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Scholas: Schools that Sow Peace

In 2015, Pope Francis launched a pedagogical initiative based on dialogue, the ‘Scholas’. It seeks the commitment of society to implement a culture of encounter through peace and education. At present, Scholas has created a ‘worldwide virtual village’, and some 400,000 schools and education networks from various social, cultural and religious backgrounds, adhere to it.

Scholas Occurrentes is an initiative aimed at young people in the world that has its origin in the City of Buenos Aires in 2001 when Jorge Bergoglio was Archbishop under the name of
“Escuela de Vecinos” and “Sister Schools” integrating public and private school students of all religions, in order to educate young people in a commitment for the common good.

In 2013, it became a Pontifical Foundation. In 2015, the Pope received some of its members at the Vatican. It’s an international organization of public good, profit-driven by Pope Francis that works with schools and educational communities both public and private, of all religious and secular confessions, to restore the educational pact. As an organization of civil society, it seeks the commitment of all stakeholders to implement a culture of encounter for peace, through education.

These are some of its goals: making the culture of encounter a reality; achieving unity through diversity; resetting the educational pact through a paradigm shift so that
the system resignifies educational commitment from all stakeholders; helping all students learn the values of coexistence and citizen participation to achieve an integrated and peaceful world; and articulating technology with sports and arts to achieve a real and inclusive education.
Vision
Transform the world into a classroom without walls where all children around the world are integrated and at peace.

Mission
Generate a paradigm shift in education through the integration of educational communities, with a focus on low-income students. Rely on technology to design global classroom with the complementation of art and sport, thus restoring the educational pact to realize an integrated and peaceful society.

Values
Scholas culture works to build a world that facilitates encounter with integration, diversity, solidarity, participation, honesty, environmental awareness and peace.
Scholas proposes to realize the culture of encounter proposed by Pope Francis for the whole world through educational change. This consists of three dimensions: sports, arts and technology, with various programs and actions, such as:

Scholas.Citizenship
This educational program aims to encourage high school students
to strengthen citizen and peer engagements, starting with those issues that most concern them, generating changes in themselves and in their environment. Junior year students from public and private schools participate in this experience. They discuss and carry out different activities with the ultimate aim of proposing specific solutions to the problems of their community and environment.

Scholas.Oficios

Scholas Oficios is an educational program to train young people and adults who, not having the necessary resources for their personal and professional development, are provided with the tools and training that will eventually enable them to excel personally and professionally.
It provides training to people who, because of their economic situation, have no access to education.

Sports Values – FutVal

This program seeks to build awareness and values in children and youth through sports – the essence of sports and football sessions. They are encouraged to work together and to prioritize the common good above their own. It seeks to harmonize the development of children living in vulnerable contexts, and help them become committed in the reality of their communities.

Scholas.Social

It is a virtual platform that allows 445,981 educational communities, at different levels, to connect, and be in contact, with each other. Through direct dialogue between educators from 190 countries, projects inspired by Scholas create change and raise awareness about the concept of education which they generate.

Scholas.Arts

It seeks to give art a central role in the emergence of a new educational paradigm, recognizing its ability to produce a true understanding among different peoples, organizations, and countries. Scholas recognizes the need of culture in education and building society. It actively incorporates the dimensions of art and play in the process of teaching and learning.

Scholas.Labs

Technology is an accelerator of educational projects. It gives education its full potential, as well as to raise awareness and generate tools to design a global classroom to restore the educational pact.

Scholas.Laudato

Students of primary rural schools and secondary agro-technical institutes work together to care for, and become aware of caring for, our common home. Agro-ecological gardens allow them to produce their own food and understand the importance of the cycles of nature. Healthy foods are created. They find solutions that relate social systems and natural systems to one another. This program began in March 2016.

Sources:

Charisms in Unity, N. 4/2016, pp. 56-59; and http://web.scholasoccurrentes. org/about-us-2/

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