Replacing Fear of the Unknown with Curiosity

Posted on August 23, 2012 by zoeweil

I grew up in New York City. I didn’t have much access to the natural world, but when I did find myself in a park or the landscaped environs of the suburbs, I loved it. But I was also scared of the insects and animals I would find. Visiting a cousin who had a huge garden, I was almost immobilized with fear because of the hundreds of bees buzzing all around me. Once, in Central Park, I saw some boys digging up earthworms and those scared me too. On a suburban lawn, a teenager I admired caught a big black shiny cricket and that cricket terrified me. But it was when I went to sleepaway camp in Maine at age nine and discovered that there were bats who flew around inside our bunk at night that I thought I could not possibly bear it.

But each time, my fears were allayed by knowledge. I learned that the bees would not sting me, and I just needed to take care where I walked; that the earthworms were actually amazingly cool, transforming waste into fertile soil; that the crickets were completely harmless and were relatives of the grasshoppers I’d read about in storybooks and loved; and that bats could hear where I was with their sonar and would never choose to fly into me. I also learned that they’d be eating the mosquitoes that would otherwise be likely to suck my blood and leave me itchy at night. And so my fears abated, as they almost always do when we understand.

It’s not surprising we would be afraid of the unknown. Millions of years of evolution have prepared us to fear lots of things that might threaten us, and our fear is a good protector much of the time. But our unexamined fears cause a host of problems. They lead to bigotry and prejudice; insular behaviors and group-think; judgment and assumptions; stagnation and lack of creativity.

Our best corrective to unwarranted fear is curiosity. The more we can approach what is new and potentially frightening with an open and curious mind, the better our chances of learning and understanding rather than judging and assuming. And the greater the possibilities for living harmoniously and sustainably.

Today, try just being curious. Suspend your judgments and assumptions to the greatest degree possible and embrace your capacity to ask questions and learn. See what happens.

~ 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“

Get tickets to the October 13 NYC performance of my 1-woman show: “My Ongoing Problems with Kindness: Confessions of MOGO Girl.”

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In Praise of Generalists

Posted on September 7, 2011 by zoeweil

We live in the age of specialists who are often given a greater status than generalists. They may train in their specialty for years, becoming the experts we turn to for specific knowledge and information. Specialization begins early. We’ve broken down our subject categories from as early as Kindergarten, and honed those categories into tiny and discreet topics by college.

There is much to be gained in learning something in-depth. I don’t want an orthopedist doing eye surgery on me, and I’d like to consult a climatologist about the path of a hurricane rather than a biologist.

The problem lies when we have trained so exclusively in our specialty that we are largely incapable of considering and connecting the many related pieces of information to a larger whole. The big picture matters, and having educated generalists who can move fluidly between fields and subjects, linking the various “hard” sciences with social sciences and the arts and humanities (especially ethics), is crucial for wise choicemaking and system-changing.

While I understand the impulse for specialization, whether in the sciences or as an activist, too little information can ultimately cause us to see things less clearly, make unwise decisions, and come to too narrow conclusions. Being a Renaissance woman or man in today’s world is uncommon, yet bringing a bit of Renaissance breadth would help us all.

As a comprehensive humane educator and the creator of the first graduate programs in comprehensive humane education, I’ve struggled with the challenge of educating our students well on topics as seemingly disparate as education philosophy and practice, environmental ethics, human rights, animal protection, and the overarching topics of culture and change that include economic globalization, social psychology, ethics, and belief-systems. Choosing eight books each for five core content courses (along with films and articles) means that our graduate students may only read 40 books covering these topics before moving on to their thesis. One could easily read 40 books on education or human rights alone. And so while I worry a bit that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, my hope is that by making connections between these issues and embarking on the lifelong learning process involved in being a generalist (which humane educators must be), we will humbly keep pursuing new knowledge and new connections. (I know that I do, reading about 100 books each year.) With this knowledge base, humane educators have the capacity to draw links and “hyphens” between topics and issues and subjects to help learners expand their own thinking and develop their skills as broad-minded solutionaries, whether they too become generalists, or, like most people, specialists. But even if they follow the common path toward specialization, they will bring with them a generalist’s approach from the humane educators who’ve taught them.

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 MAMJODH via Creative Commons.

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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.

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Khan Academy: A Revolution in Education

Posted on April 1, 2011 by zoeweil

One of the questions that I’m frequently asked is: How can humane education –- which explores the interconnected issues of human rights, animal protection, environmental preservation, and culture, providing students with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to become solutionaries for a better world –- be added to an already overburdened curricula? There is so much students must already learn, people say, and we have not even succeeded in providing them all with the basics of verbal, mathematical, technological and scientific literacy.

My answer has been twofold. First, I believe that learning how to become solutionaries for a better world should be the highest goal for education, and thus we should allocate time for this through courses, clubs, and teams in school. And I’ve also suggested that humane education can infuse all subjects, creating relevancy and meaning no matter what basics we’re acquiring. While I believe integrating humane education into various disciplines can be done, it’s true that there are some topics that lend themselves more easily to humane education than others. There are also subjects that demand a great deal of basic knowledge and skill prior to understanding how they can be used toward solutions to global problems.

Having just watched the TED talk of Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, I find myself so excited to imagine a new way of learning, studying, and gaining knowledge and skills that enables people to master both basic and advanced knowledge in subject areas more quickly and efficiently than is likely to be achieved in our typical classrooms, that I now see a third way in which humane education can infuse our schools. If students (of all ages and in any setting) were to learn subjects through Khan Academy’s videos and practice software (subjects that are expanding all the time on Khan Academy’s website), the time left to collaborate, work with teachers, problem-solve for a better world, and become informed changemakers would grow substantially.

I am so excited by Khan Academy and its potential to revolutionize how we learn.

Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk

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Reflections on Waiting for Superman: Pouring Knowledge Into Children’s Brains ≠ Good Education

Posted on January 24, 2011 by zoeweil

The movie, Waiting for Superman, finally came to rural Maine, and I so I finally got to see it. There is so much in it that is so important and so true. For example: It is a travesty that so many of our children are not learning the basics and are not verbally, mathematically or scientifically literate. It is a travesty that terrible teachers cannot be fired. It is a travesty that there are so many failing schools which are failing kids. It is a travesty that kids have to participate in a lottery to go to a good school.

Yet there was a moment during the film that I found so stunningly off the mark that I wondered if I was really watching a film meant to spearhead an educational revolution. In the scene, cartoon children in a classroom have their heads opened so that information can be poured in. To depict the problem the movie addresses, one child’s head is opened and the pitcher of knowledge is poured next to her, missing its mark. The message from the movie? How horrible that we have knowledge to pour into children’s brains and we are failing to do so.

Eight years ago, at a humane education symposium that we hosted at the Institute for Humane Education, a brilliant teacher, Matt Wildman, shared a cartoon depicting a child whose head is opened while information is poured in. To all of us, it was the opposite of good teaching. It still is. That Waiting for Superman implicitly suggests that this is the goal of schooling – to pour information into our children – is part of the problem. Will they get higher test scores? Probably. Will they learn the basics? Probably. But should this really be our goal for our children’s education? Absolutely not.

In my recently uploaded TEDx talk, I talk about what I believe the goal of schooling should be and the role of the basics in that higher purpose. I believe that in a world rife with injustices and looming catastrophes we need to provide children with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to be solutionaries and to use the basics of verbal, mathematical, and scientific literacy in service to a higher purpose of transforming unhealthy and unsustainable systems into ones that are humane and restorative.

Waiting for Superman certainly exposes some of the core problems with our educational system, but its implicit solution is ultimately a meager one. If all we do is more successfully pour information into our kids so they can pass standardized tests, this will still be a travesty. In a world plagued by complex challenges, our children need to be critical and creative thinkers whose educations have prepared them to employ “the basics” in service to innovation, brilliance, health, peace and joy.

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

Image courtesy of matt.janz via Creative Commons.

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What Does It Mean to Be Well-Educated?, Part 2

Posted on December 10, 2010 by zoeweil

M.Ed. and HECP students at our summer 1-week residency.

In my last post, I wrote a response to an excellent post at Cooperative Catalyst titled, “What does it mean to be well-educated?”. As the creator of the first M.Ed. program in the U.S. focused on humane education, I’ve had to think about this question a lot, but in a very specific way. I’ve had to ask myself, “What does it mean to be a well-educated humane educator?”

Having completed two master’s degrees myself, I knew the typical liberal arts master’s degree format: take courses of interest from a variety of professors; write the (usually) two long (20+ pages) papers; do this for two years and receive a degree. One of my master’s degrees is in English Literature, and my husband can’t quite believe how many classics I’ve never read yet still received an M.A. I’ve never read Dickens, Melville, or Hawthorne, for example. Hard to believe. But I did read lots of Shakespeare (I took a whole course just on Hamlet), the Bloomsbury authors of England, lots of utopian and dystopian novels, and the Romantic poets. Still, there are huge gaps in my education because I took the courses that interested me. There was no body of knowledge I had to possess to be granted my degree.

When I was creating our M.Ed. program, I realized there was a body of knowledge I wanted each student to have. For our students to be well-educated humane educators, there were certain books and films and ideas with which I felt they needed to grapple. I read hundreds of books to narrow down our reading list to those I felt were key components to their education, and each year when I revised the curricula, I read another hundred. And so every student who enrolls in our program reads core books (with many others recommended) and completes many specific (short) assignments designed to help them to become the best humane educators they can be. Students can request a different book (if they’ve already read it or feel it isn’t of greatest value to them personally) or propose a different assignment (for the same reason), and these requests are usually granted. But there is a body of knowledge I want them to have and carefully crafted questions/assignments I want them to address and explore.

At times this seems so prescriptive, so different from the graduate programs I participated in. But to be well-educated and well-rounded as a humane educator, I have felt that there are key texts that will provide them with the right mix of knowledge, approach, and understanding for educating others to be solutionaries who understand the interconnected issues of human rights, animal protection, environmental preservation, and explorations of culture and change. I have taken a similar approach as any trade school – whether medical school or law school – an approach that says: in order to be successful at this profession, you need this particular set of knowledge and skills.

What does it mean to be well-educated? It depends upon what you are being educated for.

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of The Power and Promise of Humane Education

P.S. In Fall 2011, IHE will resume its M.Ed. in Humane Education program — the only program of its kind in the U.S. — with a new affiliate. To receive more information about the program and an application when this program is launched, please contact Amy Morley at Amy@HumaneEducation.org.

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Do You Tune Out or Tune in To Atrocities?

Posted on November 19, 2010 by zoeweil

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
Author of Most Good, Least Harm

Image courtesy of Identity Photogr@phy via Creative Commons.

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Is Mindful Choicemaking Burdensome or Liberating?

Posted on November 18, 2009 by zoeweil

Some fear that if they look too closely at their choices and discover that those choices have harmful effects on other people, animals, and the environment, they will experience a number of negative emotions. They may worry they’ll feel overwhelmed, despondent, hopeless, conflicted, disempowered, and even bad about themselves if they continue to make choices they know cause suffering or harm. This is why people will sometimes tell me that they don’t want to know about the effects of a certain food or clothing brand or charity (see last blog post). Ignorance is bliss after all.

But ignorance only appears to be bliss. If the world becomes increasingly dangerous, polluted, hot, crowded, conflictual, unequal, susceptible to natural disasters, deforested, desertified, and dramatically loses biodiversity, the ignorant suffer just as much as the informed (and maybe more), as do their unprepared children and grandchildren.

But even though ignorance does not ultimately result in bliss, it can seem “safer” if we think we’ll avoid those potentially negative emotions mentioned above. But is this premise actually true? Is it true that those who expose themselves to knowledge and deeply inquire about the effects of their choices (including food, products, clothing, work, changemaking efforts, and participation in democracy) are less happy and more burdened than those who don’t?

I explore this question in my book Most Good, Least Harm, and from my profiles of people who consistently pursue knowledge to align their choices more deeply with their values, I find that the reverse is true. While these people may say that they occasionally feel overwhelmed, they also report that they feel more empowered and much happier to be living with integrity and creating a better future for themselves and others. In Daniel Goleman’s new book, Ecological Intelligence, he discovers the same thing. He quotes Raina Kelley, a journalist who became a freegan (someone who finds and consumes free and otherwise discarded foods and clothes and products to sustain themselves) as saying, “I really thought that being mindful of my impact on the Earth would drive me crazy but, in the end, it was the most valuable thing I did over the whole thirty days. The more you know about where your food, clothing, entertainment, and shelter comes from, the easier it is to make buying decisions in line with your conscience.” (p. 97)

Goleman’s book is a call for eco-transparency, because when we know, we all become empowered — not just the consumer, but the producer as well. A new website, www.earthster.com, is helping businesses choose suppliers that make more ecologically friendly and socially just choices. Since most of the things we produce have a huge supply chain attached to them, this is a critical component in creating more sustainable systems and products. Individuals who wish to know more and choose more consciously, can visit sites such as www.goodguide.com and www.responsibleshopper.org.

Knowledge allows us to align our choices more deeply with our values, and doing this feels both good and liberating. When we are true to values we are less susceptible to others’ directives, whether from society, peers, neighbors, advertisers, etc., and more wholly and fully ourselves.

~ Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, The Power and Promise of Humane Education and Above All, Be Kind

Image courtesy of Joe_Thorn via Creative Commons.

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We Need Knowledge AND Critical Thinking in Schools

Posted on September 28, 2009 by zoeweil

Once again, an op-ed writer has created another false either/or about education. In “Critical Thinking? You need knowledge” Diane Ravitch argues against what she describes as faddish efforts to teach critical thinking and cooperative learning in schools. She writes: this “skill-centered, knowledge-free education has never worked.” Personally, after 25 years in education (and alternative education at that), I know no one who is promoting “knowledge-free” education.

At the Institute for Humane Education we’ve identified 4 elements that comprise quality humane education:

1. Providing accurate information about the pressing issues of our time
2. Fostering the 3 Cs of curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking
3. Instilling the 3 Rs of reverence, respect, and responsibility
4. Offering positive choices and the tools for problem-solving

The idea behind these elements is to give students the knowledge, tools, and motivation to become engaged solutionaries for a better world. You might notice that the first element is oriented toward the acquisition of knowledge. Like Ms. Ravitch, I agree that one cannot think critically in a vacuum. We must have something to think critically about. But the current educational trends and the assessment of students through standardized, multiple choice tests on memorized information isn’t all that successful at cultivating knowledge, especially because most students promptly forget so much of what they supposedly learned. Why? Because it’s often boring and irrelevant information that is neither contextualized nor made meaningful. Why, for example, did the AP U.S. History students have to memorize the names and dates of all the presidents before the first day of class this fall? How is this information useful? Wouldn’t it be far more useful to read five of the most important presidential speeches and write about their impact on the nation? But I digress.

You might also notice that providing information is simply the first element we believe is important. That information forms the basis for the subsequent elements, the combination of which helps us become better people, stronger thinkers, more engaged citizens, and, ideally, more successful contributors to a healthier world. What use is knowledge if not for improving ourselves and our society and living well, productively, generously, and conscientiously?

Of course students need to acquire knowledge, but the knowledge that they need grows daily, which is why it is impossible to give it all to them. But it is not impossible to provide them with core knowledge and tools for knowledge acquisition which will allow them to become lifelong learners. They must be able to read, to compute, to be technologically literature, and to have a basic understanding of and appreciation for history, literature, the sciences, the arts, and philosophy. But these basics only bring them to the starting gate. They must become critical and creative thinkers to thrive in our world, and more importantly, to contribute positively; and we must give them these tools in school.

I’m so tired of false either/ors that distract us from real solutions to real problems. I know that strong opinions make for publishable opinion pieces in newspapers, but a bit more critical thinking onRavitch’s part would have been nice.

~ Zoe

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Teach What You Know

Posted on September 8, 2008 by zoeweil

Those of us working to change the world for the better are accustomed to viewing websites, reading blogs and articles from our favorite media and watching films and YouTube videos that fuel our motivation and effort toward action. We learn something new about a problem in the world, and we want to teach others about it.

We hire teachers who specialize in specific subjects to teach our secondary school students. We don’t expect language arts teachers to teach physics, and we don’t expect math teachers to teach social studies.

With a subject as broad as humane education, which covers human rights, environmental preservation, and animal protection, as well as issues of culture such as media, economic globalization, social psychology, and so much more, the task of the humane educator is considerable. How can we possible be expert enough in these many interrelated subjects to teach about them accurately? We certainly cannot gain such expertise just from visits to our preferred blogs or by relying on a few specific media sources.

This is why our M.Ed. and certificate programs in humane education are two years long. We must commit to learning thoroughly, reading widely, viewing broadly, and thinking deeply for a lifetime in order to be a true humane educator.

With that said, humane educators ask questions rather than provide answers. They invite and inspire their students to be lifelong learners and to delve into the critical subjects of our time with passion and commitment so that together we may come up with solutions that work for all.

~ Zoe

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