This past spring I was asked to be the speaker at our local high school’s National Honor Society induction. I invited the audience to analyze the effects a conventional, pesticide-sprayed, sweatshop-produced T-shirt had on people, animals, and the environment. I also asked them to consider what clothing and what new systems of production and distribution might do more good and less harm. I do this activity with many items, including a fast food cheeseburger, a bottle of imported water, and more.

After the talk, one of the inductees – a bright, hard-working junior who plans to be a physician one day – told a friend that my talk made her angry because, as she said:

“We should have been learning this since kindergarten!”

I couldn’t agree more.

In fact, here at the Institute for Humane Education (IHE) we believe that the very purpose of schooling should be to provide students with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to become engaged solutionaries for a better world.

We need your help to reach more educators, administrators and activists who will ensure that humane education spreads and infuses schooling everywhere. Your support will help IHE, our students and our graduates to make the creation of a humane world the overarching goal of learning and teaching. Imagine the world we can create together if we succeed.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY: Any gift of $15 or more postmarked by December 7, 2009 will be entered to win an extensive Humane Educator’s Global Issues Library. This exciting collection of more than 20 book titles (such as Dominion, Consuming Kids and Rethinking Globalization) and 4 educational DVDs was hand-selected by IHE faculty and has a total value of over $500!

~ Zoe Weil,
IHE President
Author of Most Good, Least Harm and Above All, Be Kind

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