Raising a Humane Child
Will your child be a joyful, caring citizen in a humane, sustainable world?
One of our most basic instincts as parents is to protect our children from harm. And one of our deepest desires is to raise our children to be healthy, happy, and conscientious.
That's not easy, especially during these difficult times. Even parents committed to living their deepest values can be challenged to engage their children amidst the busy-ness of day-to-day activities.
Are you a parent or community educator who wants to:
- nurture compassionate, conscientious values in your children?
- help yourself and your children become better aware of the world around you and the impacts of your choices on yourself, other people, animals and the earth?
- connect with other parents passionate about raising healthy, happy, humane children?
- gain skills and support to further align your life choices with your deepest values so that you can become better role models for your family?
You can help your children become happy, responsible people who thrive in a better world.
Raising a Humane Child, our month-long online course for parents and educators, will give you a refreshing break from the negativity that surrounds us. It's a chance for you to revisit what matters most to you and to discover new ways to share that with your children. You'll enhance your skills, strategies and vision to guide your children in making choices that help them create their best future, while benefiting all people, other species, and the environment.
"Overall, it is a wonderful, enlightening, and thought-provoking experience to do this course. It should be mandatory for all parents to take this, and take it annually....There is nobody on the planet that wouldn’t benefit from taking this course."
~ Erin Floresca
How it Works:
During this course, you'll complete five activities each week for four weeks, from your home, at whatever time works for you. Each activity helps you examine important questions, such as:
- What previously unexamined values have you absorbed through your culture, community, and media that do not represent the core of who you are?
- What values do you and don't you want to pass along to your child?
- How can you make positive choices for both your family and the world?
- What do you want your grown child to be able to say you did for your family?
The exercises will engage you in:
- Looking Inward: Values
- Looking Inward: The Four Elements of Humane Education
- Looking Outward: Using the Four Elements of Humane Education in Your Parenting
- Overcoming Obstacles & Creating Inner and Outer Support
"I’ve always said how I’ve wanted to do all these great, compassionate things with the kids, but I’ve stalled like so many others. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the day to day busy-ness with children. Parents need guidance and help though in giving their children a humane education. This was a very enjoyable course."
~ Tammy Russell
What the Course Includes:
√A Course Book - Each participant will receive a copy of Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times by IHE President, Zoe Weil. We'll mail this book to you as soon as you register.
√A Downloadable Course Booklet - Your online course booklet provides you with thought-provoking exercises to examine your life, your values, and your parenting and to help you achieve your vision and goals for a better world and happy, conscientious children. You can use it again and again as your children grow.
√Online Commons - Your learning continues in the discussion forum, which you can visit at your convenience to engage with fellow participants and your course advisor, Mary Pat Champeau, IHE's Director of Educational Programs. Participants use the Online Commons to compare experiences, share insights and resources, and connect with classmates and the advisor to get help, create solutions, and build momentum.
√Phone Mentoring - Your course advisor, Mary Pat Champeau, is available by phone to answer questions, provide guidance, and discuss issues that arise during the course.
√Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) - You can earn a certificate of completion and 3.5 CEUs through the University of Maine by submitting your responses to the exercises within a week of the end of the course and by contributing to the online discussion forum on at least 15 different days. Teachers in other states may be able to utilize these for continuing education requirements in their state. Applications for other state CEUs are in progress; please inquire.
Course Advisor: Mary Pat Champeau
"There is a way in which raising children helps us meet ourselves all over again. For a long time, I drew a line between the teaching I did in the classroom and the parenting I did at home — I saw these as separate endeavors. In fact, I realized at some point that I was much more patient, creative and helpful as a teacher than I was as a parent! I also came to see that my students reaped the benefits of my deepest passions about the world while my children bore the brunt of them. I went about my household imposing rules about how things should be without actually trying to inspire in my children the curiosity, love and respect that would help them tap into their own vast stores of caring and compassion. Over the years, I have tried hard to turn this around.
I jumped at the chance to mentor this course because I find parenting conversations endlessly interesting. I believe we have an enormous, almost irresistible, opportunity as parents not only to help create a more humane and sustainable planet, but to nourish engaged, generous, highly-spirited, and well-informed communities every single day in the safe, sacred spaces of our own homes."
Mary Pat Champeau is the Director of Educational Programs at IHE and has been a teacher for thirty years, beginning as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger. Her experience includes teaching in community-based refugee and immigrant programs in NYC, as well as teaching creative writing at NYU, working as a teacher trainer in Southeast Asian refugee camps, and coordinating language and culture programs for the World Trade Institute.
Mary Pat has an M.A. from New York University. She is is also the mother of two teenage children and an adopted pre-school age daughter from China.
Planning Your Time:
This course takes place from October 4-29. You complete all activities on your own timeframe. There are no scheduled sessions, but the Online Commons is available to you at any time during the course.
This course will be as meaningful as you make it. We estimate that the course will take an average of 5-8 hours per week. The more time you have to devote to the exercises and the online discussions, the more transformative the course will be for you.
Save $28 when you register by September 12!
If you register by September 12, you'll receive the book, the course materials, access to the Online Commons and guidance from Mary Pat, the course advisor, for only $97.
After September 12, the course investment returns to the regular rate of $125.
Register for Raising a Humane Child.
Still Undecided?
Download a couple sample exercises (pdf) or our Information kit (pdf) to learn more.
Want to help spread the word?
Download a copy of the flyer to share. (pdf)
For more information, email us at info@HumaneEducation.org.
Other Month-Long Distance Learning Programs:
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