THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	30
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

requesting the department of education to consider offering peacekeeping and peer mediation classes.

     WHEREAS, the creation of peaceful and just societies is a desire of many countries throughout the world; and

     WHEREAS, in places of global conflict and violence, peace is a major collaborative goal of many people; and

    WHEREAS, Mahatma Gandhi, a political and spiritual leader who advocated nonviolence, believed that pacifism is not passivity, but is a direct action, well-organized and designed not to bring adversaries to their knees but to their senses; and

     WHEREAS, Colman McCarthy, director of the Center for Teaching Peace, who teaches courses on nonviolence at public high schools in the District of Columbia, the University of Maryland, American University, and the Georgetown University Law Center, believes that schools are a critical component of peace education and the peace movement; and

     WHEREAS, Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, includes in its purpose clause, "Although many responsibilities are laid upon education, ultimately education must do no less than advance the endowment of human culture itself, so that each succeeding generation finds itself further along the road towards peace, social justice, and environmental sustainability in a society guided by creativity, compassion, and curiosity."; and

     WHEREAS, the Legislature believes that Hawaii schools should be teaching ways to achieve peace and, through peer mediation, help students gain the skills necessary to resolve conflict because unless we teach our children peace, someone else will teach them violence; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2007, that the Department of Education is requested to consider offering peacekeeping and peer mediation classes to public high school students in Hawaii; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education is requested to work with the Board of Education and to collaborate with the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace to develop a peacekeeping and peer mediation curriculum; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the Superintendent of Education, the Chairperson of the Board of Education, and the Director of the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

Education Curriculum; Peace; Peer Mediation