I noticed that you have begun discussing the problems facing planet earth, such as (list examples here, e.g., pollution, habitat destruction, overpopulation).

Wonderful! You are beginning to use your thinking skills to reflect on the impact of humanity’s choices and ways you can make choices that do more good and less harm.

In these two boxes are animals for you to observe. I hope they will help you to figure out more about what is happening to Earth and why. Be very careful with the animals in these boxes and DON’T let the animal in box #1 get out! In that box is the most dangerous animal in the world! 

The animal in box #2 is a wonderful animal. When you know more about her (or him) you can introduce her to everyone you know. This is the most powerful animal in the world!

Starting with your teacher and with box #1, look inside the boxes, one by one.  Pass them around very carefully and quietly, so as not to disturb either of them.

Thanks for trying to do something to save beautiful planet Earth.

Love,

The Universe

So begins The World’s Most Powerful Animal,  a humane education lesson for elementary school students exploring the positive and negative impacts our choices have on the planet and how we are both the most dangerous and most powerful animal.

The lesson uses the mystery of a letter from the universe and two boxes with intriguing labels to spark students’ curiosity and begin the exploration of the power we have to do both good and harm.

After the “hook” opening, students then explore the choices humans make and which ones hurt or help people, animals, and the earth.

At the end of the lesson, students focus on ways they can be solutionaries (by choosing one powerful action they can take to help the planet and everyone on it).

As an extension, students can create pictures of themselves as the world’s most powerful animal. They can make their drawing/artwork as imaginative or as real as they want (older students might prefer another medium). Then they can make a list of some of the things this powerful animal (them) does now — and especially things they promise to try to do to help the planet, other species, other people, etc.

The World’s Most Powerful Animal is one of our most downloaded activities! Enjoy!

Download the complete activity.

~ Marsha

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One of the beavers swimming by.
Image copyright Edwin Barkdoll.

Pleasure is so seductive, so desirable. Even the word itself is somewhat onomatopoeic. Who would eschew pleasure?

Virtually all of us, at least some of the time.

We may say no to pleasures that carry a heavy price, such as gambling or unprotected sex. We may forego the pleasure of foods that are produced through cruelty to animals, or reject certain forms of entertainment, such as cruise ships, that come at the expense of the environment.

But most of us still seek out pleasure, often as a reward for our hard work, our completion of chores, and for many of us, our activism. And there’s nothing wrong with doing so.
But what we sometimes forget is that the time we lavish on pursuing pleasure might sometimes be better spent pursuing joy.

What’s the difference between pleasure and joy?

Pleasure is time-bound and fleeting; joy suffuses our whole being and often becomes integrated into our personality, accessible even in challenging times. Pleasure is often the direct result of sensory stimulation; joy may well from the inside out. Pleasure often comes without any connection to others (for example, when watching a favorite TV show); joy often carries a deep connection not only with other people, but with other species and the earth itself. Pleasure doesn’t usually lead to a desire to give, but joy often inspires generosity and acts of goodness.

Recently, I made a conscious decision to pursue joy over pleasure.

We saw thousands of mosquito larvae.
Image copyright Edwin Barkdoll.

My husband and I had worked most of the weekend cleaning up after a leak in our basement created a big mess. We were both tired by Sunday afternoon and would have been happy to pursue a bit of pleasure by taking a short walk with the dogs, eating a good dinner and watching a movie on Netflix. Instead, we chose to pursue joy. We headed to the wilderness—land nearby called Otter Bog—where we go to experience the mysterious, amazing, ever-changing natural world. It was a glorious, sunny late afternoon, and the Lyrid meteor shower would be peaking early the next morning.

After a hike with the dogs, we sat at the bog, which surrounds a 13-acre pond, to wait for the beavers who usually arrive at dusk. Sure enough, two huge beavers were gnawing on sticks (as we ate sandwiches for dinner) before entering the water to glide by (see the photo above). We watched a pair of Bufflehead ducks and saw a Bald Eagle and an osprey. We were serenaded by the sounds of tiny frogs called Spring Peepers. Their peeps beckoned, and we decided to visit them. When we got to their boggy patch of reeds and water, the noise was deafening (watch this video). When our ears couldn’t endure the sound any longer, we continued to “Sometimes Pond,” a meadow gradually turning into a pond from beavers’ creating several dams along the stream that flows through it. We got to see those beavers, too, though barely, because by now it was dark.

salamander egg cases
Image copyright Edwin Barkdoll.

Our next destination was a vernal pool deep in the woods to see salamander eggs. Earlier in the week there were no egg cases, but there had been a warm, rainy evening a few nights later, and we felt confident there would be a few. What we didn’t expect was to see swarms of squirming mosquito larvae (see photo), thousands upon thousands of them. We discovered some salamander egg cases, too, gelatinous white globs that look like eyes (see photo). We were relieved to know that when they hatched, the salamander larvae would feast on the mosquito larvae.

We trekked back and slid into our sleeping bags. The alarm would be going off at 3:45 a.m., because I was intent upon watching the meteor showers. Later, as dawn broke, I was greeted by three kinds of warblers and watched a Hooded Merganser land on the pond. The beavers came by for a morning visit, too, before we left to go to work.

And while I slept little and fitfully, and shivered in the 25-degree morning for several hours, this was joy.

Such joy (coupled with wonder, reverence and awe) makes my commitment to work to protect this beautiful planet ever more fierce, which is why I bothered to write this long post. Without fierce commitment, we may be left only with this: a pursuit of pleasure that often comes—albeit unintentionally—at the expense of the natural world that sustains us all.

Our children are growing up with fewer and fewer opportunities to experience joy and wonder in their ultimate home—the earth—and more and more indulgences of pleasure (usually in the form of screen time) in what we call home: the buildings in which we reside. Without a connection to their ultimate home, and without experiencing the joy that comes from that connection, our children may grow up unwilling and unable to take the necessary steps to ensure that our planet remains healthy, and that other species thrive despite an ever-growing population of pleasure-seeking humans.

My message for today? Now and then, consider choosing joy over pleasure. Feed your fierce commitment to protecting life: yours and the generations of all species to follow.

~ 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 TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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“This is Water,” a video (9 min) featuring an excerpt of a commencement speech given by author David Foster Wallace,  offers some terrific insights on choice, mindfulness, awareness, and the real value of education.

Some of my favorite excerpts from Wallace’s speech:

“You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. That is real freedom. That is being educated and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness.”

“The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.”

“If I don’t make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I’m gonna be pissed and miserable. … Because my natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me. … It’s the automatic way that I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life, when I am operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the center of the world, and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world’s priorities.”

“Most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at [those around you].”

“If you’ve really learned how to think how to pay attention, then you’ll know you have other options.”

Use the video as an important reminder about paying attention, and as a springboard for discussion with others.

~ Marsha

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Each week we round-up the news you need to know about humane issues, from human rights and environmental preservation, to animal protection, to media and culture, to activism, education, and changemaking.

Study says “people of color nearly invisible on evening cable news” (via Colorlines) (5/14/13)

Study shows it’s “not too late to reverse dramatic declines in biodiversity” (via Treehugger) (5/14/13)

“Big media, big bullying and what you can do about it” (commentary) (via New American Dream) (5/13/13)

Research says “nearly 2 of 3 children exposed to violence, crime, and abuse” (via Education Week) (5/13/13)

In wake of Bangladesh tragedies, some big retailers agree to plan to improve safety (commentary) (via NY Times) (5/13/13)

“Teens on a mission to SAVE the animals” (via Jakarta Globe) (5/12/13)

“Passion for animals spurs student to action” (via PressDemocrat.com) (5/12/13)

“Mom bloggers build a network for activism and change” (via Forbes) (5/12/13)

Kind-hearted Indian villages rescue baby elephant (via Treehugger) (5/9/13)

Group works to fill in gap on climate education in classrooms (via PBS) (5/7/13)

“The benefits of character education” (via The Atlantic) (5/6/13)

Writing down acts of kindness inspires students to do good (via NBC News) (5/6/13)

Neither we nor reporters usually delve into these studies and examine the details in depth. Who has the time?

We can’t put every scientific study we hear about under a microscope, but we can develop the critical thinking skills that will help us better assess the validity and relevancy of these studies and help students to do the same.

One thing we can do is consider the studies themselves. A recent AlterNet article, “6 Ways Scientific Studies Can Trick You,” highlights some of the tactics (sometimes intentional, sometimes not) that can affect the conclusion of a study, such as:

1. Start with a wrong assumption.

2. Throw out data you don’t like.

3. Set improper threshholds.

4.  Share findings that aren’t statistically significant.

5.  Design the study to get the desired results.

6.  All of the above.

Although we’re taught that science is an objective undertaking, the truth is that variables, data, and framing can be manipulated.

Dr. Ben Goldacre’s TEDx talk “Battling Bad Science.” is very helpful in demonstrating how evidence can be distorted and studies can be manipulated.

In fact, there are so many instances of manipulation, inaccurate information, errors, and even fraud and plagiarism occurring in scientific studies now, that websites like Retraction Watch have popped up to monitor and report on them.

Additionally, all of us, scientists and citizens alike, bring along our own biased lenses. Just one example:

For hundreds of years, the common practice (and common thought) has been to require conducting experiments on animals, and the belief that animal experiments are relevant and necessary to help humans. But recent research is causing some to begin questioning the validity of studies using animal testing (at least for testing the safety of chemicals), saying that:

“The results of these experiments challenge the longstanding scientific presumption holding that animal experiments are of direct relevance to humans. For that reason they potentially invalidate the entire body of safety information that has been built up to distinguish safe chemicals from unsafe ones. The new results arise from basic medical research, which itself rests heavily on the idea that treatments can be developed in animals and transferred to humans.”

These new studies themselves need to be evaluated, but the potential ramifications throw a whole lot of previously-accepted science into question.

And then there’s the way scientific studies are reported. As Gary Gutting mentions in a recent New York Times commentary:

“Media tend to present almost any scientific result they report as valuable for guiding our lives, with the entire series of reports accumulating a vast body of practical knowledge. In fact, most scientific results are of no immediate practical value; they merely move us one small step closer to a final result that may be truly useful. Too many news reports present experimental results as providing good advice on which we can reliably act.”

Gutting goes on to offer the idea of a labeling system for scientific reporting to help clarify the validity and importance of a study:

“Is it merely a preliminary result (a small-scale heuristic study meant to suggest a hypothesis that will itself require many stages of further testing before we have a reliable conclusion)?  Is it a larger-scale observational study (showing a correlation but by no means establishing a causal connection)?  Is it a large-sample randomized controlled test (establishing a causal connection, given specific conditions)?  Or, finally, is it a well-established scientific law that we know how to apply in a wide range of conditions?”

Scientific studies and their reporting offer a valuable opportunity to hone critical thinking skills and to remind us not to blindly accept what we read or are told. In fact, since science is wrapped in such a cloak of authority and credibility, it’s vital that we look beyond those news headlines and dive deeper into the details — and teach students to do the same.

~ Marsha

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What do these kinds of problems have in common?

For the most part, they have nothing to do with real life. And though the problems may be different, the kinds of math that many of our students are being taught today are still separated from our world.

As the editors of Rethinking Schools say, “Our children deserve to be taught math in ways that help make visible the ecological, social, and community issues that will shape their lives and their futures. They need math skills that help them understand and care for the planet and each other.”

Here are 7 of IHE’s lesson plans/activities that integrate humane education and math:

1.  A Gathering Crowd: Functions & Rates of Change

Is human population growth threatening to overshoot and jeopardize the earth’s carrying capacity?  If so, what can be done about it? In this activity, students will be able to: describe and model human population growth during the past 600 years with an exponential function, considering both the total amount of growth and average and/or instantaneous rates of increase; explain the strengths and limitations of modeling human population growth with an exponential function; explore and discuss some of the environmental, cultural, and economic impacts of human population growth.
Recommended for: grades 9 and up

2.  Financial Math: What’s the Deal with Debt?
In this lesson plan, students will learn to calculate a loan repayment size and complete an amortization schedule for two different lending scenarios;  compare the scales and details of two typical modern-day loan situations; and experience through role-playing some of the pressures and expectations faced by creditors and debtors within contemporary economic systems.
Recommended for: grades 9 and up

3.  Hear the People
This is a great icebreaker for any activity exploring the challenges and impacts surrounding our enormous and growing human population.
Recommended for grades 4 and up.

4.  Not Enough Homes: Adding Up the Pet Overpopulation Problem
This activity helps young students hone their basic math skills while learning about pet overpopulation.
Recommended for: Grades 1-3.

5.  Risky Business: Exploring Probability Theory
Using a realistic scenario, students will be able to calculate basic probabilities pertinent to ecological and human-health concerns of industrial oil sands development in Canada; engage in active research of statistical data concerning the industrial development of Canadian oil sands; and produce a risk assessment and action plan presentation based on that research.
Recommended for grades 9 & up.

6.  Too Many Kittens
What happens when a pregnant cat has kittens, and her kittens have kittens, and so on? Use this activity to help students practice their Algebra skills while learning about dog and cat overpopulation and exploring how spaying and neutering can contribute to the solution.
Recommended for grades 6 through 8.

7.  Vanishing Rainforests
Use this activity to help students practice their math skills while gaining a real sense of how much rainforest is being destroyed and brainstorming what they can do to avoid contributing to rainforest destruction.
Recommended for grades 6 through 8.

In a recent edition of their magazine, Rethinking Schools highlighted a couple of examples of integrating social justice into teaching math skills. “Whose Community is This? Mathematics of Neighborhood Displacement” uses high level math concepts to explore gentrification, banking, and the mortgage crisis. “Beyond Marbles” looks at how one teacher, after years of teaching about percentages using marbles, decided to help his students explore how “statistics can tell powerful stories about the injustices in our society” by looking at the gender and race changes in make-up of the U.S. Congress over a period of years. Students then chose their own topics to explore percent changes.

Fore more resources about integrating math and humane education, check out our blog post 7 Resources for Integrating Math and Humane Education.

How do you integrate humane education into your teaching/work?

~ Marsha

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Image courtesy Curtis School.

I was recently introduced to educator Chris Thinnes’ work and writing through an essay he wrote for GOOD. Eager to learn more, I visited Chris’ blog and am now a huge fan. I wanted to share his great work and ideas with you.

Here’s a quote from one of his essays that I found particularly powerful, provocative and important:

“I wonder why we can’t together think more creatively, and generatively, about a dynamic vision of a future students can create, rather than a static vision of a marketplace they should simply service.”

This quote echoes our own questions at the Institute for Humane Education about the purpose of schooling, and our belief that we need to educate young people to be solutionaries for a better world, not simply competitors in the global economy.

We’ll be highlighting more of Chris’ great work and writing here at IHE, but do visit his site and learn more.

~ 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 TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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It’s common to see ads depicting women wearing little or nothing, posed in ways that are provocative, submissive, objectified, or even the subject of violence. In fact, it’s so common that many of us may not even notice it anymore. But why don’t we see ads with men depicted in these ways? And what if we saw ads with women posed in the hypermasculine ways that men often are? What, if anything, would change if we did?

Students in a Women and Gender Studies class at the University of Saskatchewan created a video (5 min) to “show how ridiculous media portrays gender roles and stereotypes in advertising through presenting gender role reversals.” (Please note that due to the nature of many of the images, this video isn’t appropriate for younger students.)

The video intersperses examples of ads showing often highly objectified and/or sexualized women, with statistics about ads and their impact, as well as about issues like the increase in plastic surgery, depression, and violence against women. There are also a smattering of ads highlighting the hypermasculinization of men. As the video says, “Media plays a strong role in how we view each other and ourselves.”

The video then does a role reversal and shows recreations of the ads previously depicted, but with the men displayed as the women were, and vice versa.

The initial reaction is likely to be laughter and eye-rolling, but these examples serve as an important opportunity to explore the messages media sends us, and the conscious and unconscious ways we’re affected by those messages; to examine the hidden and explicit messages and values condoned and promoted by our culture; and to unpack the gender inequity that still exists in our society.

Additionally, the video itself serves as a useful critical thinking tool. For example, many of the models used in the role reversal ads weren’t as fit or beautiful (as society traditionally defines them) as the women and men in the original ads. Would our reaction be different to some of the ads if “sexy” men were posed in those provocative ways? If so, what does that say about our values and culture?

Most of us don’t realize how deeply we’re affected by advertising. This video can help older students begin to explore just how pervasive and persuasive ads like these can be.

~ Marsha

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Image courtesy merfam/Flickr.

At the EARCOS conference, one of the other keynote speakers was Michael Furdyk, co-founder of TakingITGlobal, a fantastic organization we’ve written about and highlighted at IHE.

During his keynote, Michael shared an interesting (if not disturbing) statistic from the BBDO GenWorld 2006 study. When teens were asked if they agreed with the statement, “I think the world is becoming a better place,” only 14 percent (on average) responded in the affirmative. The breakdown by country looked like this:

China  34%
Taiwan  25%
India  26%
Brazil  16%
Russia  15%
United States  14%
Australia  11%
Spain  10%
Poland  10%
United Kingdom  9%
Germany  9%
Mexico  6%
France  2%

What’s ironic about these statistics is that, historically, things have been improving for centuries. As I’ve written about before and most recently shared here, by so many measures the world is indeed becoming “a better place.” There is greater freedom and democracy; girls are able to go to school, and women are able to live self-determined lives in greater and greater numbers; gays and lesbians are gaining rights; nonhuman animals are gaining greater protections; tolerance is on the rise and prejudice on the decline; life expectancy has increased almost everywhere, and death by violence has never been lower than in the last half-century.

True, the expanding human population and increased standard of living for a growing percentage of people has meant faster resource depletion and more global warming; increased rates of species extinction, and higher numbers of animals being brutalized and killed for expanding global appetites for meat. And the rise of the middle class has certainly not reached everyone—far from it—and slavery, trafficking, and sweatshop labor persist.

But even as the problems we face become potentially more grave, the opportunities for young people (the target of this BBDO survey) to solve them expands dramatically as organizations such as TakingITGlobal and IHE help pave the way for greater learning, networking, solutionary thinking, and problem-solving.

I am not surprised that only a small percentage of youth believes the world is getting better. After all, because they are growing up in the information age, they now know more about the grave problems we face, something previous generations did not. Fortunately, the fact that they believe the world isn’t getting better does not seem to stop them from committing to improving it.

I wish these youth had a greater sense of the arc of history, but I’m relieved that they are, by and large, staving off apathy and despair and joining forces through a globally connected world (which, ironically, is a perfect example of how the world is getting better) to solve the challenges we face.

~ 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 TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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As the report says, “Bullying presents one of the greatest health risks to children, youth, and young adults in U.S. society. It is pernicious in its impact even if often less visible and less readily identifiable than other public health concerns. Its effects on victims, perpetrators, and even bystanders are both immediate and longterm and can affect the development and functioning of individuals across generations.”

Here are the topics of the 11 briefs:

1.  Looking beyond the traditional definition of bullying. (Bullying comes in many forms & there is currently no clear consensus on what “bullying” looks like.)

2.  Bullying is a pervasive problem. (Bullying is everywhere and affects pretty much everyone in some way; it is greatly detrimental to health and well-being.)

3.  More targeted research is needed about bullying of certain populations. (Certain groups of individuals are especially vulnerable to bullying, including students of color, students with disabilities, and students who identify as LGBTQ.)

4.  Gender-based bullying is growing. (Sexual harassment, homophobic and transphobic harassment, and harassment for gender non-conformity are on the rise and need to be addressed.)

5.  Knowing when bullying becomes legal harassment. (Types and forms of bullying cross the line into legal harassment. Schools need to know the legal implications and have policies and procedures in place to deal with such issues.)

6.  A positive school climate reduces bullying. (It’s important for schools to take steps to create a positive, safe school climate for everyone.)

7.  Everyone needs to be involved. (Schools where students, staff, and parents are all involved in addressing bullying are able to realize “sustainable reductions in victimization.”)

8.  Bullying at colleges & universities is “misunderstood and underaddressed.” (The unique elements of the structures of higher education lead to different kinds of bullying and harassment problems, which need to be addressed.)

9.  Schools should use evidence-based programs to help them. (It’s important to be able to assess how much bullying is occurring and how well it is being effectively reduced.)

10.  Bullying prevention should be a core part of teacher prep programs. (Programs to train teachers, administrators, social workers, etc., should “integrate instruction in harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB) prevention and school safety education.”)

11.  Bullying prevention programs and research need state and federal support. (Current methods are fragmented; financial and other support from state and federal agencies is essential to learning more about and reducing bullying and enhancing school climate.)

Read the complete report.

While a lot of recommendations in the report are sound, we think it would be even more productive to reframe the entire issue to focus on helping nurture students to become compassionate, conscientious citizens throughout all stages of schooling.

Imagine if from the beginning, students were taught how to be solutionaries and ordinary heroes. Imagine if humane education were infused throughout every subject at every grade level and were the overarching purpose of schooling.

As Matt Langdon says in his TEDx talk, “Ditching Anti-Bullying Programs to Build Pro-Hero Schools”:  “If you build a school of heroes, you’re not going to deal with kids vandalizing the toilets, you’re not doing to deal with kids beating each other up, you’re not going to deal with people insulting each other or calling people names or sending naked texts of each other. And that stuff is going to just disappear, because the heroes take care of it themselves.”

~ Marsha

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