Matters of Life and Death
April 2004
Banner photo: ©SEKAI BUNKA PHOTO
Cultivating Peace in Canada
The Classroom Connections educational resources
Cultivating Peace is an educational initiative started by an NGO called Classroom Connections in Canada in response to September 11. Classroom Connections produces educational resources related to peace and diversity.
The first set of resources, Cultivating Peace in the 21st Century, was delivered to 80 percent of secondary schools in Canada in September 2002, and the response from schools and NGOs in Canada and around the world was very positive. As one student said, "[The lessons] actually mean something to the world! This was practical and real."
For the second installment of their program, Cultivating Peace--Taking Action, due for release in April 2004, Classroom Connections has requested to incorporate the SGI-sponsored film A Quiet Revolution and the "Seeds of Change" exhibition materials based on the exhibition created by the SGI and the Earth Council for the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in South Africa in 2002.
The materials will include copies of the A Quiet Revolution video and 9 inch x 18 inch posters of eight of the exhibition panels. Production is now under way on 12,000 copies of these materials in English, and 3,000 in French. In this way, A Quiet Revolution and "Seeds of Change" will potentially reach as many as 500,000 students across Canada in both English and French.
SGI-Canada General Director Tony Meers comments, "We feel this will have a greater impact on the youth of Canada than any previous public-related event or program. This cooperative project fulfills SGI President Ikeda’s proposal for education on sustainable development by actually bringing the SGI’s message that ‘one person can make a difference’ straight into the Canadian education system."
Copies of the "Seeds of Change" panels and A Quiet Revolution are also being made widely available to local SGI groups so that districts and even individual members can bring the message to their communities through "SGI Awareness" activities beginning in April. "Seeds of Change" has already been shown at an SGI youth celebration in Vancouver and at Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton, Alberta.
