Laura Dant, the Art Teacher at St. Francis of Assisi School emailed the Youth Art Peace Pole Project to say: These pictures are of the Peace Pole created by the students from St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School. St. Francis is located in Louisville, Kentucky. Our school has an enrollment of 243 students. We are ‘A Small School With A Big Heart‘ and this slogan truly does describe our school. We are a Peace Builders school and all the students participate in a program called HearthPaths. In this program each grade focuses on a different theme for the year and the students learn about that category during the school year (example kindergarten studies animals, 1st grade studies the elderly, 7th — grade death and dying, 8th grade — refugees, etc.) and how to interact with the subjects of their theme in a compassionate manner.
For the Peace Pole, all the students used their thumb print to create our picture. The Peace Pole contains a “garden” at the bottom with blossoming flowers and butterflies. The butterflies symbolize peace and gentleness. The blooming flowers symbolize being open to accept the responsibility to be a peaceful and gentle person.
Our school will display the Peace Pole in our courtyard. We usually have a prayer service and assembly around the International Day of Peace and this upcoming school year this assembly will center around the placing of the Peace Pole in the courtyard.
That is a lot of butterflies!
