Education for Peace and the Selection of a Literary Canon for War Remembrance

'Peace forever' is a desirable curriculum aim for schools, and a legitimate principle for the selection of curriculum content. In this article I consider a tension between humanistic and hermeneutic motivations for the selection of a literary canon for educational purposes. I conclude that teachers do well to consider the selection of curriculum content within a broader context of moral and spiritual development, but this should be accompanied by letting go of the hope that a specific literary text or other curriculum object will transform a student in any particular or predetermined way. This insight applies to the presentation of war poetry but is also relevant to the project of character education more broadly.