My Dreams for Peace Education
UN Secretary General U Thant, a former school headmaster from Burma, and my spiritual master, often said to me when I was his assistant: "Robert, there will be no peace on Earth, if there is not a new education." He was right.

I will therefore reproduce here, in his memory, my peace education dreams given in my acceptance speech of the UNESCO 1989 Peace Education Prize. [More]

World Core Curriculum Summary

I. Our planetary home and place in the universe

The infinitely large: the universe, the stars and outer space

Our relations with the sun

The Earth's physics

The Earth's climate

The atmosphere

The biosphere

The seas and oceans

The polar caps

The Earth's land masses

The Earth's arable lands

The deserts

The mountains

The Earth's water

Plant life

Animal life

Human life

The Earth's energy

The Earth's crust and depths

The Earth's minerals

The infinitely small: microbiology, genetics, chemistry and nuclear physics

II. Humanity

A.  Quantitative characteristics

1.  The total world population and its changes

2.  Human geography and migrations

3.  Human longevity

4.  Races

5.  Sexes

6.  Children

7.  Youth

8.  Adults

9.  The Elderly

10.  The Handicapped

B.  Qualitative characteristics

1.  Our levels of nutrition

2.  Our levels of health

3.  Our standards of life (rich and poor)

4.  Our skills and employment

5.  Our levels of education

6.  Our moral levels

7.  Our spiritual levels

C.  Human groupings

1.  The family

2.  Human settlements

3.  Professions

4.  Corporations

5.  Institutions

6.  Nations

7.  Federations, regional organizations

8.  Religions

9.  Transnational networks

10.  World organizations

3. III. Our place in time - Past, Present, Future
   

                   

The universe:                         past        present        future

Our sun                                    “            “                   “

Our globe                                 “            “                   “

Our climate                               “            “                   “

Our biosphere                           “            “                   “

    etc. down to the cell,

    genes and the atom

The human family                      “            “                   “

Our age composition                  “            “                   “

Levels of health                         “            “                   “

Standards of living                     “            “                   “

Nations, Religions,                     “            “                   “

    World Organizations,

    etc. down to Individual

IV.  The miracle of individual life

A.  Good physical lives

1.  Knowledge and care of the body

2.  Teaching to see, to hear, to observe, to create, to do, to use well all our senses and physical capacities

B.  Good mental lives

1.  Knowledge

2.  Teaching to question, to think, to analyze, to synthesize, to conclude, to communicate

3.  Teaching to focus from the infinitely large to the infinitely small, from the distant past to the present and future.

C.  Good moral lives

1.  Teaching to love

2.  Teaching truth, understanding, humility, liberty, reverence for life, compassion, altruism

D.  Good spiritual lives

1.  Spiritual exercises of interiority, meditation, prayer and communion with the universe and eternity or God

EXAMPLE

UN INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES COOPERATING ON

CATEGORIES OF SEGMENT I OF THE WORLD CORE CURRICULUM

These agencies often are humanity's best resource for world-wide statistics, information, recommendations, and teaching materials.  They all have information services to whom you can write.

THE UN SYSTEM

The mere list of the eighteen United Nations specialized agencies and fourteen world programs which compose the UN system illustrates the vastness of today's international cooperation.  No other living species has ever so equipped itself with global instruments designed to study, observe, monitor and preserve its habitat.  In innumerable organs, meetings and conferences, through thousands of experts and delegates, backed by forty thousand world servants, humankind is today probing its entire biosphere and condition, trying to augment peace, to reduce conflicts and tensions, to build bridges and to seek ways for a greater fulfillment of human life on a well preserved planet to an extent which no philosopher, prophet or social reformer would have ever dreamt possible.

Here is a quick overview of this incipient world system:  The eighteen UN specialized agencies : International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); International Labor Organization (ILO); Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); World Health Organization (WHO); International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD); International Development Association (IDA); International Finance Corporation (IFC); International Monetary Fund (IMF); International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); Universal Postal Union (UPU); International Telecommunication Union (ITU); World Meteorological Organization (WMO); International Maritime Organization (IMO); General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); World Tourism Organization (WTO), linked with the UN under a novel type of agreement.

The fourteen world programs : United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); United Nations Development Program (UNDP); Office of UN Disaster Relief Co-ordinator (UNDRO); United Nations Environment Program (UNEP); United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control (UNFDAC); Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); United Nations Institute for training and Research (UNITAR); United Nations Fund for Population (UNRWA); United Nations University (UNU)*; United Nations Volunteers (UNV); World Food Program (WFP).

The UN itself is concerned with a multitude of global problems, such as peace, disarmament, outer space, the seas and oceans, natural resources, human rights, racial equality, women, multinational corporations, criminality, etc.

There also exists a first world ministerial council: the World Food Council.  Hopefully, similar ministerial councils will be established in other crucial fields, energy, the atmosphere, water, transport in particular.

I am proud that I was at the origin of the creation of eleven of these 32 UN agencies and world programs.


*Also: the University for Peace in Costa Rica; the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden; the Institute for Nuclear Physics of the IAEA in Trieste, Italy, and the Training Institute (now recognized as a European University) for Labor Relations of the ILO.

* August 1998: and in 34 other schools in the world.  The World Core Curriculum is inserted in the first volume of 500 ideas.
SUMMARY OF THE WORLD CORE CURRICULUM*