Does Helping One Lead to Helping Many?

Posted on June 20, 2012 by zoeweil
Image courtesy of dfletcher via Creative Commons.

For my blog post today I wanted to share a recent essay I wrote for Care2.com, an online community for people passionate about creating a better world. Here’s an excerpt from “Does Helping One Lead to Helping Many?”:

“Most of us find a compelling story a strong motivation to help. We respond more to a single child needing food (and open our wallets accordingly) than to a widespread famine. We are more likely to donate to an animal shelter that may save a few hundred animals a year or a new school which might educate a couple of hundred students than to a humane education organization whose work could save tens of thousands of animals or reach tens of thousands of children in that same year. This has always frustrated me, but I also understand it. I, too, am motivated by a single story, an individual whose life I can save or help. It’s why I’ve donated to sanctuaries and sponsored poverty-stricken children.”

Read the complete essay.

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: MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Why We Need Humane Education: Co-opting The Lorax

Posted on March 5, 2012 by zoeweil
Image courtesy of Loren Javier
via Creative Commons.

I can’t say it better than Josh Golin and Susan Linn from Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood who wrote “Save the Lorax: Shun the Stuff.”  This is exactly why we need humane education: to bring critical thinking to the co-opting of a pro-environmental, anti-materialistic book by corporate interests.

Here are some ideas for teachers and parents:

  • Ask your students/children to research and analyze the true cost to the environment of the spin-off “Lorax” products.
  • Have your students/children write respectful letters to the producers of the show and the “Lorax” spin-off companies to express their thoughts and share their research.
  • Invite your students/children to pen letters to the editor and blogs using their best writing and communication skills to express their thoughts and share their ideas for actually putting Dr. Seuss’ message into practice.

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: humane education | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Humane Educators’ Toolbox: 12 Angry Men

Posted on July 18, 2011 by zoeweil

I watched the classic film, 12 Angry Men, recently, and I was struck by the ways in which the film so accurately depicts what social psychology experiments reveal about people’s willingness to suspend their own thinking faculties to go along with the group [in particular, the Asch experiments, in which individuals deny their own senses to agree with the majority, demonstrating the lengths (no pun intended) to which people will go to conform].

In the movie, had one man’s commitment to integrity and reason not prevailed, another man, reasonably likely to have been innocent of the crime he was charged with, would have been electrocuted. It is not a surprise that only one man of twelve was willing to step out on the proverbial limb in a group vote in which he was the only dissenter, nor is it a surprise that some went along with the prevailing view without much thought – easily swayed and influenced.

We all know these characters. We all know people whose beliefs can be too easily altered by new ideas; others whose beliefs are so entrenched that reason and rationality cannot sway them; others who stand out as extremely clear-headed and models of critical thinking; others who don’t care enough to be bothered to think very hard for themselves and will follow the crowd no matter what; others whose deep emotional needs and pain influence their ability to think rationally. And most of us realize that there is a little bit of each of such characters in ourselves.

The challenge for each of us, I believe, is to strive to be like the character played by Henry Fonda, a man committed to truth and aware that truth is often elusive; a man unafraid of speaking his truth even when it differs from others; someone whose heart and mind work together toward a goal of integrity and honesty; a person whose mind is not so open his “brain falls out,” but who exemplifies open-mindedness.

This film is an excellent tool for any critical thinking or criminal justice course, as well as for a course in American History. Though fiction, it offers much food for thought and discussion. As a supplement to the social psychology films at the Heroic Imagination Project website, 12 Angry Men offers humane educators – those who wish to ensure that their students have the knowledge, tools, and motivation to be solutionaries for a just, compassionate world – an excellent opportunity to use film and culture to explore issues of character and choicemaking.

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: critical thinking, Cultural Issues, humane education, integrity, justice, movies, videos | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

My Faith in Humanity Got a Boost Today

Posted on March 24, 2010 by zoeweil

This past weekend I watched two disturbing movies: Woody Allen’s Whatever Works and Shutter Island. Whatever Works was not meant to be disturbing, but in typical Woody Allen fashion, the protagonist raises persistent questions about humanity’s cruelty and destructiveness, and for some reason, this particular time, such rants left me less amused and more despondent. Shutter Island is a dark movie about people who have perpetrated the worst imaginable atrocities, with Holocaust visuals to boot. So after a weekend of these two films, I was aching for some renewed hope and faith. As luck would have it (or, more accurately, as lack of luck would result in), I got my wish.

The morning after watching Shutter Island, my husband and I loaded my old car up with our trash and recyclables to bring to the transfer station (aka the dump) on our way to our local mountain to walk our dogs. About a mile past the transfer station my car died. While I was calling for roadside assistance my husband walked to the nearest house to see if he could buy a gallon of gas just in case the reason the car died was because the fuel gauge had broken. Although the man he spoke with had no gas, he offered to drive my husband home (15 miles round trip). Meanwhile, someone I knew passed my car and quickly turned right around to help, followed by another person who did the same thing.

So in a world awash with such horrors as slavery, genocide, rape, torture, and so on, kindness, generosity, and helpfulness still remain the norm, at least in my neighborhood in Maine, and they remind me that most of us are good despite all evidence that we cannot seem to create a truly humane society.

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

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

Filed under: compassion, gratitude | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Comments Off

No More Bad Guys Winning: We Want (and Need) More From Our Movies

Posted on December 29, 2008 by zoeweil

I’ve watched two movies recently, Match Point and The Player, in which the proverbial “bad guys” win. There is no happy ending. The murderers not only go unpunished but also prevail. Ironically, in The Player, there is a film within the film in which the screenwriter insists that his movie not have a happy ending, that it be based in reality. But the unhappy ending flops in screen tests and is replaced by a predictable, happy one. But The Player itself has no such ending. These kinds of dark, anti-hero movies are commonplace these days, and they win awards. No Country for Old Men — a gruesome film with a gruesome end – won this year’s Oscar for best picture.

What effects do such films have on us? Do they make us less likely to be just, compassionate, kind, courageous, and honest ourselves? I’d love to see a social psychology study analyzing the effects of cynical films versus uplifting ones on our attitudes and behaviors. (Dissertation topic anyone?) Although I’m only guessing, I think bad-guys-prevailing films may erode our care for others, contribute to our apathy, and justify our self-centeredness. I’m concerned that we’re raising in-it-for-me cynics instead of ordinary heroes through our trends in entertainment.

Yet, I also think this trend in unlikable characters successfully beating the system will soon fade. Even if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences elevates these “bad guy” films with its awards, box office sales still prove that we like heroism, and that we want the good guys to prevail.  I also think that we crave more nuance and truthfulness in these complex times, and that simple happy endings will be disappointing and unsatisfying. I don’t believe that most of us want apathy reinforced, but we do want our minds sated; we want brilliance, not sappy, feel-good-but-ultimately-unrealistic finales. We want human complexity acknowledged, in which good and bad are not depicted in either/or characters, but in more subtle and complicated ways that require more clever and intriguing solutions for today’s — and tomorrow’s — world.

I welcome your comments.

~ Zoe

Image courtesy of dubswede via Creative Commons.

Filed under: Cultural Issues, media literacy, movies | Tagged: , , , , , , | Comments Off

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 431 other followers