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 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.”
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: animal rescue, compassion, compassion fatigue, empathy, humane education, Most Good Least Harm, movies, solutionaries, stories, systemic change, whales | Comments Off
I just finished Chris Cleave’s novel, Little Bee, a compelling, page-turning, and profound work of fiction about a 16-year-old refugee from Nigeria. I highly recommend it. While Little Bee is not a true story, it tells the truth, just like Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Charles Dickens’ and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novels do. And while it’s important to read classic truth-telling fiction writers like Steinbeck and Dickens and Dostoevsky, it’s also important to read our modern novelist truth-tellers.
IHE offers online courses for educators, activists, parents & concerned citizens seeking the tools, knowledge & motivation to align their actions with their deepest values & to become more effective leaders and changemakers. Sign up now for an upcoming session. 
