The Power and Promise of Humane Education
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When 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: | Bay School, education, humane education, schools
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I salute you. Giving a child a Humane Education is like giving them air to breath — without it they die on multiple levels, but with it they thrive. Our children are deeply affected by the activities we expose them to, the books they read, the things they watch on TV, the people they associate with, and the things they eat, therefore we must make sure that they are exposed to people, books, TV, food and activities which foster Humane personalities.
People’s behavior, to a very large extent, is heavily shaped by the things that they are exposed to in their younger days, and if we want our children to behave in a humane manner, then we have to expose them to activities which foster Humane personalities, and keep them away from activities which knock the Humanity out of them. Yes, we do need to keep them away from certain books, movies and people, because they will be scared for life if they are exposed to toxic ideas during the impressionable years of their lives, and when they are scared by toxic ideas, they themselves will become toxic.
If we want our children, and ourselves, to be healthy, then we need to hold onto the good things, and let go of the bad things.
Hold onto the Good, and let go of the bad.
We don’t have to accept everything, and we shouldn’t. We should reject and stay away from toxic ideas, books, and TV, because if we ingest those toxic ideas (in the form of conversation, classroom lectures, books, or TV) then we ourselves will become toxic.
Our society demands “open mindedness,” but we’ve opened our minds too wide, letting in even the destructive ideas. We’ve learned how to accept many things which should be accepted, but were previously rejected. Now we need to learn how to reject many things which are accepted, but should be rejected. If an idea is toxic, then we shouldn’t allow that idea to infect our brains by reading about it, or speaking about it.
One of the books which I believe would foster a Humane personality is Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication. The book’s goal is, if I may be blunt, to teach us how to communicate with each other, in an productive manner, instead of beating each other up or bombing each other.
What the children learn in the younger age, the behavior in the next age depends on this. What they see, in which company they live, builds their career path.
Thanks,
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