In our M.Ed. and Humane Education Certificate Program, students read a lot of books – about 40 altogether. In the course on Human Rights, they currently read Derrick Jensen’s brilliant, comprehensive, no-stone-left-unturned book, The Culture of Make Believe. It’s an impressive work of 600 plus pages that chronicles all that’s wrong with the world. And at the very end, just when you’re hoping to discover the solutions to the web of interconnected problems, Jensen leaves you hanging with a call for the end of civilization and a return to the particular. Hmmm….

Students in our program write their own last chapters to Jensen’s book, with their own suggestions and ideas for real solutions and answers to the challenges we face and the problems we’ve created. This is what humane education is all about: diving deep into the issues of our time and tapping our creativity, talent, insight and wisdom for meaningful, practical ways to create systemic change. It’s about giving others these tools so that together we can actually create a safe, sane, sustainable world.

Whenever and wherever you are faced with a thorny problem or danger, seek a solution. Less rant, more imagination; less can’t, more positive ideas; less shan’t, more effort.

– Zoe Weil, IHE President

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