Peace Education and Peace Studies is a progressive major offered by schools on every continent (except Antarctica), and at the international United Nations University. Peace Studies programs began with the work of the Religious Society of Friends in the 1960's and early 1970's. This is area of study is also beginning to be offered at High Schools, and even in younger grades.
Ian Harris writes of peace education that it is "the initiation of learning process aiming at the actualization and rational resolution of conflicts regarding man as the subject of action." That it "is concerned with peaceless situations." And it is "intended to prepare the learners to contribute toward the achievement of peace."
He also states that "peace education has ten main goals: (1) To appreciate the richness of the concept of peace; (2) to address fears; (3) to provide information about defense systems; (4) to understand war behavior; (5) to develop intercultural understanding; (6) to provide a future orientation; (7) to teach peace as a process; (8) to promote a concept of peace accompanied by social justice; (9) to stimulate a respect for life; and (10) to end violence." This list, however, need not be exclusive, but rather, is meant to provide a framework.
There is also an orginazation with these goals in mind for K-12 called the Peace Education Foundation.
The syllabus usually revolves around reading the life and works of such notables as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Jane Addams, Leo Tolstoy, Gene Sharp, Howard Zinn, Aldous Huxley, Albert Schweitzer, the Dalai Lama, Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, Thomas Merton, George Fox, and more. This list is provided for as an unordered starting point only.
Ian Harris is a peace educator at the University of Wisconsin, and the quotes are taken from the book, Peace Education.