World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements screened for a collection of viewers from various desks and departments at the United Nations on April 27th, 2012. John Hunter and filmmaker Chris Farina were joined by Jamie Baker of the Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence. The team visited with a group from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to view the film and discuss ways in which it might be used to impact the work of peace around the world.

Serendity brought National Geographic's Good Traveler Aric Queen to John Hunter's classroom during the first week of May. The interest was mutual as John's curious mind talks with Aric about his world travels, and Aric is impressed by John's compassionate demeanor and sophisticated teaching approach with 9 and 10 year old children.

Here is the beginning of Aric's post about his visit with John Hunter, whom he describes as a World Peace Visionary:

I’m available after bus duty, around 8:15ish.

That couldn’t be right. This was the man who had been voted TED Talks‘ “most influential speaker” in 2011 (if you haven’t seen his speech, you’ll probably want to click here). A documentary about him and his project has been aired in every school in Norway, on national television in Israel, in South Korea, all over the Middle East – even in Estonia. Both the Secretary of Defense and the United Nations have brought him in to talk. And Bill Gates just opened for him at a conference – opened for him.

 

He’s everywhere. John Hunter. Creator of the World Peace Game.

 

And he’s still on bus duty at the local elementary school where he teaches?

 

I was confused, until I drove down to Charlottesville, Virginia to meet him.

 

I found him waiting in the drizzle with the same smile on his face that millions around the world now know well. A sense of serenity poured off him as he extended his hand; he is the corporal incarnation of the project that has him taking calls from every major news outlet, world powers, and a long list of celebrities.

 

I had hoped to show a different side of the game, something no one had thought of yet. This was my first interview as The Good Traveler and I wanted to make an impression… but I couldn’t.

 

Because John Hunter wants to talk about you. Or he wants to talk about how his 9-year-old student stumped the Pentagon press secretary on a recent trip to Washington.

 

If you sit with him awhile, he might even talk about his previous career in music, or the time he spent in India in the ’70s..."

Read the rest of this post on Aric's new blog.

 

If John Hunter were to call a Press Conference at the Pentagon to order, of course he would use his bell. As we see in the education documentary about John's World Peace Game, his bell calls even the most heated negotiations to order, calms, and redirects the game's participants back to their seats.

On your visit to the Pentagon, John, did you suggest to Mr. Panetta and his press secretary to try the bell in their press conferences?

The Washington Post describes how the Pentagon extended an invitation to John Hunter to bring his current class of World Peace Game player to

visit the Pentagon.

From the article by Susan Svrluga, published on April 19, 2012

 

 

 

 

News truly travels around the world, fast. Within twelve hours of the piece about John Hunter and his class visiting the Pentagon appearing in the Washington Post, the Tai Pei Times had picked up the story. 

We continue to be delighted by the interested in World Peace and in teaching methods that inspire creative problem-solving and high levels of engagement in Tai Pei.  We are hoping to visit that area in September for a TEDx conference and to share our Martin Institute Master Class experience with teachers in the area.

John Hunter in the Taipei Times

Pam Moran is the superintendent of schools for Albemarle County and is the president of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents. Recently she accompanied John Hunter and his class of enthusiatic, knowledgable, excited 4th graders to visit Leon Panetta and staff at the Pentagon. She pens this very thoughtful reflection of the trip for the Richmond Times Dispatch.

Read the rest of the article here on the Richmond Times Dispatch site.