LESSONS IN HUMANE EDUCATION

Overview of educational techniques for Grades k-12

In attempt to deliver humane education to a broad range of students we have incorporated a variety of educational techniques and models. The following is a brief look into three educational approaches driving the program.

EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION

The process of learning is dependent upon doing or experiencing. L.B. Sharp explains the objectives of the process are planned and articulated prior to undertaking the experience, involving activity that is meaningful and real. Experiential education activities typically involve direct experience in the five stage process listed below:

• Exposure to and participation in the experience that is the basis of the educational activity.
• Experimentation with that type of experience.
• Individual reflection and facilitated debriefing during the educational activity aimed at enhancing the learning that occurs.
• Application of the principles involved to reinforce the learning and link it to new and old knowledge.
• Internalization of the new knowledge in a way that will facilitate both recall and application for the learner

VALUE CLARIFICATION

The goal of the value clarification approach is to help students process what is of value in their own lives through self discovery into life’s situations. John Dewey proposed that these values can be applied to the beliefs and behavior patterns students are in the process of formulating. Decisions are based on our consciously or unconsciously held beliefs, attitudes and values. Valuing is composed of the following:

• Prizing and cherishing one's beliefs and behaviors.
• Publicly affirming these beliefs when appropriate.
• Choosing one's beliefs and behaviors from among alternatives.
• Choosing after consideration of consequences.
• Choosing freely.
• Acting on one's beliefs.
• Acting with a pattern, consistency and repetition.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. - Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Statesman and Philosopher

PHILOSOPHY

Information is presented in a philosophically logical manor by exposing the elements of reason. By doing so the learner has the opportunity to view the formation of their thoughts and reflect on their meaning. The individual’s process shown by Richard Paul is as follows:

• Point of view – look at how I live my life and reflect upon it to live a rational life.
• Purpose – live a reflective and rational life.
• Personal inferences – judgments about the manner in which I live and ought to live my life.
• Key questions – what must I do to live a reflective and rational life?
• Assumptions – it is possible and desirable to live a reflective life.
• Implications and consequences – the consequences that follow for myself and for others if I live a reflective life.

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as well as that of his fellowman, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help. - Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian Theologian, Musician, and Medical Missionary

He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. - Immanuel Kant, German Philosopher