Humane Edge November 2007

In This Issue:

• SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION THROUGH LITERACY
  
• FINDING USEFUL HUMANE EDUCATION ACTIVITIES JUST GOT EASIER!
  
• EDUCATING FOR YOUTH GREATNESS, PART 2
  
• FEATURED STUDENT: ASHLEY WIGHTMAN
• EMPOWER YOUR STUDENTS WITH OUR NEW ACTIVITIES
  
• VANCOUVER, B.C. TEACHERS LOVE SOWING SEEDS

SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION THROUGH LITERACY

Holly Clark, IHE graduate and community college instructor is using humane education as the lens through which to teach her English composition students literacy and community organizing skills. Read her story.

by Holly Clark, IHE M.Ed. graduate

After two years of experimenting with ways of incorporating humane education into the English composition courses I teach at Jefferson Community and Technical College (JCTC), I’ve created what appears to be a recipe for success!  I’m midway through the semester, and already my students’ interest and involvement have exceeded my wildest expectations.  I’m working collaboratively with a local grassroots organization devoted to ecological justice and a private high school next door to my college to offer a curriculum devoted to civic literacy.  So in addition to improving their reading and writing, my students are putting “community” at the center of their community college learning experience! 

Literacy as a tool for social transformation is becoming more apparent as the students explore both how it strengthens their individual voices and how it offers greater potential to create change in their communities.  These aspiring activists are collaborating in a series of community actions with students from Saint Francis High School and local KFTC organizers to educate themselves and the community about participatory democracy activities, such as voting, campaign development, letter-writing, and lobbying.  They will also be engaged in a series of community dialogues and education efforts around important issues facing Kentucky citizens in upcoming elections, with a special focus on the restoration of voting rights and mountaintop removal in the production of coal and its significance for all Kentuckians.

What’s exciting is finding the myriad ways of weaving humane education issues and philosophies into the developing curriculum and watching more and more students making the connections in their hearts and minds.  As an educator, it’s inspiring to discover new ways of opening students to the relevance of humane education ideas in their own lives (many of my students say they “don’t have time” to worry about justice issues, due to pressures of family, jobs, health and life) through connecting what they’re learning with real-life issues they care about.  For instance, we are using a lens of humane education to explore participatory democracy and the ways that others are disenfranchised through current systems in Kentucky.  We then explore the ways that working to change such systems creates a better future for all Kentuckians, which we then link to working to create a better world for all people.  

At the beginning of the semester, students were a bit reluctant to engage in this unique approach to literacy, as many were expecting a more traditional English course.  However, almost all of them are now enthusiastically engaged, and many are writing letters to the editor, column pieces for local publications, and doing additional outreach and education to friends and family.  Two of my broad goals for the semester are to introduce students to the interconnectedness of oppressions and to instill each one with the skills and confidence to be a community organizer around a variety of issues.  At this point, we’re making good progress with both of those goals, and several students are working independently with grassroots organizations to do additional activism.

Following is a collaborative piece several students composed to share their thoughts on the civic literacy initiative:

“Voter empowerment is important because some people don’t know that they can make a difference or they don’t know where to start.  With us as a class coming together as a community, we will educate others, as well as ourselves, on what we can do to make our community a better place, how to step up and make our government stand for what their constituents actually want and need – we’re going to show democracy for the people and by the people.  If one person in our class can educate one other person outside of school, think of the potential!   

We’re illustrating how the community as a whole can get together and learn more not just about voting, but about what comes before and after that.  I’m a convicted felon, so I can’t actually vote, but what we’re doing in my English class is about all the other ways that people can participate in democracy – just by helping to register other voters and educating the community about mountaintop removal, we’re making a difference, even if we can’t go to the polls in November.  Once you start talking to people – sharing education – you realize how much one person really can do, and then you just want to do more!  

Sharing what we’re learning is extremely important, because not everyone has the privilege of education.  It’s easy to get out there and tell someone to vote, but the hard work comes from really informing the people on the issues using language they can understand.  That means it’s up to us – the educated – to get out in the world and beat the streets to inform the people of the real problems.  If we’re able to bring up issues that truly matter, we may be able to reach them and bring them in to experience democracy more fully.   

Essentially, we’re trying to get people in our community to use their individual voices and talents to make Kentucky a better place for everyone.  It is time to create a democracy where all people are involved and no one is left behind or forgotten.  This world has gotten too fast and too big for one person to feel that she can make a difference.  We want to change that, we want to inspire people with the knowledge that each one of us can make a difference, but that we must act together.  In order for anyone to make a difference in today’s world, our voices need to be heard.  When one voice is responding to another, awareness is being made.  

We seem to accept what’s going on in the world like we can’t change it, but we can.  This is our first step – to let people know that it’s up to them to make changes to what they think is wrong.  We want the people to stand up for their rights and to take responsibility for the world we’re creating!”   

The first community action the students developed took place on September 19th at several locations around the JCTC downtown campus. They designed a voter education and registration drive in which they educated the community about voting, upcoming election issues in the local and statewide arenas, and distributed collaborative writings about the importance of participatory democracy (including personal testimony from convicted felons whose rights have not been restored.)  

On October 24, the students offered a mountaintop removal community education festival on the JCTC downtown campus that included Kentucky authors, poets, musicians and other artists who are involved in the campaign to end this ecologically devastating and unjust process.  For November 26, they are designing a student-led community writing workshop on the restoration of voting rights for convicted felons.  Kentucky is one of only two states that does not automatically restore the basic right to vote to felons who have completed their sentences.  A major challenge for many of these individuals is the literacy component of the appeal process; my students will be modeling humane education at its best – sharing knowledge in order to create a more just and humane world – by putting their literacy skills into action as they reach out to others in the community.  The workshop will highlight the organizing and writing skills they learn throughout the semester as they help members of the Louisville community overcome these literacy obstacles in composing their appeal letters.

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FINDING USEFUL HUMANE EDUCATION ACTIVITIES JUST GOT EASIER!

Our HumaneEducation.org has a variety of Humane Education Activities available for you to download. You'll find activities that explore and connect issues of compassion, justice and sustainability for a variety of ages. And now it's really easy to find the activities you need! We've reorganized our activities so that you can find the topics and grade levels of interest to you. 

Find activities for all ages, elementary, middle school, high school, and/or college/adult in these categories:

Multi-Issue Activities - Activities that approach humane issues comprehensively.

Environmental Preservation Activities - Activities that focus on topics related to environmental and sustainability issues.

Animal Protection Activities - Activities that focus on exploring animal protection, welfare, and our relationship to animals.

Cultural Issues Activities - Activities that focus on issues related to our social culture, including media, advertising and politics.

Human Rights Activities - Activities that focus on topics related to human rights.

And, since our  Humane Education in Minutes story from the last Humane Edge was so popular, we’ve created a category for activities that you can do in as little as 5 to 15 minutes! 

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EDUCATING FOR YOUTH GREATNESS, PART 2

In our October Humane Edge, Magaly shared her work beginning the Empathy Project, presenting Healing Species programs and initiating a partnership with a Bruce Peru, an organization in Peru that helps educate and empower children. This month, read more about Magaly's work and her future plans.

by Magaly Madrid, IHE HECP Student


UNESCO, UNICEF, and the United Nations

As I became more involved with Bruce Peru, I wanted to learn more about education on a global level. My search led to UN programs such as UNESCO and UNICEF. In a matter of weeks I became a member of the Miami chapter board and worked on a variety of projects, such as World AIDS Day and Service for Peace. The president of the board referred me to speak to some of his contacts at the UN, and today I am a member of UNESCO and UNICEF. With their assistance, I was able to create a second humane education curriculum that not only inspires empathy towards humans, animals, and the planet, but also strives to meet the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal #2: Achieve Universal Primary Education. Their target is to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.

My international curriculum is slightly different than my curriculum back home. One difference is that I am very sensitive to children’s living conditions overseas. For example, the teaching materials contain adapted humane education activities on peace, respect, and love and a series of activities about poverty and the families of street children. These lessons serve as a medium to educate about and discuss issues related to domestic violence, death, AIDS, drugs, and sexual and physical abuse. The stories are combined with discussions, activities, and the development of positive adaptive social and emotional skills.

My goal with students and adults is to help them think about and reflect on different values and the practical implications of expressing them in relation to themselves, others, the community, and the world at large; to deepen understanding, motivation, and responsibility with regard to making personal and social choices; to inspire individuals to choose their own personal, social, moral, and spiritual values and be aware of practical methods for developing and deepening them; and to encourage educators and caregivers to look at education as providing students with a philosophy of living, thereby facilitating their overall growth, development, and choices, so that they may integrate themselves into the community with respect, confidence, and purpose.

There is nothing stopping us from making a difference to all children’s learning. Together we can help children to know, to do, to be, to belong and to give love. Together we can help children to be themselves, know themselves, make sense of their own world, make sense of the world around them, serve others and be stewards of their own environment.

Alfalit

The President of the UNESCO board knew of my projects in Peru and asked me to contact the president of another organization he was member of, Alfalit International Inc.

Alfalit is a faith-based nonprofit organization that “provides programs to the most needy of the world in literacy, basic education, preschool, health, nutrition and community development in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Portugal, and the United States.”

I became a volunteer in 2007 and am currently working on a grant proposal for their project in Haiti. I voiced my interest in traveling to Peru to work out of their office and provide their literacy program to more people. I even pitched them the idea of joining both Alfalit and Bruce Peru for this cause. They loved the idea and are working on how to make that happen. I was told I could even include my humane education program.

The community development programs I will develop with the assistance of Alfalit will aim to strengthen people who have been marginalized, not only by their own societies but also by other development programs. Those marginalized groups can be prisoners, women, and people in some remote communities which do not receive development aid. Women often are the sole providers for their family. I believe women are crucial to sustainable development. Therefore, I will establish programs that provide skills which bring self-esteem and equip daughters, sisters, wives and mothers to contribute to the physical, psychological, and spiritual welfare of their families and communities.

Future Plans

As I mentioned earlier, I needed something to reignite that fire within me and push me beyond my own expectations. After attending a Sowing Seeds Workshop in March 2007 I was convinced that my mission was to serve humanity, champion animal rights, and heal our planet. I told myself to apply to the HECP (Humane Education Certificate Program) already and quit stalling. I received a birthday gift I could not have ever imagined. And that was an email from IHE accepting me into the program. I am proud to say I am an HECP student and soon-to-be leader of a humane renaissance.

Even though I do not have any formal training in humane education, I wouldn’t trade any of the problems I’ve encountered for the world.  I’ve accomplished so much with a handful of resources. Watch out world, because Ms. Maggy has just begun!

My short term goals are to create a website, to continue my humane education programs at other schools, and to gain more volunteers and community support.

For the long run, I see the Empathy Project as one of many projects I will be working on. They will all be interconnected and be available on a global level. I want to be recognized by the UN and partner with them in a variety of ways. I want to open up more schools and establish libraries and community centers. I would like to open up animal shelters and maybe one day have my own sanctuary. I would like to be an Ambassador for Peace. A trailblazer and inspiration for future generations. Most importantly I want to feel fulfilled as a human being and be blessed, loved, and inspired each and every day.

If someone would have told me in high school that I was going to become a teacher and was going to love it, I probably would have laughed it off and told them WHATEVER! It’s funny how life sometimes gives you hints as to what your purpose is going to be in life. You can either ignore it or stay attuned and use it as a guide. I am glad to say I know what I want in life and that no one can take that dream away from me.

When I step into any classroom, I witness, contribute to, and stand in awe of personal and communal transformation -- intellectually and emotionally, spiritually and aesthetically. Sometimes I act as a catalyst (asking the right questions), other times as a farmer (planting a seed), mostly through giving the right kind of energy and enthusiasm, and creating the right kind of environment so that awakenings can occur. Sometimes it’s me. Sometimes it’s the students. And sometimes - it’s an act of grace.

I stand in awe when the classroom is full of absolute silence because an idea or feeling so profound has entered our space, that we need to make room for it, feel its presence, honor it, and take it into ourselves to be transformed.

I get to behold such moments. This is why I teach. 

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FEATURED STUDENT: ASHLEY WIGHTMAN

"This work...is a constant struggle of determination, optimism and opportunity."

Growing up, Ashley learned about the problems of our world, but didn't feel really empowered to take action. Now Ashley's life reflects what she's learned at IHE, and she's working to promote humane living throughout Canada. Read her story. 

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EMPOWER YOUR STUDENTS WITH OUR NEW ACTIVITIES

We've added several new humane education activities to our Resources section, to help you empower your students to think creatively and critically and to make positive choices that benefit them and the world. Whatever you teach, we have something for you! 

Image courtesy of Louisiana Sea Grant College. 

Free at Last?

Use visuals of everyday things around us to introduce and explore the concepts of freedom and oppression.

Recommended for grades 5 through 8.
Time: 15-30 minutes

What Does a Humane World Look Like?

Have students create their vision of a humane world and compare it to the world we live in now. What are the differences, and how can we make the world “as it is” become the humane world envisioned?

What Does It Take to Change the World?

Empower students by using stories and activities to show them that one person can make a positive difference.

What Makes a Humane Being?

What are the most desirable and undesirable qualities of humans? Use sample stories and pictures to help students identify our best (and worst) qualities and how we can encourage humane qualities in ourselves and others.

Why Are We Here?

What is our purpose here on Earth? What can we do about the problems of the world? The activity uses two short films and discussion to help students explore these important issues.

Vanishing Rainforests

Humans are consuming rainforests at an alarming rate. 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.

Too Much of a Good Thing

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.

The Cool Factor

Help participants think about “cool” in a new way and define their sense of self by exploring what’s cool, who decides what’s cool and different ways of defining cool.

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VANCOUVER, B.C. TEACHERS LOVE SOWING SEEDS

“I just wanted to thank you. I really enjoyed the session. It gave me a lot of food for thought. As a teacher, it is the best professional day event that I have ever attended.”
~ Jason Southwell, Teacher, Richmond, B.C.

“I loved the activities; they really made the connection between choices we make each day and the impact they have on our world.”
~ Tara Kettner, Teacher, Nelson, B.C.

 “The presenter was very inspiring in her approach and the activities were full of potential to be adapted to different ages. Thank you for the opportunity to take part in a very useful workshop. I look forward to humane education having a growing influence in education.”
~ Bruce Russell, Teacher, Vancouver, B.C.
  

Thirty-nine participants, most of them teachers, loved our Vancouver Sowing Seeds Workshop in October. Thanks to the Vancouver Foundation's generous financial support, all of the certified teachers from B.C. who attended the workshop did so through a FREE scholarship. The  benefit of their support will reverberate throughout schools in British Columbia. This grant was obtained through the work of the Vancouver Humane Society. Special thanks also goes to Earthsave Canada for providing the workshop space and additional support.

Our next Sowing Seeds Workshops are in Keene, NH in November and Berkeley, CA in December. It's a great opportunity to transform your own life and to hone your ability to make a positive difference in the world. More than 1,000 people have already been to a Sowing Seeds Workshop and have found it to be life-changing. Read what they've said.

Never been to a Sowing SeedsWorkshop? Find out more!

Interested in helping us bring a Sowing Seeds Workshop to your area? Find out how.

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