JAGDISH GANDHI / Educator and founder-manager of the City Montessori School in Lucknow, India, awarded the 2002 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. With over 26,000 students, CMS is also entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest school in a city. Mr. Gandhi's educational philosophy emphasizes moral and spiritual values, global understanding, and service to the community. He is also an active Peace Representative of the World Peace Prayer Society, the sister organization of the Goi Peace Foundation.

I feel honored to be here in this august gathering in Japan, the land of the rising sun, a country with rich traditions and cultural heritage. Today, Japan is the undisputed leader of the comity of nations in economic, industrial and technological fields besides being also a leader in promoting world peace.

The City Montessori School (CMS) has a long association with the World Peace Prayer Society, the sister organization of the Goi Peace Foundation, which began more than 12 years ago. Ever since then we organize World Peace Prayer Ceremonies in all our school functions.

The City Montessori School was the first institution to make World Peace Prayer Ceremonies an integral part of the school curriculum and they have a great impact towards world peace on the receptive minds and hearts of the young children as well as their teachers and parents.

CMS was established 43 years ago in Lucknow, India with only five students and now has more than 26000 students and is recognized as world's largest school in a single city by Guinness Book of World Records.

It imparts value based quality education and teaches children that God is one, religion is one and man is one. God never changes, so His religion also never changes. All men are creations of One God and therefore we are all members of one family and we all must live in unity, peace and harmony.

Education is a continuous and creative process. Its aim is to develop the capacity latent in human nature and to coordinate their expression for the advancement and progress of society, by equipping children with spiritual, moral and material knowledge.

True education releases capacities, develops analytical abilities, confidence in oneself, will power and goal setting competency, and instills the vision that will enable him to become a self-motivated agent of social change, serving the best interests of the community.

At certain moments in history, education must also act as a powerful instrument for profound social transformation and I feel that moment has now arrived. We should be anxiously concerned with the affairs of the age in which we live in, and realize that a school is a building with four walls with tomorrow inside.

CMS believes that destiny of a man and mankind is shaped in the classroom and man is the product of his environment. He emulates early lessons of life from the environment and ethos of home, school and society. These three places in fact are the classrooms of a child.

Man has three realities of life. Man is a material being, a human being and a divine being and so he needs a balanced development of all the three realities of life. But what is happening today is that material education is given more importance than the other two realities of life that is human and divine. Therefore, there is an imbalance in the life of today's man and consequent unrest all over the world.

All the successful and happy men are those who have learned a balance of all the three realities of life and who are both good and smart. What is needed today is a meaningful and balanced education in place of a meaningless and unbalanced education.

The mission of CMS education is to make every child good and smart, a gift of God to mankind, the pride of the human race, and a potential light of the world.

UNICEF, in one of its studies, has revealed that 65% of criminality in the young minds of children is developed at home and the remaining 35% is contributed by the school and the society. Therefore the need of the hour is to educate parents to lead a life which can inspire their children to be good human beings. Likewise, teachers and members of society should develop a lifestyle that can mould children into good human beings. A child therefore becomes a common denominator between parents, a school, and the society and thus there is a need for a change of attitude of parents, schools, and society towards right upbringing of a child.

A teacher of this era should be a material educator, a human educator and a divine educator at the same time. He should be motivated to educate children, to educate parents, and to educate society. Teachers hold the most respectable status recognized by the children, the parents and the society.

The purpose of today's education should be the redemption of mankind from its Godlessness, its ignorance, its confusion and its conflict. These are the four ills being given to mankind by the present meaningless system of today's education. This requires a total change. Peace is a long drawn process and the importance of peace education in schools cannot be over-emphasized. It is during childhood that a lasting commitment to peace can be inculcated in children. Later it is often too late. Therefore, I would like to suggest that efforts should be made to encourage peace education in schools all over the world.

There can be no peace in one part of the world if peace is missing in another part of the world. It is necessary to make children aware of the interconnectedness of not only human affairs but also of the web of life. For example, they must become aware that cutting down of trees in one part of the world causes drought in another.

We must therefore also teach our children, "Let your vision be world-embracing. Do not busy yourself in your own concerns, or the concerns of your own countries. Let your thoughts be fixed upon that which will rehabilitate the fortunes of mankind and sanctify the hearts and souls of man. Be anxiously concerned with the affairs of the age you are living in."

Education makes the child a collaborator both in his own growth and in development of his community. Parents must teach their children to honor their parents, and follow the teachings of God given in the religious books of all religions.

Every child is potentially the light of the world and at the same time he can be the cause of its darkness. Therefore the question of meaningful education must be accounted as of primary importance.

We must teach our children to strain every nerve to acquire both inner and outer perfection, for the fruit of the human tree has always been, and will always be, perfect both within and without. It is not desirable that a man be left alone without knowledge or skills, for he is then nothing but a barren tree. Therefore so much as your capacity and capability allow, you must deck the tree of your being with fruits such as knowledge, wisdom, spiritual perception, and eloquent speech.

Children must become the shining candles of moral precepts and spiritual ideals and be the means of illumination for others. They should be examples of nobility of nature, observers of moral laws, conquerors of self, and masters of the wholesome.

Science and religion should be in harmony. We can apply scientific methods for discovering religious truths, and at the same time spiritual principles must become a guiding force for the use of scientific discoveries.

We are created by one God and we all share a common spiritual destiny. Let us create a united, prejudice free and peaceful society. Let education make our children good human beings.

I sincerely feel that through such an education of children, they will in turn create awareness in their parents, and motivate them to create a truly peaceful and harmonious world, spreading the message of love and compassion to protect and preserve all life on earth.

I would like to pay my tribute to the Goi Peace Foundation and the World Peace Prayer Society. They are rendering a great service to the world by making people aware of the urgent necessity of establishing world peace, and their various programs are creating profound impact on the minds of people all over the world.

Now the Goi Peace Foundation has added a new dimension to its glorious records by launching the Declaration for All Life on Earth to promote a shared vision of a truly peaceful and harmonious world for all life in 21st century. Our collective wisdom and joint efforts, I am sure, can bring about a bright and sustainable future. It will serve as an instrument in bringing together individuals and organizations committed to this objective.

We at the City Montessori School will do our best to promote the vision of a truly peaceful and harmonious world for all life in the 21st century as per the aim of the Goi Peace Foundation.

May Peace Prevail on Earth! Thank you.