How Do We Change?

Posted on June 30, 2008 by zoeweil

Artist and changemaker Chris Jordan asks several questions in his fascinating presentation at the TED conference. Through his powerful photographs of human behavior and mass consumption, Jordan attempts to make our unconscious societal choices conscious so that we can change destructive and unhealthy behaviors and systems. Jordan’s captivating wall-sized photographs depict, in a compelling and often visually stunning manner, such mundane realities as the number of plastic cups we use on airplane flights in the U.S. each day or the number of people who die from smoking cigarettes every year. By making our societal choices accessible in this way, he invites viewers to reflect upon their own individual contributions (presumably both positive and negative) to the world. I consider Jordan’s work to be a spectacular example of humane education through art.

But what I found most compelling about this particular presentation was his question to the audience. How do we change?

It’s an old question with a long pedigree of distinguished and not-so-distinguished answers. Psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists, preachers, and advertisers alike have all sought to understand the forces that mold us, and then to mold us toward their own aims.

This is true for humane educators as well. The primary goal of humane education is to provide people with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to create a peaceful and humane world. Note that humane education seeks to do more than provide relevant information and skills; it must also instill desire to create a good world and motivate its recipients to be engaged changemakers. We humane educators are in the influence business, attempting to answer the question “How do we change?” so that we can help our students change themselves and the world for the better.

From my perspective as a humane educator, I believe that we change:

  • By emulating those who inspire us most (so humane educators must model a positive message as fully as possible)
  • Through daily practice and a commitment to live with integrity (so humane educators must provide maps for such a practice)
  • When the choices before us include convenient, healthy, and positive options (so humane educators must offer these and work toward their development)
  • When we are part of healthy systems and live in healthy situations (so humane educators must help create such systems and situations for our students)
  • With support from others who also strive to change for the better (so humane educators must provide such support)
  • By pursuing lifelong learning and wisdom (so humane educators must inspire others so that they are passionate about learning)
  • When we have hope (so humane educators must offer painful truths about current realities in ways that do not create despair but rather engender enthusiasm for new possibilities)

Our task as humane educators is to create change, and so we must seek to answer Jordan’s question so that our work has the greatest impact. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas for answering this perennial question.

~ Zoe

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Zoe Interview on the Dr. Pat Show

Posted on June 27, 2008 by zoeweil

Zoe WeilZoe will be interviewed, live, on the Dr. Pat Show. The interview will be Tuesday, July 1, at 1:30 pm EST (10:30 am PST). Zoe will be talking about her books and about the power of humane education and humane living.

Be sure to tune in if you can!

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What William Kristol Missed

Posted on June 23, 2008 by zoeweil

Smiling kids on the ground facing the sky.Conservative columnist, William Kristol, has an opinion piece in the New York Times today criticizing the new MoveOn.org ad about the Iraq war. You can view the ad here.

In the ad a young mother, holding her baby boy, says the following: “Hi, John McCain. This is Alex. And he’s my first. So far his talents include trying any new food and chasing after our dog. That, and making my heart pound every time I look at him. And so, John McCain, when you say you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were, you can’t have him.”

William Kristol makes some valid points about this ad. John McCain’s comment about staying in Iraq for 100 years (or even longer) has been taken out of context. The U.S. currently has a volunteer military, so John McCain can’t take this woman’s son. But then he quotes a woman who’s son has been serving in Iraq; she says about the ad: “Does that mean that she wants other people’s sons to keep the wolves at bay so that her son can live a life of complete narcissism? What is it she thinks happens in the world? … Someone has to stand between our society and danger. If not my son, then who? If not little Alex then someone else will have to stand and deliver. Someone’s son, somewhere.”

And Mr. Kristol responds to this statement with the following: “This is the sober truth. Unless we enter a world without enemies and without war, we will need young men and women willing to risk their lives for our nation. And we’re not entering any such world.”

I’m not so naïve as to think we live in a world without enemies or war, but I found myself surprised by Mr. Kristol’s choice of words. “Unless we enter…” he writes before deciding in the next sentence that we’re not “entering” such a world.

Should this really be the question we ask, and the conclusion we draw? I agree with Mr. Kristol that we won’t enter any such world, but we can create a world in which we no longer kill one another in wars. We have the capacity to solve conflicts peaceably. The great majority of individuals do this, and many societies have learned to do so as well. Can’t we work to create a world in which we all solve conflicts without violence, individuals and nations alike?

William Kristol’s perspective is not simply pessimistic, it is essentially passive. That is, passive about the necessity to work for a better world, one in which we have healthy, sustainable, and peaceful systems and societies. Passive about our responsibility to create a safe and humane world so that our children need not “stand and deliver” in war, but rather stand and deliver on viable solutions to war and environmental degradation and poverty and cruelty and a host of other problems.

Mr. Kristol would likely be surprised that I’m calling him passive. After all, he advocates active engagement with our enemies in the form of a strong military and sons going to war. But he is silent on the most important challenge of our time – the challenge to raise a generation that has learned how to create peace. That is the challenge that humane education seeks to meet. It won’t be selfish narcissists who take up this challenge, but rather a generation that has been taught and motivated to be wise, committed, generous changemakers.

~ Zoe

Filed under: humane education, positive choices, responsibility | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

What Does a Humane Education School Look Like?

Posted on June 16, 2008 by zoeweil

Eager students in classroomWhen my son was just a toddler, and my husband and I, tired of city living, were trying to decide where we were going to move, we spent our long weekends and vacations visiting communities, from the mountains of North Carolina to the coast of Maine. With strong opinions about education and schooling (generated over my years as a humane educator presenting in many schools), finding a place to live also meant finding a school for our son.

We ended up on the Blue Hill peninsula in Maine and sent our son, Forest, to the Bay School, a small, Waldorf-inspired elementary school.

Last week my 14-year-old graduated from the Bay School in the most spectacular ceremony that epitomized what humane education – not just Waldorf education – can achieve. Each child introduced a classmate, sharing words that brought forth the very best qualities of their friends, and then each child spoke about their experience, voiced their gratitude, and were offered wise words from their teachers.

By the time they graduated they knew more about our political system than I knew when I graduated with a master’s degree from college, because their teacher had taken the time during this exciting primary season to engage them in the political process. They’d visited the candidates’ websites, written about policies and debated them, listened to Barack Obama’s speech on race, and followed each primary or caucus avidly. They’d studied the civil rights and women’s suffrage movements and analyzed sexist and racist jokes. They’d learned about the efforts to protect children during the industrial revolution, and they’d had 1st grade partners all year with whom they played every day at recess, cultivating care, kindness, and love in full measure.

In other words, they’d received a humane education. And it shows. These graduates are so ready and eager to embark upon the next stage of their lives, so capable and prepared to be not just students, but citizens, so motivated to make a positive difference, with excellent critical and creative thinking skills to help solve their challenges, large and small.

We need all schools to offer our children no less than this.

~ Zoe

Filed under: humane education | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

Humane Education Part of the National Discussion?

Posted on June 5, 2008 by zoeweil

U.S. FlagDuring Senator Hillary Clinton’s speech Tuesday night, she mentioned education in the U.S. and said that during the campaign she had met “students passionately engaged in the issues of our time, from ending the genocide in Darfur to once again making the environment a central issue of our day.” For a moment I wondered if I really had heard what I thought I had heard. Why, this was an implied call for humane education! She spoke of these students in the most positive way, and the crowd at Baruch College in Manhattan where she was speaking roared their support.

The goal of humane education is to engage students in the issues of our time so that they are passionately committed, knowledgeable, creative changemakers. If Hillary Clinton has been meeting such students in her campaign, in enough numbers to earn their mention in this important speech at the end of the primaries, this means that humane education is reaching young people – whether through teachers, media, books, the Internet, and/or YouTube. And it means that humane education – although not named as such – has reached a threshold I’ve been working toward for over two decades.

Teaching a generation to be aware of the great challenges we face, motivated to make a difference, and with the tools to make healthy choices that create positive change for all is now part of our national awareness, if not our national agenda.

Making humane education part of every young person’s education has new wings. Let’s all take flight and watch this movement grow.

~ Zoe

Filed under: humane education | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Humane Educator’s Paradox

Posted on June 2, 2008 by zoeweil

Boardwalk in waterIt’s painful to learn about the terrible injustices and cruelties in the world. Sometimes, the more we know, the more hopeless we become. Even when we also learn about the great courage, generosity, wisdom, and dedication of countless changemakers, even when we see success in their efforts to create new systems that solve the great challenges of our time, we can still become despondent in the face of persistent exploitation, destruction, and oppression.

The question “How can we choose to know and still maintain hope in the face of ghastly atrocities?” is a seminal one for humane educators and reflects a paradox that is difficult to resolve. We must know in order to create positive change. Knowing leads to what Buddhists call “right action” and Jews call “tikkun olam” (repairing the world), but it can also to lead to rage, depression, fear, and violence, and even, paradoxically, to apathy when we simply cannot absorb or care about so much.

Most of us know angry activists who turn off more people than they turn on, whose actions are counter productive, who fail to model the peace and compassion they seek to create in the world. These people “know” but their “knowing” actually inhibits their successful changemaking.

And most of us also know activists who tirelessly create healthy change while inspiring others. What is the key to their success? How do they both know and radiate kindness, acceptance, patience, and openness? I believe that most such changemakers find a practice that grounds them, as well as outlets for experiencing joy and inner peace. They may spend time in the natural world, or meditate, or read inspiring works, or find strength from their religious beliefs, or gather with friends to laugh and play. They self reflect, they revel in all that is good, they acknowledge their own sadness and frustration as worthy emotions, and they persevere in cultivating their own best qualities.

Humane educators must not only cultivate all this within themselves, but also in the students we teach. If we create a generation full of despair, rather than a generation enthusiastic to play their part in creating change, we will have failed. If, however, we honor our students’ sorrow, fear, and anger and help them transform these emotions into “right action” we will have created a generation that can embrace the humane educator’s paradox and move toward the unfolding of a better world.

~ Zoe

Filed under: balance, humane education, positive choices | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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