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| What is Humane Education?
Humane education’s broad and evolving parameters gives it a highly
interdisciplinary character. It overlaps with many other kinds of
education, like peace and development education, multicultural education,
environmental education, and race and gender education. In focusing
on the questions that arise out of a class on, for instance, the
ecological and economic impact of the average American diet, a discussion
can draw upon many domains: mathematics, history, moral philosophy,
political science, ecology, biology, and so on. Humane education is
more a dynamic approach to teaching and learning than it is a set
curriculum
Why Humane Education?
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By the time they are teenagers, children in the U.S. have witnessed
tens of thousands of murders and acts of violence on television. |
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For too many people, young and old alike, greed and consumerism have
replaced kindness and community concern as the prominent values of
modern society. |
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More than half of the wells in the U.S. are contaminated; forests
and wetlands are being destroyed rapidly, and species are becoming
extinct at record rates. |
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Institutionalized animal abuse in a number of industries is not only
causing profound suffering to animals, but is also contributing to a
host of environmental and health problems. |
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Hate groups in the U.S. are gaining members at an increasing and
alarming rate, and hate crimes are on the rise. |
These are just a few of the indicators that we need effective solutions
for future generations, and innovative approaches to critical social and
environmental problems.
Humane Education as a Solution
While many people are concerned about the issues and problems above,
most groups working on social change focus their attention on a single
issue, such as the environment, or animals, or children, or the disabled,
etc. While this approach is effective in terms of lobbying and challenging
specific problems, it fails to address the beliefs and systems which
initially created the problems. In order to address these issues at their
core, and challenge the belief systems which perpetuate suffering and
injustice, Seeds for Change
believe that
we must focus on underlying principles, practical solutions, and the
interconnection of social change issues.
This approach is broad-based
humane education
which helps people
of all ages to explore their deepest values and philosophies of life,
while at the same time discussing the effects of daily choices, from what
toothpaste to use, to what food to eat, to what kind of home to build.
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Humane education
asks people to consider how we should treat
everyone: friends, neighbors, children, the elderly, the
disenfranchised, native peoples, forests, rivers, animals: in essence --
all to whom we are connected in the web of life. |
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Humane education
does not confine itself to a single issue, or a
few issues, but rather seeks solutions to a whole range of social ills
through presentations which allow people to define their values and learn
to live by them. |
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Humane education
attempts to challenge the discouraging and
frightening trends of violence, dispassion, apathy, greed, and the
inability to think critically by actively promoting compassion, critical
thinking, and respect for self and others through exciting, innovative,
enjoyable and transforming activities and teaching strategies. |
Unfortunately, education that encourages students to question and
determine their values and beliefs, which promotes compassion toward both
human and nonhuman animals, and which helps young people to think
critically about the information around them, is rare.
Often, humane education programs offer students their first opportunity
to see behind the closed doors of powerful institutions which affect their
daily lives, or to develop their own belief systems about the values and
worth of other species, or to make a promise to themselves to make a
difference in the world.
The Potential for Humane Education…
Humane educators around the country have witnessed humane education's
profound and long-lasting effects, as they've watched aggressive students
become more compassionate, apathetic students become active and excited
about education and civic responsibilities, and teachers alter their
curricula to include more humane education programs. |
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