The reign of peace we hoped for: A history of the American School Peace League

The history of the American School Peace League (1908-1939) was based on the archives of Fannie Fern Andrews (1867-1950) the League's only secretary.; The League pioneered the concept of educating for international citizenship through publication of two elementary texts, A Course in Citizenship published in 1914, and 1918; An American Citizenship Course in United States History published in 1921. It promoted the two Hague Conferences (1899, 1907); Peace Day celebrations in the schools on May 18th; sponsored a world wide peace contests; and conducted an international penpal correspondence. Andrews also was instrumental in the establishment of an International Bureau of Education, established Geneva, Switzerland in the late 1920's. Fear of being considered unpatriotic halted the League's work. After WWI it unsuccessfully tried to revive by focusing on American citizenship education.; The League had considerable support among educational leaders, meeting every summer with the support of the NEA. However, there was wide disparity in the level of involvement among the state branches and among the teachers. When the National Association terminated the relationship with the League in 1925 because the World Federation of Education Associations was doing the same work, the League declined precipitously.; The League had only minor success in getting adequate funds from foundations. It relied on Rose Dabney (Mrs Malcom J) Forbes for financial solvency. When Forbes withdrew her support in 1929 the League ceased work after 1931.; The stigma of peace education being considered un-American was identified as a major setback to the League. A proposal to conceptualize democracy as peacemaking was examined in the effort to make peace education credible.; The following recommendations were made: (1) that the state branches be researched; (2) that peace educators make a national effort to identify the core concepts of peacemaking; (3) that social studies incorporate peacemaking as one foundation of democratic citizenship; (4) that peace educators and social studies educators research the paradigm of democracy as a "self-organizing" system for its implications in teaching democratic citizenship education; (5) there be a biography of Fannie Fern Andrews to assess her true contribution to American education; (6) there be research into the influence of the International Bureau of Education upon American education.