Breaking Through the Nightmare to the Vision

I’ve just finished reading Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger’s new book Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. I was one of the people who read their 2004 article, “The Death of Environmentalism,” and loved it. While some in the environmental community felt threatened by their call for an expansive, [...]

Education Against Terrorism/Education for Peace

Three Cups of Tea is mountaineer Greg Mortenson’s account of creating schools, primarily for girls, in poor, rural regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 1993, after rescuing a companion on K2 and failing his summit attempt as a consequence, Mortenson got lost on his way down the mountain and wound up in a small, Pakistani [...]

Responsibility Part II: Ordinary Heroism

In my last blog post, I wrote about the 8th graders at the Bay School whom I taught recently, and I mentioned that they were unwilling to take significant risks to help others. I could relate to these 14-year-olds. Ever since reading Marc Ian Barasch’s superb book, Field Notes on the Compassionate Life, I have [...]

Responsibility

Last week I taught another humane education block at the Bay School, this time for my son’s 8th grade class. We covered animal issues, environmental issues, and human rights issues. We watched clips from The New Heroes PBS series about individuals who are working to save children in slavery and help end the cycle of [...]