New Society Publishers, 2004
Paperback, 172 pages, $15.95
A Book for a Better World
Through the International Institute for Humane Education in Surry, Maine, Zoe Weil has helped train and certify hundreds of educators to teach humane education; humane education is a curriculum that helps students critically examine ecology and social justice issues and take responsibility for their impact on the world.
But while Weil has written two books on humane education for parents and children, educators had to wait for their own book on the subject until now.
The wait’s definitely been worth it. The Power and Promise of Humane Education is an easy how-to guide for teachers that can be read about today and used in the classroom tomorrow. I found it nearly impossible to read without wanting to get back into a classroom and try it out.
The book begins by laying out a powerful argument for humane education, briefly detailing a world gone mad with ecological destruction, tyranny and factory farming. Then, like a gentle rain after a forest fire, Weil lays out humane education’s curriculum. Through lessons provided and suggestions for dozens more, the curriculum provides students with the tools needed to solve the global problems of their lifetime through personal action.
In one memorable classroom exercise, Weil walks to the front of a classroom and dumps a bag full of seemingly-random plastic garbage onto a desk. After catching the class’s attention with this maneuver, she then explains that everything on the desk was also found inside the stomach of a dying sperm whale in North Carolina. She asks students how to reduce, reuse, or recycle each item, and the students are eager and creative with their solutions.
The second half of the book provides more sample lessons and suggestions how to integrate humane education into every subject and grade level. Weil even provides workable suggestions to mix humane education and math.
The pages of Weil’s book walk the sustainability walk, as well, being made from 100% post-consumer-recycled chlorine-free paper.
If there is a drawback to this book, it’s that it might leave educators feeling frustrated trying to squeeze humane education into an already-crowded curriculum bogged down with federal and state mandates. Though Weil provides extensive suggestions for how to find the time for it, educators still might be inclined to sigh, put the book away, and get back to planning how to fill the next No Child Left Behind requirement.
But I hope that’s not the case. The lessons within this book are ones the world can ill-afford to have its students skip.
Craig Idlebrook is a freelance writer based in Ellsworth.