commit antisocial acts or engage or in activities running counter to the interests of peace. The second seminar builds on this focus by asking students to identify positive community changes they wish to see and to apply similar methods encouraging members of the community to act in these positive ways. 

Finally, in the senior year, the Peace Core seminars delve both into the philosophical and the pragmatic. This cycle, I am teaching a seminar called “Surrealism and Commodity Fetishism” that gives seniors a high-level overview of aesthetics in different periods of history then asks them to formulate an individual manifesto of style and to operationalize that declaration toward their own sense of ethical action. A little closer to the ground, Ms. Megan will round out the Peace Core curriculum later this year with a seminar called “Economic Origins of Inequality,” a class examining differential economic development across communities and the systemic inequities/histories animating those economic developments. At the end of the cycle, she will ask seniors to develop Makers Market booth projects as an act of Buddhist economics supporting the school’s educational programming. 

That quick overview of PBA’s core programming doesn’t mention the Human Sexuality class for sophomores led by Admissions Director Blanche Yarnell that focuses on, among other topics, supporting healthy sexuality with justice and inclusivity, or the conflict resolution and practical peacebuilding classes led by Otake Sensei and educator and Executive Assistant to the Head of School Mr. Zachary Agcaoili, respectively, or the framework of advisory programming and restorative practices we embed in the cultural practices of the school to ensure the PBA Sangha remains committed to being welcoming, peace-seeking, and engendering practices of mindfulness and reflection to cultivate inner peace for our young people. 

So that, when I return again to the question of whether it is appropriate to promote PBA’s Walk/Run for Peace, the PBA student-led, ohana-led fundraiser, given all of the tumult in the world in the last days of 2025 and the early weeks of 2026, I tell you this: yes, it is appropriate. We are doing important work at Pacific Buddhist Academy. We affirm the interests of peace and the importance of educating our young people to listen effectively, to monitor their own feelings, to seek accords and amity, and to work to make their communities, our community, more peaceful. 

Please consider joining PBA for this year’s Walk/Run for Peace. Please consider promoting it to your friends and neighbors. And please consider making a donation or a contribution in support of it by connecting with your favorite PBA student or teacher and clicking the “Donate” button below in honor of that person. 

Thank you very much. Please support our program of peace education at the school.