Stories of adult and youth changemakers and solutionaries who are working for a better world to inspire and empower yourself and others.
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curriculum
Zoe Weil’s New Book Calls for An Education Revolution
How can we create a just, healthy, and humane world? What is the path to developing sustainable energy, food, transportation, production, and other systems? What’s the best strategy to end poverty and ensure that everyone has equal rights? How can we slow the rate of extinction and restore ecosystems? How can we learn to resolve…
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What Solutionary Learning Can Look Like: 4 Stories
Transforming our educational system won’t be easy, but I believe that it is the most important and strategic path toward creating more just, peaceful, and sustainable societies populated by healthy, happy, successful people. Because the world inevitably becomes what we teach, it’s up to each of us – whether we are teachers, school administrators, parents,…
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Solutionary Unit: Dead Zones in Gulf of Mexico
What Do the Primary Causes of Death in the US Have to Do With the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico? What are the biggest killers of people in the U.S. today? What is the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico? How can these two seemingly disparate problems possibly be connected? This unit…
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Resources for Integrating Social Justice Into Your Classroom
by Marsha Rakestraw As we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr., and his legacy, today, it’s important to remember that, with global challenges growing and violence, injustice, cruelty and destruction flourishing, it’s vital that we address issues of social justice (human rights, environmental preservation, animal protection, media, culture, and changemaking) with students — to help them…
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Inspiring Changemakers to Find Solutions with the Rethink Challenge
by Marsha Rakestraw One of the most powerful aspects of humane education is its focus on positive solutions. Educating students about global challenges is important, but it’s the integration of connection, creativity, critical thinking, and creating solutions that really feeds and enables students’ hunger for becoming changemakers for a better world. In the Summer 2014…
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The Art of Circumlocution and Verbal Evasion: Exploring Euphemisms
by Marsha Rakestraw “You can’t be afraid of words that speak the truth, even if it’s an unpleasant truth….I don’t like words that hide the truth.” ~ George Carlin We use euphemisms every day, words and phrases that are a less direct or “nicer” way of talking about uncomfortable, harsh or sensitive topics. Sometimes they…
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Pillars of Humane Education
This brief activity is a great icebreaker for groups of humane educators or student (or adult) solutionaries to help them define their visions.
Recommended: grades 8 and upTime: 30-45 minutes
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Humane Education and Math: Reusable vs. Plastic Bags
by Institute for Humane Education As part of our educator professional development, we encourage teachers to start infusing humane education into their classrooms by finding small ways to tweak their lessons. After learning more about the impact of plastic bags, high school math teacher Tristan Bates decided to whip up a fun little activity for his…
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Activities That Integrate Math and Humane Education
by Marsha Rakestraw If you’re as old as I am, you probably remember math word problems asking you about the speed and direction of trains. Or geometry problems that asked you to calculate areas of objects drawn on paper. Or probabilities focused on dice roles. If you were lucky, you might have gotten to explore…
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