Education For Survival

Our survival depends upon creating a compassionate world and an education system that incorporates compassion for self, for others and for the planet. Sixteen authors present a comprehensive analysis of compassion and the political character of pedagogy. Drawing upon new scientific findings about how the brain works and their understanding of the political nature of pedagogy, they offer a scientific, spiritual and educational rationale for curriculum and societal change. The result is this blueprint for survival, illustrated with numerous practical examples.

Transformative eco-education is environmental education that is literally needed to transform and save our planet, especially during the global ecological crises of our present century. Such education demands inner transformation of many deeply rooted ideas, such as the following: the Earth exists merely to provide for human comfort; the extinction or reduction of other species does not matter; we are free to consume or destroy natural resources at will but are safe from destruction ourselves; and the Earth will continue to sustain us, even if we do not sustain the Earth. Unless these concepts are changed, we will increase global warming and add to the ruin of much of the Earth. This book presents powerful ideas for transformative eco-education. At this time of ever-increasing ecological crisis, such education is needed more than ever before. We urge readers to use the ideas and activities in this book with your students, develop them further, and create new conceptions to share with other educators and students. The chapters in this book provide key principles, of which the following are just a few. First, educators can and should prepare students for natural disasters. Second, stories, case studies, the arts, and hands-on environmental experience, all enriched by reflection and discussion, can offer profound learning about ecology. Third, education at all levels can benefit from a true ecological emphasis. Fourth, teachers must receive preparation in how to employ transformative eco-education. Fifth, Indigenous wisdom can offer important, holistic, spiritual paths to understanding and caring for nature, and other spiritual traditions also provide valid ways of comprehending humans as part of the universal web of existence. Sixth, transformative eco-education can be an antidote to not only to environmental breakdown, but also to materialistic overconsumption and moral confusion. Seventh, we can only heal the Earth by also healing ourselves. If we heed these principles, together we can make transformative eco-education a blazing torch to light the path for the current century and beyond.

This book offers practical guidance on such topics as roles and responsibilities, school environment and culture, classroom organization and management, collaboration with other professionals, and individual professional development.

In the late 1960s, Indian families in Minneapolis and St. Paul were under siege. Clyde Bellecourt remembers, “We were losing our children during this time; juvenile courts were sweeping our children up, and they were fostering them out, and sometimes whole families were being broken up.” In 1972, motivated by prejudice in the child welfare system and hostility in the public schools, American Indian Movement (AIM) organizers and local Native parents came together to start their own community school. For Pat Bellanger, it was about cultural survival. Though established in a moment of crisis, the school fulfilled a goal that she had worked toward for years: to create an educational system that would enable Native children “never to forget who they were.” While AIM is best known for its national protests and political demands, the survival schools foreground the movement’s local and regional engagement with issues of language, culture, spirituality, and identity. In telling of the evolution and impact of the Heart of the Earth school in Minneapolis and the Red School House in St. Paul, Julie L. Davis explains how the survival schools emerged out of AIM’s local activism in education, child welfare, and juvenile justice and its efforts to achieve self-determination over urban Indian institutions. The schools provided informal, supportive, culturally relevant learning environments for students who had struggled in the public schools. Survival school classes, for example, were often conducted with students and instructors seated together in a circle, which signified the concept of mutual human respect. Davis reveals how the survival schools contributed to the global movement for Indigenous decolonization as they helped Indian youth and their families to reclaim their cultural identities and build a distinctive Native community. The story of these schools, unfolding here through the voices of activists, teachers, parents, and students, is also an in-depth history of AIM’s founding and early community organizing in the Twin Cities—and evidence of its long-term effect on Indian people’s lives.

Young people in America are facing a health crisis of epidemic proportions—yet no one is taking action. Children are born as active, curious, imaginative beings with a built-in physical identity. Survival of the Fit offers a new and revelatory plan to nurture this identity and save the health of America’s youngsters. One of the keys to this plan is rebranding physical education (PE) and making it available for every child, every day, in every year of school. In addition to establishingÊhistorical references and a scientific basis for this rebranding, the author provides a downloadable template for PE classes at all school levels. He lays out a blueprint to help educators and parents bring this “PE revolution” to their school with no increase in the school budget. Sounding the alarm regarding America’s health crisis, Survival of the Fit explains how we can use existing tools, knowledge, and infrastructure to make needed changes with immediate results for every school, not just a privileged few. Everyone interested in seeing improvements in the physical, mental, and emotional health of our children will want to put this book to use. Book Features: Introduces the concept of physical identity, an inborn trait that animals from octopi to humans are born with. Presents the reasoning for restoring youth competitive sports to community control even for high school students.Ê Discusses how we can win the war against bad food and addiction to two-dimensional entertainment. Showcases original research, as well as comments and criticism from active educators. Daniel Fulham OÕNeill, MD, EdDÊis board-certified in orthopedic surgery and sports medicine, and holds a doctorate in Exercise and Sport Psychology.

"Book for kids in special education that gives them tools and strategies to deal with their concerns about special ed, cope with challenges, and see the benefits of special education. Includes stories from real kids, explanations of IEPs and 504 plans, and reproducible forms. A parent section addresses common questions"--

"Presents a studio-based secondary school art program that combines art theory, history, and appreciation with how-to-do-it lessons and classroom survival skills"--Back cover.