July 9, 2015 – “Conflict is friction: it only exists when a force is applied.”

 This is just one of the connections that came out of Richard Montgomery High School’s week-long implementation of the peacebuilding and conflict management curriculum I created as a student in the International Baccalaureate program’s Theory of Knowledge course. Throughout the course of that week, in every Theory of Knowledge (TOK) 1 classroom – where students examine the questions of epistemology, how we can know something, and how different bodies of knowledge relate – Richard Montgomery High School’s International Baccalaureate (IB) students made similar connections and had lively conversations that went from the core of what peace and conflict really mean to the more concrete realities of communication, especially as an everyday peacebuilder.

Why Peacebuilding in the TOK Classroom?

As a middle school peer mediator, I was part of one of the first peer mediator groups to visit the Global Peacebuilding Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP).  That experiential workshop provided by the Global Peacebuilding Center—which works to engage the next generation of peacebuilders, and help educators incorporate conflict management and peacebuilding into their classrooms— had a lasting impact on my thinking and how I deal with conflict, making me a more patient and thoughtful communicator and a more active listener.  

Years later, during my high school years and after attending a public program at USIP, I approached the Global Peacebuilding Center again with one goal: I wanted to know how I could help other students realize that peacebuilding is a very relevant and practical skill, not something abstract that only diplomats practice.  In the subsequent weeks, I continued the conversation to learn how other students could benefit from the same basic skills of peacebuilding that had become crucial parts of my mental toolbox.

From these conversations, I realized that any program I created should be an adaptation of USIP’s Peacebuilding Toolkit for Educators.  Given the importance of peace and conflict in the world, I opted for the program to become a permanent part of a class’s curriculum rather than introduce it as an extracurricular activity. I selected the Theory of Knowledge class because of its flexible curriculum and focus on the questions of how we can be sure of our knowledge, the type of question that is instrumental to the practice of peacebuilding.  This selection was especially apt as one TOK teacher later remarked that the traits of the IB learner profile were clearly brought out by the peacebuilding curriculum.  In fact, in a survey of students who had experienced the curriculum, 100% of respondents said that the curriculum corresponded to the International Baccalaureate program’s goal of creating thinkers.

As I spent several weeks creating the curriculum, I kept going back to two principles: flexibility and interactivity.  I knew the curriculum had to be flexible because different teachers approach TOK differently as a result of their own experiences as teachers and as people.  To this end, I adapted seven lessons from USIP’s Peacebuilding Toolkit for Educators to create a four- to five-day lesson series for the TOK classroom.  Through my experience as a TOK student, I observed that interactive participation in learning was important, as students responded best to pedagogical methods that involved nuanced discussions and other hands-on activities.  Students especially appreciate this because they don’t often learn in this way in other classes.

Reflections on Incorporating Peacebuilding into Your TOK Classroom

For anyone who is interested in doing something similar, my experience creating and implementing this curriculum left me with a wealth of practical lessons.  

First off, the emphasis on flexibility paid off as each teacher (including me, in one class!) was able to apply the broad concepts covered by the curriculum – peace, conflict, and epistemology – in a context that they liked.  For example, one teacher was able to add references to some of his favorite movies and his personal experiences as a traveler, while I was able to bring in my passion for public speaking and body language, creating two different but equally valid organic outgrowths of the curriculum.  

The emphasis on interactivity, mainly in the form of small group and large group discussions and a simulation of two warring tribes in my classroom, also paid off.  One Junior in the IB Program at Richard Montgomery High School commented that the “[conversation on metaphors] was fun, it made us think about conflict in different ways”.  The simulation also enabled students to experience what it was like to actually be peacebuilders and see how the critical thinking skills they learned in the Theory of Knowledge classroom were applicable to the real world.

Personally, this process also taught me a lot about myself in a way only a trial by fire can.  First and foremost, this project confirmed my entrepreneurial spirit: to me, there is nothing more satisfying than creating something and seeing it used, whether that be a smartphone app or a week-long curriculum.

My second realization came when I was extemporaneously delivering some closing remarks on the last day of the curriculum: everyone can be a peacebuilder.  In much the same way that conflict is unavoidable, being a peacebuilder can be an inevitable role.  Learning how to communicate, listen, and think through and resolve conflicts are not optional skills.  Everyone uses these skills, but not everyone thinks about how to use these skills well and perfect them. 

Although there were many reactions to the curriculum, all of the teachers and several students enjoyed it immensely.  Students appreciated the opportunity to actively critique the curriculum and take the activities in ways I hadn’t expected.  For example, many challenged USIP’s official definition of conflict, creating a vehement debate.  Other students created peace in the peacebuilding simulation by identifying unexpected solutions, like getting rid of the peacebuilders.

Jared Stolove, a junior in the IB Program at Richard Montgomery High School, said “it was very interesting to discuss peace in a systematic way: addressing the peacemaking process, the causes of conflict, etc.” Teachers appreciated the curriculum’s real world applications to conflicts such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, but commented that the curriculum ran into the same difficulties as most activities in TOK: it was difficult to abstract from the concrete issue at hand to the more theoretical concepts of epistemology.

To anyone who is interested in doing something similar or jumpstarting their path as a peacebuilder at a young age, always leverage your opportunities and ask what you can do to help.  I had the opportunity to create and implement this curriculum because I am constantly thinking about how what I’ve done so far can let me do something even more interesting, and because I simply asked what I can do to help advance the causes that interest me, like teaching young people essential peacebuilding skills.

Raja Ramesh is a young peacebuilder, an entrepreneur, and an avid thinker from Gaithersburg, MD, in addition to his full-time job as a senior in the selective IB program at Richard Montgomery High School.  He recently released his app Math Sages on the iOS app store, while simultaneously working for two startups, and serving as captain of his school's Debate, Forensics, and Model Congress Teams. Contact the Global Peacebuilding Center about creating a peacebuilding project of your own in your school or community.