What if we teach Peace, for a change? | Kirthi Jayakumar | TEDxChennai

Kirthi Jayakumar once taught a dance class that showed her that bullying was cyclical. Transported back to her own childhood, she realised that there was something missing in the way we educate children, because our focus remains on making economy-worthy individuals, rather than humans. This led to the founding of ChalkPeace, a peace education initiative that changes the way children think and interact with one another.

Kirthi founded and runs the Red Elephant Foundation, a civilian peacebuilding initiative working for gender equality through storytelling. She is also the author of two books (fiction) called The Dove's Lament and Stories of Hope, and the author of three non-fiction books centred around gender, peace and international law. Kirthi is the recipient of the US Presidential Services Award (gold, silver and bronze) from President Barack Obama. Her interest and experience over all lie in Afghanistan, the Middle East, DR Congo and South-Asia.


This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx