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Posted: July 21 2007,07:17 |
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Hi Molly,
Your comment about the difficulty of smiling to a teacher or a boss reminds me of the wonderful book by Paulo Friere called Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which ought to be on any reading list for the culture of peace. Freire describes the teaching methods of oppression (We can call it the culture of war) which he calls the "banking method" where the teacher has the "truth" and deposits it like money into the accounts of the students. And he distinguishes a true pedagogy (which we may call the culture of peace) in which the teacher and students work together at problem-solving.
It can be the same in the workplace. In the old style authoritarian workplace the boss gives the orders and the worker simply carries them out. That's like in the military where the general gives the command and everyone has to carry out orders. Instead, a more effective workplace is like the problem-solving described by Paulo Friere, where the boss and workers collaborate to achieve common goals.
Obviously, in the banking method, smiles don't work, but in the problem-solving method, smiles are an important part of the process.
Your comments and the article about smiling reminds us that the transition from a culture of war to a culture of peace is a transformation at every level from international affairs down to the family, the school and the workplace. That's why in the International Year for the Culture of Peace, we asked the Nobel Peace Laureates to write the Manifesto 2000 in which people were asked to practice the culture of peace "in my daily life, in my family, my work, my community, my country and my region." This pledge was signed at the time by 75 million people.
David Adams
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