Eduction for International Understanding and Co-Operation: A UNESCO Project for Schools

Abstract

We live in an age when man is confronted with situations of baffling complexity and urgency. Life, which for centuries had seemed to follow—at least, comparatively speaking—a smooth and somewhat predictable pattern, has been shaken to its foundations by many spectacular developments. The growth of science and technology, during the last two centuries, have given it a new orientation and created many new problems with which we have been struggling desperately. The two world wars, well within the memory of the present generation, brought many of the tendencies to a head and people began to realise that old patterns of thinking and action could no longer guide us in the world. While we were still trying to adjust ourselves to these new forces, there was that great “explosion of knowledge” which brought atomic energy and its dramatic symbol, the ‘Atom Bomb’, into the picture. It has, on the one hand, given man unlimited power and, on the other, opened out the possibility of this power being used in such a way as to bring about his total annihilation. One spectacular demonstration of what can be done with this power is the experimentation in “space travel”, which has started within a decade of the tragedy at Hiroshima. Many countries of the world are busy trying to adjust their educational systems and their science and technology to this "explosion”. The scouting for scientific talent and the allocation of tremendous resources for scientific and technical research-particularly in the field of armaments—are manifestations of this preoccupation. A preoccupation, which incidentally has assumed the shape of an unhealthy obsession in some parts of the world.