Shortly after Zoe Weil moved to Surry and opened the Institute for Humane Education (then called the Center for Compassionate Living) in 1996, a neighbor tentatively asked her about her line of work.
“She had heard that we were a cult,” Weil recalled with a laugh.
In fact, the institute co-founded by Weil, an award-wining author, might be the farthest thing from a cult. Its mission is to train educators who can help others think critically about their impact on animals, other people and the planet. Through a partnership with Cambridge College, the institute is the first to offer a Masters Degree in Humane Education; it also offers workshops for educators and non-educators alike.
Though Weil has found many ways to personally reduce her own global footprint, when she teaches a humane education class, she challenges her students to draw their own conclusions and find their own solutions.
“I didn’t take the path of the preacher or the kind of activist most people think of,” she said. “I tell the students, ‘Don’t believe me.'”
Weil’s newest book, Most Good Least Harm, lays out the guiding philosophy behind humane education. Part of a series of books to help people live in line with their ethics, Most Good Least Harm walks readers through daily questions and decisions that impact the world.
And it’s filled with stories of people who try to live the good life, from famous ethicists like Socrates and Santa Teresa de Avila to local Mainers. Though the book describes disturbing dilemmas about our relationship to the environment, the food system and the world, it doesn’t provide hard answers. Instead, like the humane education classes, it helps people make their own decisions.
“I try to write humbly without ever telling someone what to do,” Weil said. “[I ask], How can I write in such a way where the reader knows that I struggle with these same questions?”
Most Good, Least Harm is the culmination of years of personal soul-searching for Weil, of trying to find a balance between her ethics and her happiness. Raised in Manhattan, Weil grew up with a close affinity to nature; one of her happiest childhood memories was a trip to Africa.
“For me, it was as if I just came home,” she said.
Her love of nature led her to activism, but she soon became worn down with the struggle of opposition, with the constant protests and rallies. Then, in 1987, she answered an ad looking for a humane educator to teach a summer course to 7th and 8th graders at the University of Pennsylvania. Teaching the course changed her life, she said.
“I was just looking for a summer job, but I watched as these kids changed so much over the course of a week,” she said.
In fact, one child became so engrossed in the subject matter that he began handing out his own homemade leaflets by the end of the week. Weil found her calling, and she taught humane education for the next eight years, seeing some 10,000 students a year at school venues.
She also was a regular at debate forums on animal rights and other ethical issues, where her personality often won crowds over, despite the beefier scientific credentials of her debate adversaries. But having people congratulate her for being the better speaker dismayed Weil; she wanted to win on facts, not personality.
“I want a population of thinkers, not bland believers,” she said.
Demand for humane education classes always outstripped Weil’s time, so she saw a need to train other humane educators. She wanted space for a humane education center and to raise a family, so she and her husband looked up and down the east coast before settling in Surry. They were attracted to the Blue Hill peninsula for its close-knit community feel and its proximity to natural wonders.
Weil takes full advantage of each, and can often be found hiking Blue Hill Mountain daily or boogying at summer street dances. That’s an important principle of the philosophy of Most Good, Least Harm, she says. Even in desperate times, it’s important to cultivate pursuits that bring true joy to life.
“[Dancing and hiking] are as necessary to me as eating and breathing,” she said.
The Institute for Humane Education has some 70 students enrolled at one time in masters’ degree and teacher certification programs. The institute also hosts dozens of students for regular workshops. Online resources and lists of upcoming workshops are available at the institute’s website. In addition, Weil will take part in two speaking events this summer: a dual presentation with Americans who Tell the Truth artist Rob Shetterly at the Bay School in Blue Hill on June 18 and as a guest at the George Stevens Academy’s summer speaker series on July 28.