There we were, sitting in class and listening to two professors enrich us with peace research on “how to manage transition processes in ways that do not provoke violence.” As intellectual as that sounded, everyone was quiet and almost bored; after five weeks of similar lectures, we could no longer take in much more.

At just the right moment, when the professor stopped talking, one of our classmates sneezed the cutest sneeze ever. It was not as though she had never sneezed before, but in that particular moment, her sneeze was warmly welcomed. Everyone laughed, and the atmosphere suddenly became lighter. That small moment got me thinking.

If a simple sneeze could put a smile on the faces of people from different cultures and backgrounds, how much more could a culture of peace transform our communities? Our class was made up of people from Cameroon, Zambia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Japan, China, Holland, Canada, America, Germany, the UK, and several other countries. We had different views and perspectives, yet we could still laugh together at one small, unexpected moment.

That moment made me realise that developing a culture of peace is, above all, about relationships. How do we relate to an annoying neighbour on the bus? How do we respond when a son or daughter tells us that a teacher or lecturer has done something wrong? Do we try to understand the situation from both sides, or do we immediately take the side of the child or the teacher?

These questions matter because peace is not only taught in classrooms or discussed in academic lectures; it is learned in homes, families, and everyday encounters. Are we teaching our young ones to be self-centred or communal? Should we abandon our responsibilities as parents and leave everything to educators, expecting them to teach our children how they should live? Parents, too, have a responsibility and a duty to guide their children.

This responsibility was understood clearly in many traditional societies. In many homes, social knowledge was passed on to children through oral traditions. Myths and stories told at night by mothers and grandparents carried moral lessons and taught children about the way of life. A child might later be asked, for example, “Do you remember the wasp’s story? Do you remember what happened when the wasp allowed anger to take over?” The moral lesson drawn from the story addressed the danger of anger: if you allow anger to control you, regrettable things can happen that could have been avoided.

Many traditional societies preserved values through songs, myths, and riddles, which guided people toward coexistence, peace, and harmony. These lessons gave children a sense of belonging and identity. For communities that were able to maintain such traditions, children were raised with values that shaped not only how they saw themselves, but also how they treated others.

Therefore, if we want to develop a true culture of peace, we must begin by reviving the values that teach respect, patience, empathy, and responsibility. Parents need to teach children to practise peace in their daily interactions with others, but they must also model that lifestyle themselves. Children learn best through observation. What authority do we have to teach peace if we do not live peacefully before them? A culture of peace does not begin in distant conference rooms or official documents; it begins in the home, in the way we speak, listen, forgive, and relate to one another. If parents plant these values early, children will not only inherit peace as an idea but carry it forward as a way of life.