My Favorite Commencement Address: Kimmie Weeks

Posted on June 27, 2012 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I wanted to share my favorite commencement address, delivered by Liberian human rights activist Kimmie Weeks at my son’s high school graduation. Enjoy!


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 TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.  

Filed under: courage, education | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Take the Plunge

Posted on October 12, 2011 by zoeweil
Unless it is very hot outside and the water very warm, I always find it tough entering a pond, lake, or ocean to swim. While most people I know just dive right in, I can take 15 minutes of slowly inching my way deeper before I get up the nerve to submerge. I go through all sorts of mental gymnastics, asking why am I doing this, do I really want to, and trying to convince myself that maybe up to my hips is far enough. Then I mildly berate myself for my cowardice, remind myself how good I’ll feel afterwards, and give myself a talking to about experiencing life in all its aspects. Eventually I take the plunge.

And so it was last weekend at Otter Bog. I had spent a couple of hours scraping out the accumulated poop and pee of who knows how many mice who’d made their home in the oven and cupboards in our cabin over numerous winters. To say it was a disgusting job is an understatement. I felt so gross. The pond, sparkling in the sun and reflecting the few puffy clouds overhead, beckoned. I’d get to swim by the big beaver lodge and alongside the heath. I’d clean off the mouse poop that had surely bedecked me despite the latex gloves I wore. My dog, Elsie, was already swimming in circles, just waiting for me to join her. But it still took forever for me to slowly, painstakingly, enter the cold September water.

Which is a metaphor for something, isn’t it? Change is hard, which is how I see going from a comfortable body temperature on a seventy-five degree, breezy day to entering a sixty-degree pond. And yet, stretching ourselves beyond our comfort zone, exploring and experiencing more of what life has to offer, is compelling. Life is dull without new experiences and opportunities.

And those opportunities are myriad. They reside in every choice we make: to eat something healthy and humane instead of the same old stuff offered in our mainstream culture; to volunteer where we are needed and feel the joy of giving instead of spending those two hours on Facebook; to learn something new that might change our life and choices for the better, instead of watching a reality show or American Idol or another sitcom; to donate money to a cause in which we believe, instead of buying a new pair of shoes or earrings; to mindfully put legs on a dream or vision instead of slipping into the rut of our daily norms.

Take the plunge. You’ll feel better afterwards.

For a humane world,

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 TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Filed under: courage, MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Do You Tune Out or Tune In to Atrocities?

Posted on August 15, 2011 by zoeweil

Zoe’s been busy with speaking & traveling and didn’t have time to write a blog post for today, so here’s a repost from 11/19/10. Enjoy!

I’ve always been struck by people saying that they don’t want to know about a particular atrocity or cruelty or problem in the world. It’s not uncommon to hear this from adults (though rarely from youth). I think the motivation to avoid new knowledge stems from people’s desire to live with integrity. That might sound like an odd statement, but if you learn something that calls into question choices you make, and you really don’t want to change, then you’ll be faced with the unpleasant experience of living without integrity. Better not to know. Ignorance is bliss after all.

But I’m struck by this head-in-the-sand behavior because it’s foreign to me. I’ve always wanted to know. Even if I am unready or unwilling to make a different choice, I’d rather know and live with my discomfort than not know. I’d rather have the opportunity to live more closely aligned with my values.

Over time, though, I’m beginning to understand the disinclination to know. I do get tired of all the bad news, of learning about more problems, of facing my own lack of integrity. This fatigue is helping me understand those people who say, “Don’t tell me about _______. I don’t want to know.” And understanding is a good thing. It helps me build bridges and offer smaller invitations. It helps me teach more wisely and carefully and inspire baby steps toward knowing. It keeps me from being self-righteous, and helps me maintain some humility.

Still, even when I get tired, I know there’s no other path for me. Maybe I’ll take a brief respite from the myriad books and videos that expose me to the grave and horrible problems in the world, but not for long. There’s work to do, and I don’t know how else to live with myself or to live in this imperfect world that needs our good work.

What about you?

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 TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Image courtesy of Identity Photogr@phy via Creative Commons.

Like our blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Filed under: accurate information, citizen activism, courage, habits, integrity, MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

A Model of Courageous Parenting: Ducks, Dogs, and a Walk on the Beach at Sunset

Posted on June 29, 2011 by zoeweil

The night before solstice, I walked my dogs, Ruby and Elsie, down to the shore just before sunset. A seal was basking in the last rays of the day on a rock about 100 feet off the shore. A loon cried. Sea gulls soared above us, calling. The dogs and I walked along the shore past the few houses to the long stretch of undeveloped coast, when suddenly a Mallard sprung out in front of us, walk-limping, flapping what appeared to be useless wings, apparently struggling and in great distress. I quickly got Ruby and Elsie on lead so that they couldn’t harm her, as I pondered what to do. My husband is a veterinarian, so I knew I could get the duck medical care quickly if I could catch her. But within moments, I realized what was really going on. From where the duck had first emerged, I heard little chirps.

I’ve heard of mother birds pretending to be injured and flapping around on the ground to draw predators away from their young, but I don’t recall ever seeing this before. And with such drama and commitment, too. This Mallard flapped and limped and struggled for a nearly a quarter of a mile, staying just ahead of us as we dutifully followed (well, that’s the direction we were headed anyway). When finally she felt we were far enough away, she flew to the ocean, keeping an eye on us on the whole time.

What a clever, brave, and good mom she was. She fooled the dogs, who never thought to investigate those duckling chirps. Why do so many of us humans doubt that other species can love their young as we do; can use intrigue and manipulation like the best of us; can feel and love and suffer?

For a humane world for all beings,

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 TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Filed under: animal intelligence and emotion, courage, humane parenting, nature | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Comments Off

The Hope That Lies at the Root of Humane Education

Posted on June 15, 2011 by zoeweil

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent post I wrote for Care2.com, an online community for people passionate about creating a better world. Here’s an excerpt from The Hope That Lies at the Root of Humane Education:

As Joan Baez put it, “Action is the antidote to despair.” So when I feel hopeless, I harness my fading will toward action once again. And when I do, when I teach and watch my students become energized, enlivened, engaged and enthusiastic, my hope returns. I feed the part of myself that is starving for renewed faith, and I feed those students eager (and sometimes even desperate) for meaning, purpose and relevancy in their education. And that is when I know that a humane, healthy and just world is possible: as long as we refuse to give in to despair, but instead work just as tenaciously when hopelessness takes root as we do when we are hopeful.

Read the complete post.

For a humane world,

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 TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Image courtesy of DieselDemon via Creative Commons.

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Filed under: animal protection, courage, Environmental Preservation, human rights, humane education, MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Words Do Hurt…And Help

Posted on April 11, 2011 by zoeweil

There are two powerful and important videos circulating on YouTube produced by youth. The first is a brave and moving film from a vulnerable 8th grader who confronts her bullying by sharing it with us with a plea for awareness that words hurt:


The second is a beautiful, powerful, and loving response from a 20-year-old who reaches out:

What’s revealed in these two, short videos is the power of words to both harm and heal and the power of communicating to make a difference. As these films go viral, which I’m sure they will, I expect that we’ll begin to see the power of this medium not simply to inform, but to transform, in ways that our bullying prevention programs have yet to accomplish.

Thanks Alye and Erika.

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm and Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Filed under: changemakers, compassion, compassionate communication, courage, integrity, youth activism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Save the Shoes: An Inspiring Call to Ordinary Heroism

Posted on April 6, 2011 by zoeweil

In this 4-minute TED talk, volunteer firefighter Mark Bezos, offers a funny, inspiring, and simple call to action: don’t wait to make a difference:

After watching this video, before sharing it on Twitter or your Facebook page and moving on, consider pausing long enough to reflect on this simple, but powerful and important call to action. Really introspect. What talents, passions, and skills do you have that you could use to make this world or others’ lives better? What makes you come alive and how can you turn this into a gift to others? What service would make a real difference while utilizing all that you have to offer? How can you give best? Please consider sharing these reflections on your Facebook posts and Twitter feeds (along with Mark’s talk) and in your communities, because you can inspire your friends and neighbors too. I welcome your responses to Mark’s call to action.

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Filed under: changemakers, citizen activism, community service, courage, heroes, MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

The World Needs More Heroes

Posted on February 16, 2011 by zoeweil

I’ve blogged about Phil Zimbardo’s work a number of times. His newest TED talk shares his goals and approach for creating more heroes through the Heroic Imagination Project (on whose board of advisors I’m proud to sit). Take a look at Phil’s brief talk, and consider what you can do in your own life not only to be an ordinary hero yourself, but to promote ordinary heroism among others.

I found the stark contrast between the two juxtaposed slides of Hitler, arm raised, standing above his followers, and Gandhi, arm similarly raised, standing among his, both unsettling and profoundly provocative and thought-provoking. Since, as Zimbardo argues and has provided evidence for throughout his distinguished career in social psychology (see the Stanford Prison Experiment), circumstance is a primary factor in our behavior, we are compelled to create the circumstances that will promote ordinary heroism.
That is our great task. And our great opportunity.

 

For a world populated by ordinary heroes,

 

Zoe Weil, President Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times and Claude and Medea, Moonbeam gold medal award winner for juvenile fiction about middle school ordinary heroes

 

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Filed under: changemakers, citizen activism, courage, goodness, heroes, integrity, responsibility, videos | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Zeitoun and Humane Education

Posted on January 19, 2011 by zoeweil

My son, a junior in high school, is taking a course entitled “Shared Voices,” an integrated class that brings together American History and American Literature, so that what students read for English is reflected in what they study in history. I love the whole idea of this course, as the separation of disciplines often leads students away from the integration that would make each subject even more relevant and meaningful. When I was buying my son’s texts for the semester, I was excited by the reading list and offered to read the books at the same time in case he wanted to talk about them outside of class.

The first book he was assigned was Dave Eggers’, Zeitoun, the true story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American with a successful contracting and painting business in New Orleans. During Hurricane Katrina, Zeitoun chose to stay behind as the city’s populace, and his own family, evacuated. He did so not only out of stubbornness, but to protect the many properties they owned and were responsible for.

Zeitoun found himself feeling alive and purposeful as never before as he used his canoe to rescue people during the days following the flooding of the city and fed the dogs left behind in people’s homes. After a week of this heroism, Zeitoun and three others at his home were falsely arrested and brought to a newly erected jail at the Greyhound Bus Station. Zeitoun, not only completely innocent, but also the kind of man who should serve as a model of integrity, compassion, and honesty to us all, was abused and mistreated in ways that not only defy our core American values but our stated system of jurisprudence. The book serves as a wake up call to all those who assume our legal and punitive systems are relatively fail-safe and humane.

The book was captivating, enraging, inspiring, motivating, a profoundly important read, and a perfect example of humane education in action – bringing something deeply relevant and important into the study of history and English, igniting critical, and hopefully creative thinking, as the students grapple with the complexities of our modern society, government, religious freedom, incarceration and punishment, the military and legal systems and their potential breakdowns, intolerance and stereotypes, and most importantly, everyday heroism which lies at the core of this book in the character of Zeitoun.

As a newly published book there is no option for reading CliffsNotes, no likelihood that students will fail to engage with the text or the subject. Instead there are two teachers and a supportive high school who have crafted a course to awaken, inspire, enlighten, engage, and help make meaningful the critical study of both American literature and history. Every American should read this book. I’m just so happy my son is reading it in school.

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of The Power and Promise of Humane Education, Most Good, Least Harm and Claude and Medea

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Filed under: books, citizen activism, compassion, courage, discrimination, education, heroes, humane education, justice, values | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Bill McKibben’s Eaarth

Posted on November 22, 2010 by zoeweil

I just finished Bill McKibben’s Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. McKibben, a journalist and prolific author who has focused on environmental issues in general, and global warming in particular, for more than 20 years, is well known not only for his efforts to educate through his writing, but also to motivate. He spearheaded the movement www.350.org to engage people across the globe in taking action to compel a reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, a number largely thought to be the sweet spot for maintaining a stable climate.

But as McKibben tells us, it’s too late to maintain a stable climate. We didn’t heed the warnings when we needed to; we plowed ahead with unabated growth on the back of fossil fuels, and we have arrived at planet Eaarth, recognizable as our home planet, but already different.

But while Eaarth is a sobering read, it is not a hopeless one. Unlike some authors who advocate for an end to civilization to “save our planet,” McKibben’s prescription is really not all that radical, though it will be challenging. McKibben takes us on a journey to understand our planetary situation and advocates living in a decentralized manner. Nothing we haven’t done for 99+% of our history, but something that now seems unimaginable, globalized as our economy is. McKibben is no Luddite, though. And the manner in which he embraces our globalized information system – through the Internet – is a reminder that we can lead “sophisticated” lives as 21st century citizens, without unduly trashing our planet, and while slowing the inevitable continued rise in temperatures which pose grave, frightening threats we’ve already begun to experience, and which will certainly escalate.

What I appreciated about McKibben’s book is that it’s not the end of the story. His advocacy for decentralized living is not so hard to achieve, but it is just the first step. We have no idea what ideas will emerge and what possibilities lie ahead, and nothing that McKibben suggests will prevent the creativity of humanity from discovering and developing other solutions to our problems. His advocacy for common sense living does not preclude new ideas, ones I fervently believe will be generated by young people if we would embrace a bigger vision of schooling: to educate a generation of solutionaries.

Eaarth is, I believe, verging on essential reading; heeding its call is also essential, and cultivating your own creativity for solutions the true hope.

Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm and The Power and Promise of Humane Education

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Filed under: books, citizen activism, courage, creativity, Environmental Preservation, global warming, systemic change, third side thinking | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Next Page »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 431 other followers