ABSTRACT
Peace, together with freedom, equality, and justice, is one of the most desirable values in almost every society. It has become a universal symbol-a master con cept that connotes a general, positive state that includes all the positive qualities that are cherished and aspired to by human beings. This meaning becomes evident in our time when we look at the volumes of documents on peace produced by in ternational institutions and organizations including the United Nations and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Thus, it is not surprising that many societies decide to educate the younger generation in the light of this symbol. The educational system fulfills this mission for soci ety through the schools, which have the authority, the legitimacy, the means, and the conditions to carry it out. Schools are often the only institution that society can formally, intentionally, and extensively use to achieve this mission. In other words, through its agencies (e.g., the Ministry of Education) a society can set its objectives for peace education, prepare the curriculum, delineate the contents of the textbooks and instructional materials, set guidelines for organizing the polit ical climate in the schools, add extracurricular programs, train teachers, instruct schools to show initiative, and oblige students to participate in this learning (see Bar-Tal, in press-a). However, peace education is very different from most subjects given in schools. Because groups and individuals project onto the concept peace
education their own particular vision of a desirable society, the means to achieve it, and the school's role in this mission, the consequence is the very multifaceted state of peace education we see at the present time. Thus, in comparison with other domains of education, peace education is by nature elusive.
