Towards peace – on the educational mandate of schools

“The study of foreign languages and literature is an incentive and driving force for education in the spirit of international understanding and peace,” wrote Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Director-General of UNESCO from 1987 to 1999 and later head of the Spanish foundation Cultura de paz, in the foreword to the book “Towards Peace. A Reader.”¹ As he describes the editors’ goal, it is intended to “give new impetus and a new purpose to the teaching of foreign languages and literature.” This anthology on peace was published in 1989 by the International Association of German Teachers and is aimed at young readers – even today. Mayor Zaragoza wisely quotes the preamble to the Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, which contains the guiding principle: “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.” He therefore describes the task of school as follows: “But if the idea of peace is to be firmly anchored in the consciousness of the young people, the women and men of the 21st century, then it is most appropriate for the school to ensure that peoples learn more about each other, since getting to know each other forms ‘the basis of the spiritual and moral solidarity of mankind’.”
    The resulting reader brings together a hundred poems and prose pieces from five centuries – the roots of our culture. They provide a wealth of inspiration for teaching, which is all the more urgent given the oppressive state of the world. Impressive in their diversity, the authors are united in their desire for peace and their resolute rejection of violence, destruction and war. Mayor Zaragoza writes: “As different as the authors are in style and sensibility, they unequivocally reinforce the reader’s vital realisation: we must overcome what divides us and promote what unites us.” These are topics that speak to many young people at a deeper level. They offer the prospect of a dialogue with adults from which they can draw courage, clarity and confidence.
    Beginning with Ingeborg Bachmann’s poem “Nach dieser Sintflut” (After this deluge), well-known and lesser-known authors have their say in the three sections “The Signature of War and Peace”, “Peace as the Goal of History” and “Peace as a Necessity”, providing teachers with a wide range of opportunities to engage in conversation with their students. The authors lived in periods ranging from the Middle Ages to the 1990s, but their poems and prose texts are unfortunately still highly relevant today.
    For its part, the editorial team outlines the educational mission associated with its peace anthology in the accompanying text, stating: “In accordance with its statutes, the International Association of German Teachers is guided by the spirit of international understanding in fulfilling its mission. Its members therefore see themselves not merely as foreign language teachers, but as mediators of a global desire for peace.”
    This is precisely what we need to think about today. Do today’s neoliberal schools still understand their mission in this way? Or is (foreign) language teaching not guided more by a doctrine of utility, which could even be carried out by AI? If so, then it fails in its mission and objectives. In other words, education, foresight and human maturity are needed if teachers are to continue to design language teaching as “an incentive and driving force for education in the spirit of international understanding and peace”. Do our educational institutions still fulfil this peace-building and nation-uniting mission, as was taken for granted half a century ago? This is a reason for everyone – whether involved in education or not – to reflect as fellow human beings on what we want to pass on to the younger generation and what the educational mission of schools must therefore be again. “Towards Peace” is an important support and guideline in this regard. •

¹ International Association of German Teachers (ed.) (1989). „Dem Frieden entgegen. Ein Lesebuch“ (Towards Peace. A Reader). Munich: Langenscheidt-Verlag and Leipzig: Verlag Enzyklopädie.