Foreword

When you open this book and turn its pages, you will find a little bird to greet you. Its name is MIR*-LA-DI MIR-LA-DA (or Miralda, the name identified and given by the teachers who implemented this programme last year in Eastern Slavonia). This bird is your guide through the book. It will help you while preparing for the workshops: by introducing each new "lesson" and each worksheet. This tiny little bird will be, we hope, a source of joy for you while working with your pupils on this curriculum.

You have a chance to bring significant positive changes into the lives of the children you work with. At the same time you have the opportunity to learn positive strategies for yourself and bring positive changes into your own life. You and the children could feel empowered.

You have the power to change children's feelings of fear, shame and guilt into feelings of self-respect, self-esteem and trust towards other people. You have the power to change hatred and fear into respect and love. We hope that the interactive learning workshops that we offer in our book will help you to achieve that transformation. This is the new revised edition of a peace education manual for primary schools in Croatia.

Part I is designed as a training in affirmation, cooperation and communication. Part II deals with the healing of trauma; Part III is about bias and prejudices. Part IV introduces peaceful problem solving and nonviolent conflict resolving and Part V is about peaceful living. There are 20 chapters/sessions in the book, each session developed through step-by-step activities.

Dear teacher, if you do not have enough time to work through every step, you may cut one or two activities or adapt them according to the needs of your pupils. The twenty session programme is designed for 20 weeks, ten in the first half of the school year, and another ten in the second half. You can do the workshops with your class or with a group of freewilling pupils. You can do some workshops with parents as well.

The main innovation of this programme lies in the fact that it combines two different fields - the healing of trauma and the steps for solutions of problems. It also combines two different types of skills/activities: those connected to the past (reactive) with those more oriented to the future (proactive).

The first version of the manual has now been revised by those who were the first to use it - by the teachers and trainers - workshop leaders themselves. I would like to express my gratitude to all of them. Thank you for your willingness, enthusiasm, humour and collaboration. Your experience and suggestions helped me to improve and refine the text and the former conception. Thank you for all the input, initiatives and written commentaries you gave the project team on the draft version. These commentaries and notes of numerous teachers, supervisors, trainers and pupils were very much appreciated in this edition. There have been made many changes leading to what is practically a new manual.

The order of topic sequences has been altered: the former draft version opened by the most sensitive topics - trauma alleviation. Workshops have been mostly re-written and some new games and activities have been added. Songs are also new here: I put some short but famous songs of great masters, such as Bach, Schubert, Lully. ( Since we couldn't find the proper words we left the songs with the words in Croatian language in the English translation of the manual).

The manual reflects the knowledge, ideas and inspiration I got from many sides, first from my former student Vesna Ter{eli~ (Antiwar Campaign Croatia), from my visit to Northern Ireland (thanks to Clem McCartney) and to NCPCR , conference in Pitsburgh (thanks to Paul Wahrhaftig), so that I could see and hear several gifted educators (like William Kreidler). I would also like to thank Barry Hart (from McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada) for bringing and planting the idea in Croatia with patience and sense for linking GOs and NGOs. The project has been funded by UNICEF (and by Care Canada at the beginning). It has been approved by the Croatian Ministry of Education and carried out by the local NGO: MALI KORAK (A Small Step) - Centre for Culture of Peace and Nonviolence, Zagreb.

And now, welcome to the workshops. Whenever I start a training I ask myself: "Why do I do this?" The answer is: "Because it contributes to my own well-being as well as to that of others."
If you decide to implement this programme, please try the same question. If you feel the same or similar answer to be the right one, we hope that the programme might also bring joy to you and the children you work with.

Zagreb, July 1998
Editor