Pocatello Montessori school unveils peace pole
The Pocatello Valley Montessori school unveiled a new peace pole on its front lawn on Tuesday.
The goal of the peace pole is for kids to have a visual reminder of how important peace is. Leslie Woodford, head of the school, said it’s a large part of classroom curriculum that students learn peaceful conflict resolution and to solve differences peacefully.
The peace pole will be part of the school’s peace garden, which Woodford said will hopefully be completed in the spring when warmer weather is back.
The pole has “May peace prevail on Earth” written on it in eight different languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Cantonese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu.
At the dedication ceremony, the honorary consult for Japan for the state of Idaho spoke to the students. The kids also sang “Light a candle for peace.”
The cost of the pole and peace garden was donated by a couple of local community members. Lowe’s and Dale Ink also donated to the project.
Woodford said she’s pleased with how the pole turned out and she’s excited to have it as part of the school.
“Several of these languages are personal to me as an individual and so it just thrills me to death to have this pole here in our yard,” she said.
