Introduction

Living in Harmony is intended to provide a pathway for students and teachers towards the goals of fostering greater harmony in their schools, in their communities and in the world. There are two primary aspects of our experience as human beings – an inner, personal, and individual aspect; and an outer, social and communal aspect. In order to build a world of greater harmony, we must first establish some measure of harmony in our own personality. Then we must learn the skills of creating harmony in our relationships with others. With a sense of harmony within ourselves, combined with the tools necessary to create harmo nious relationships with others, we have the resources with which to build harmo nious communities – both local and global.

Living in Harmony focuses on these aspects of human development. The inner aspect is addressed in Part I and the outer aspect is the focus of Part II. In Part I, we explore ten ways for students to get in touch with their own inner world– that is, with their own feelings, thoughts, and dreams. The first and primary relationship we have is with ourselves. It is on this relationship that all of our other relationships hinge. Children who are balanced, confident, sensitive indi viduals with a healthy self-image are more likely to have positive and productive relationships with others. Their ability to accept who they are, to appreciate their own talents, and to express their feelings and ideas in constructive ways will directly affect their capacity to be caring, understanding, and communicative part ners with others

The first ten chapters of this book present a broad spectrum of activities designed to help foster and guide this inner aspect of development. Studying the curriculum of the inner life is different from studying math, reading, geography or science. When we teach ‘normal’ academic subjects, we look to books and to the world around us. To help students study the subject of their inner world, we turn their attention to their feelings, ideas, dreams and visions. To study academic subjects, we encourage students to use their minds, and the aim is to gain knowl edge and skills. To study the inner life, we must help students make a connection to their own private selves - their hearts and souls. The aim here is to help them gain wisdom, peace, and the development of their nobler qualities. The ‘inner’ curriculum is about helping students become more aligned with their own source, in order that they may attain greater happiness and be of better service to the world.

The second ten chapters of the book help teachers and students move from the realm of the personal to the realm of society. These chapters are aimed at building what Riane Eisler would call partnership skills - that is, skills in building relationships based upon mutual trust, respect, and communication. The relation ships built by means of partnership skills are ones undertaken with a clear under standing of the common benefits working together can bring. Some partnership skills have to do with helping students gain a better understanding of the geogra phy and the history of the world, so that they are able to begin to place their own culture, perspectives and opinions into a broader global context. Other partner ship skills, such as cooperation skills and conflict resolution skills, focus on help ing students learn to weave the fabric of relationships – communication – into productive results. Still other partnership skills have to do with helping students develop their inborn human capacity for caring, compassion, and empathy. All of these partnership skills comprise the larger building blocks of leadership qual ities that students can develop with the ultimate purpose of building a peaceful and just society on earth.

The language of Living in Harmony is directed at students. In other words, it is written to bypass the need of the teacher to interpret the lessons and to put them into child-oriented language. It is intended to be less like an instructional manual for teachers and more like a storybook. The teacher of students in grades 1-3 can simply read the book aloud to the students. Students in grades 4-6 can read some sections silently, but they will benefit from reading aloud to each other, or teachers of students in these grades can read the entire book aloud to the stu dents. Students in grades 7 and 8 can read some sections silently on their own, read other sections aloud to each other, or they can occasionally read sections to younger students.

ger students. The chapter lessons are intended to appeal to a wide variety of learners. The activities are designed to appeal to different interests and to involve many learning modes – imagination, creativity, mind-body fitness, language, nature, etc. There is a wide enough variety of activities to suit all kinds of learners. By exposing children to a full spectrum of activities, we enhance their holistic devel opment into healthy, balanced, insightful, happy, and confident young adults. The language, and the topics covered, lend themselves to many opportunities for addi tional spelling, vocabulary, writing, reading, and artistic activities that could be created by the teacher and the students – if they have the space in their curriculum

“The language of the heart is the only language that everybody can under stand,” as Sri Chinmoy says. The ultimate goal of this book is to put students in touch with their own hearts, so that they can ultimately express their nobler quali ties and develop their unique talents for the greater good of the world at large. The world desperately needs a new generation of leaders who understand and speak the language of the heart. It is hoped that this book will facilitate the stu dents’ journey to their own highest and best selves, and from there outward towards the communities they will be charged with constructing as future leaders Riane Eisler has said, “"I see a world where the most highly valued work will have the consciousness of caring." It is hoped that Living in Harmony will help students, teachers, and parents alike to move forward towards the fulfillment of that vision.

I want to thank Sri Chinmoy for all of his work for world harmony and for inspiring the writing of this book. I want also to thank Riane Eisler for being a source of spiritual light and wisdom. Thanks to all of my colleagues - especially Tim Seldin, Jonathan Wolff, Margaret Wolff, Paul Epstein, Ann Epstein and Aline Wolf for their tireless support and encouragement. Thank you to dear friends, Zoe Handerson, June Lang, Stefania Rubino and Sahayak Plowman for their invalu able contributions. I also want to thank Paula Kleinman for her invaluable help in editing this book. Finally, thank you to all the students, fellow teachers, and par ents throughout the years from whom I have gained insights, ideas, and inspira tion in ways great and small