Educate for Peace: Desirable? Possible? How?

The article presents a discourse for peace education. How should our schools deal with questions about peace and war? Can the schools be somehow instrumental in enhancing the possibilities for peaceful coexistence in the future? Can they provide some form of education for peace-peace with our fellow human beings and peace with the Earth? Such questions are by no means simple to answer, and there is an obvious risk that we avoid them because of their complexity and because they may be judged as controversial. The Peace Education Commission (PEC), a subgroup of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA), was established in the early 1970s to facilitate international cooperation among individuals interested in peace education and research related to peace education. Robert Aspeslagh of The Netherlands was Executive Secretary of the Peace Education Commission from 1979 to 1983, and Robin J. Burns of Australia have edited a collection of papers from the PEC under the title "Three Decades of Peace Education Around the World: An Anthology."