The Power and Promise of Humane Education
Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times
Claude and Medea: The Hellburn Dogs
So, You Love Animals: An Action-Packed, Fun-Filled Book to Help Kids Help Animals |
| Image courtesy of Tom Hickmore via Creative Commons. |
For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent essay I wrote for Care2.com, an online community for people passionate about creating a better world. Here’s an excerpt from “What Can We Do When Children Cannot Imagine a Better World?”:
“I recently spoke to the middle school students at an alternative, independent, progressive school. I talked first to the 5th and 6th graders and next to the 7th and 8th graders. As I often do when I give presentations, I opened my talk by asking the kids what they thought were the biggest problems in the world. Like every group, their lists included such topics as global warming, poverty and war, along with many other issues.
Then I asked a question I hadn’t ever posed before. I asked if they could imagine a world without these problems. Only three children out of 40 raised their hands. I was stunned. These are children. Children are blessed with active imaginations, yet these kids couldn’t imagine a world without a laundry list of terrible problems and crises.”
~ Zoe
Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxYouth@BFS “Educating for Freedom”
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Filed under: humane education Tagged: | activism, belief, better world, children, citizenship, future, global ethical issues, hope, humane education, problem solving, vision
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LOVE this concept! Even by simply raising the question to that group of 40 kids, you’ve increased the probability for SOME of them to answer the question differently in the future! Some of them left that day, and are actively (or even passively) imagining that they CAN imagine a better world — and that alone can be the start of great change. Great post friend!
Thanks so much!