Fernando M. Reimers et a1.

adults and did not involve formal education in schools; but at the beginning
of the twentieth century, the peace movement included support for school—
based peace education.

In 1912 a school peace league had chapters in nearly every state in the
United States that were “promoting through the schools...the interests
ofinternational justice and fraternity” (Scanlon, 1959, p. 214). They had
ambitious plans to acquaint over five hundred thousand teachers with
the conditions for peace (Stomfay—Stitz, 1993). In the interbella period
between the First and Second World Wars, social studies teachers start—
ed teaching international relations so that their students wouldn’t want
to wage war against foreigners. Convinced that schools had encouraged
and enabled war by indoctrinating youth into nationalism, peace educa—
tors contributed to a progressive education reform in which schools were
seen as a means to promote social progress by providing students with an
awareness of common humanity that helped break down the national bar—
riers that lead to war (Harris, 2008).

A number of progressive educators at Teachers College at Columbia
University advocated for education for global understanding, emphasizing
cooperation rather than competition as the goal. James Earl Russell, the
third president of Teachers College, offered a course on “foreign education
systems” in 1898 with the purpose of helping teacher candidates develop
global awareness. Russell supported the creation of the first university—based
center of comparative education at Teachers College, where faculty such as
John Dewey devoted significant time to learning about education systems
in other countries and to contributing ideas to the advancement of public
education abroad.

A leading figure at Teachers College’s Comparative Education Center was
Professor Isaac Kandel. At a lecture given to the National Association of
Secondary School Principals in 1925, Kandel advocated for infusing
high school curricula with information that would prepare students for

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