It is also important, I think, to contemplate how education fits into this notion of “peace writ small.” In his book published in 1973 titled, Toward the 21st Century: Education for a Changing World, Amb. Edwin O. Reischauer, wrote about how the education of young children can matter more than contemporary balance of power challenges that absorb so much of our time and attention. He points out how children, through primary and secondary education, and over the course of years, develop views of the world, including stereotypes and prejudices, that they will carry with them throughout their entire lives. While it is perhaps forty years into the future, what kids learn in school while youth (a micro-level issue), has the potential when they are leaders in different fields to play a significant role in shaping the world in which we (and more importantly perhaps, they) live in (a macro-level issue).

Small changes over long periods of time deserve just as much attention as due large changes that occur quickly. Earthquakes, bombs, revolutions, captivate us. But we should also find captivation in the ways in which slow drops of water over millions of years can decimate mountains, or how small ideas can slowly grow and change societies in unanticipated ways.