Share Your Thoughts: What Should Schooling Be For?

I’ve written a lot about what I think schooling should be for and what we at the Institute for Humane Education believe should be the greater purpose of education. Now I’d love to hear from you. This week I’m using my blog to post questions to my readers. Here’s the first: What should schooling be [...]

WebSpotlight: Cooperative Catalyst

Want to join a juicy and meaningful discussion about education? Visit Cooperative Catalyst. I’ve recently been introduced to this blog discussion and it’s an exciting place to explore issues of education and schooling. I’ve also just become a contributing blogger there. You can read my first post here. Hope you’ll join me there! Zoe Weil [...]

A, B, C and Not Yet: Embracing Our Identities as Successful Changemakers

I’ve been reading the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath. The book identifies key factors that spur positive change. In one section, the authors discuss creating a new identity and a growth mindset. They tell the story of Molly Howard, a special education teacher who became [...]

Share Your Voice: What is the Biggest Challenge Facing Education Today?

At the U.S. Department of Education blog, readers are invited to answer this question: What is the biggest challenge facing education today? I wrote the following, and I hope you will share your thoughts as well: I believe the biggest challenge in education today is that our current purpose for schooling is inadequate. We are [...]

Finding Joy in My Dog Elsie

I’ve shared my home with seven dogs in my life, and none have had quite as much “personality” as Elsie, who joined our family one year ago. When my husband, Edwin, brought Elsie home from the veterinary clinic where he works, I agreed to a trial weekend. We already had three dogs, one of whom [...]

Otter Bog Blog #1: Through the “Microglass”

My husband and I planned to spend an afternoon and evening doing what has become a favorite outing: climbing a short, rigorous rung-and-ladder hike in Acadia to a beautiful pond where we love to swim, grabbing a burrito for dinner, and then heading to our favorite evening entertainment, Improv Acadia, an improvisational comedy group in [...]

A Dog’s Purpose

I recently finished A Dog’s Purpose, a novel by W. Bruce Cameron. I loved this book. Told in the first person by a dog, I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that rang so true about the inner lives and thoughts of our canine companions. Reading this novel has me looking at and relating to [...]

Campers at the Institute for Humane Education

Last week, we hosted 23 people, children and adults from local Camp Featherfoot for a day of reverence-building activities. Our summer intern, Emily Peake, introduced the group to such activities as Wonder Walk, Find Your Tree, Smell Teas, Seton Watching, and Gnome House Building and Ecology Discussion. Watching the children share their love of these [...]

What Does Forgiveness Really Mean?

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. “Forgiveness and reconciliation are not just ethereal, spiritual, otherworldly activities…. They are realpolitik, because in a very real sense, without forgiveness, there is no future.” ~ Desmond Tutu “What we forgive too freely doesn’t stay forgiven.” ~ Mignon McLaughlin [...]

Chart a Course for A Better World, A Meaningful Life

On September 6, the Institute for Humane Education (IHE) will be offering its acclaimed course: A Better World, A Meaningful Life. This month-long, distance learning course is meant for everyone who wants to deeply assess their lives and values and explore how to create changes that add meaning to their own lives while making a [...]

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