58 AFRICA PEACE AND CONFLICT JOURNAL Peace Education Programs The residents of eastern Congo want an increase in the number of peace education programs available to them and the rest of the country.62 They recognize peace education as a cornerstone in creating cultures of peace that promote governance reform and societal healing and reconciliation. Some want peace education to be made a requirement by law. Although the goal here is the creation of cultures of peace, cultures of violence cannot be ignored. Thus an important part of peace education must be educating Congolese (from a young age) to recognize both structural and behavioral violence.63 Peace education begins with teaching children how to settle immediate differences without resort to fighting and then leading them toward teaching about conflict transformation in their family, community, country, and the world. Experimental programs should be held in schools and other community venues. The prevention of violence and inculcation of peace values need to be incorporated into all aspects of the school curriculum, in formal and informal education, and must be reflective of the diverse groups within the society. Congolese schools should identify and monitor youth and students at high risk of involvement in violence, establish and enforce codes of expected behavior, and develop innovative strategies and proactive approaches to teach youths and adults how to better understand themselves and others so that all Congolese can live in a more democratic and tolerant society. Democracies are inherently conflictual, but they function best when disputes are resolved peacefully. Thus, increasing the number of academic institutions involved in violence prevention and conflict transformation is a key peacebuilding activity and is why the DR Congo government and the international community should actively invest and support projects in this area. To this end, the Ministry of Education should initiate and sustain peace education studies programs for teachers in the east. This could be done in partnership with UNESCO and other global networks of peace educators, such as Teachers Without Borders. Families, informal schools or other unofficial conveyors of wisdom, and places occupying public space—such as supermarkets, churches, media, clubs, and so on— should be mobilized to take part in peace education projects. There are many ways to proceed. If, for instance, mothers and fathers in each family or ethnic community in eastern Congo could be encouraged and empowered to teach children to consider and try to understand the homes and hopes of children in every other family or ethnic group, the cause of peace in the region would be nobly served. Each bishop or priest integrating nonviolent and reconciliation themes into their missions and messages would also be of value. Music is influential in the lives of DR Congo youth, so peace education through music and other entertainment media could be important tools, especially for targeting school dropouts and those hanging around recreational centers. Approaches that tap into children’s and youth’s emotions can create a generation that abhors violence and thus limit the number likely to violate other communities or 62. Education is traditionally conceived as passing on the knowledge, skills, and cultures of one generation to the next, with room for addition. Elise Boulding, ‘The concept of peace culture’ in UNESCO, Peace and Conflict Issues after the Cold War (Paris, UNESCO, 1992), 126. 63. Ibid.