In celebration of the United Nation’s International Day of Peace earlier this week, Wilmington Montessori School hosted a Peace Festival on the school’s campus.
Dozens of children, parents and friends came to see the new Peace Park, participate in making a Pinwheel for Peace, and help dedicate the peace pole. Each festival participant colored an individual pinwheel and wrote their reflections on peace, then planted them around the Peace Pole.
WMS has participated in the Pinwheels for Peace project for the past three years. The nationwide event is an art installation project started in 2005 as a way for students to express their feelings about what is going on in the world and in their lives. It is designed to be non-political. At WMS, children learn at a very early age that peace is defined as “a state of calm and serenity, with no anxiety, the absence of violence, freedom from conflict or disagreement among people or groups of people.”
The International Day of Peace, as noted by the United Nations, has grown to include millions of people in all parts of the world marking the day, and each year events are organized to commemorate and celebrate peace. At the WMS Peace Pole dedication this year, Linda Zankowsky, Head of School and Marie Dugan, the American Montessori Society’s “Living Legacy” for 2009 provided reflections on Maria Montessori’s work on peace education, and the continuing importance in today’s society. As noted by Maria Montessori, “Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of education."
Peace celebrations were also hosted at other schools in northern Delaware, including Hockessin Montessori and Montessori Academy of Delaware.
