Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Zoe Weil: Humane Educator, Education Revolutionary, Solutionary for a Humane World

We're excited to share with you that the January/February 2011 issue of Maine magazine features a terrific profile of IHE's president, Zoe Weil. The profile focuses on her work as a humane educator, education revolutionary, and solutionary for a just, compassionate, healthy world for all. (There's also a really cool portrait of Zoe created with glue and torn paper pulled from her various books.) Here are a couple of excerpts:

"Weil gets excited when she describes her vision of humane education. 'You might have overarching themes for a whole year, like food and water or protection and conflict resolution or building structures and transportation,' she says. 'You might have solutionary teams instead of debate teams, where students compete -- because we love that in America -- to solve challenges at the school, in the community, or even in the world at large.' It would be a school where the basics -- reading, writing, math, and science -- are taught in service to the greater good. It would be a school in which students could answer the question, 'Why do we need to know this stuff?' on their own."

"Kids don't every say 'Don't tell me that, I don't want to know,'" says Weil. "But I often hear that from adults. Kids want to know. They're still in the midst of deciding where their values lie and how to live with integrity. They haven't developed habits that are unbreakable yet."

Download the complete profile (pdf).

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