Meet the authors who contributed eloquently to the conversation about “educating for humanity.” They represent some of the most insightful and influential of our thinkers about education and where we need to go if we are to serve humanity and a world that works for all.
Click a name below to view profile.
James Banks is a Professor in Curriculum & Instruction
and Director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of
Washington. He is a leader in his teaching and research fields of social studies
education and multicultural education. His publications include Teaching
Strategies for the Social Studies (5th edition, 1999), Educating Citizens
in a Multicultural Society (1997), and the Handbook of Research on Multicultural
Education (1995). He received the AERA Research Review Award in 1994, the
National Association of Multicultural Education Book Award in 1997, and was
the recipient of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.
(TESOL) 1998 President's Award. I had the pleasure of first hearing Dr. Banks
passionate speaking at the 2001 Fall Forum of the Coalition of Essential Schools.
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I had the pleasure of meeting Sheldon Berman (known as Shelley
to his colleagues) when I spent four days visiting Hudson public schools where
he has been superintendent for the last ten years. Under Berman’s dedicated
and inspiring leadership, and with a team of outstanding administrators and
teachers, Hudson has proven to be a showcase of authentic school improvement
based on the development of community, caring, and social responsibility discussed
in this chapter. Shelley is one of the founders and a former president of Educators
for Social Responsibility and a former president of the Massachusetts Association
of School Superintendents. He is the coeditor of Promising Practices in Teaching
Social Responsibility and author of Children’s Social Consciousness.
In 2003, he was selected as Massachusetts Superintendent of the Year.
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I first met Thomas Berry at Camp Chewonki in
Wisacsset, Maine at a conference on Teaching for the Environment in higher education,
and got a first-hand experience of a true elder and prophet of our time. I would
like to quote from Matthew Fox’s eloquent observations, made in the summer,
1999 volume of EarthLight magazine.
“Thomas Berry has studied contemporary science with depth and abandon,
mind and heart. He has also immersed himself in the ancient wisdom of indigenous
peoples and the wisdom of China and the East. Yet he has always stayed true
to the path of critical thought and of prophetic consciousness. He speaks with
the poetry of his Celtic ancestors, and his scholarship (as distinct from academic
ego inflation) is both critical and caring.”
“Above all, his love of the cosmos and his insistence that all education
and all professions are ultimately
responsible to the cosmos is his deepest legacy. By calling us to an enduring
creation story from the new science he gives us tools for beginning over. He
not only deconstructs; he reconstructs. So many priests of his generation are
cynical and so many academicians are only committed to deconstructing. What
Thomas Berry has that these people lack is a sense of wonder that has not diminished
with age. There is a youthfulness in Thomas Berry that is evident in the radical
questions he asks as well as in the wonder he elicits. He helps us dream the
Earth anew, dream our work anew, dream religion and education anew.”
“Thomas Berry is a true elder. He has been true to his catholic heritage
in the deepest sense of finding and naming, with Teilhard de Chardin's help,
the sacramental character of the Universe. And, in the tradition of Aquinas,
he has "shared the fruits of his contemplation" by his writing, his
teaching, and lecturing, and by his witness as an elder gifting other generations
with the most precious gift of all: the blessing of creation.” You would
be well fed if you read no other book this year but Berry’s Dream of Earth.
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I met Fritjof Capra in Berkeley at the Center for Ecoltiteracy which he co-founded
and which aims to “…foster a profound understanding of the natural
world, grounded in direct experience, that leads to sustainable patterns of
living.” They offer many grants and programs to K-12 schools. At the time
we were meeting with students from Common Ground, school-within-a school at
Berkeley high which had been funded by the Center. Fritjof has an intensity
which accords with his reputation as a physicist and one of the leading figures
in explaining systems theory and science to lay people. Author of The
Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, The Web of Life and, recently,
The Hidden Connections, Fritjof has decisively explained the interconnectedness
of life.
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Duane Elgin and I first met when he came to Whibdey Island and gave a talk about
the ideas from his latest book Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action
for Humanity’s Future. I recall him being introduced as “one smart
dude,” which only begins to give a clue to the awesome visionary intellect
of this man who is also down-to-earth, caring and self-effacing. Duane lives
true to his calling as a friend of earth and his initial book Voluntary Simplicity:
Toward a Way of Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich. He described
a life of courage and adherence to his vision in spite of financial uncertainties.
This interview was first published in What is Enlightenment? Magazine
(Spring/Summer 2001) thanks to Carter Phipps the interviewer, and was then titled
“The Breaking Point.” Duane’s web site is well worth visiting:
http://www.awakeningearth.org/
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Sam Intrator is assistant professor of education and child study at Smith College.
The son of two retired New York City public school teachers, he was a high-school
teacher and administrator in Brooklyn, New York, Vermont, and California. He
was awarded a W. K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship and was named a Distinguished
Teacher by the White Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is the author of
Tuned in and Fired Up: How Teaching Can Inspire Real Learning in the Classroom
(2003) and editor of Stories of the Courage to Teach: Honoring the Teacher’s
Heart (2002) and Teaching with Fire: Poetry That Sustains the Courage
to Teach (2003).
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I had the pleasure of meeting Don Jacobs at the National Coalition of Alternative
and Community Schools at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Don’s
Native American roots in the Creek and Cherokee people show through his easy,
natural pace, his groundedness and humor. Don, whose native name is Four Arrows,
has a thoroughly holistic perspective on education reflecting the ways of indigneous
peoples which see themselves, their community, the Earth and spirit as one whole.
Don is an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in
the College of Education at Northern Arizona University and is a faculty member
as Fielding Graduate Institute. He is the author of eleven books, including
Teaching Virtues: Building Character Across the Curriculum, Primal Awareness:
A True Story of Survival, Awakening and Transformation, and The Bum’s
Rush: The Selling of Environmental Backlash. He can be reached at http://www.teachingvirtues.net.
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David W. Jardine is Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education, University
of Calgary. He is the author of Speaking with a Boneless Tongue (1992),
To Dwell with a Boundless Heart (1998) and Under the Tough Old Stars
(2000) as well as being the co-author, with Patricia Clifford and Sharon Friesen,
of the book Back to The Basics of Teaching and Learning: Thinking The World
Together. His main work is with student-teachers in elementary education
and in the area of hermeneutic inquiry. He lives with his family in Bragg Creek,
a small community in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains west of Calgary, Alberta.
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I met Rachael Kessler in 1997 at the conference in Boulder on Spirituality in
Education and again in 2000. I knew education had come to a new and exciting
crossroads when The Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
devoted the January 1999 issue to spirituality in education and, then published,
in 2000, Kessler’s The Soul of Education: Helping Students Find Connection,
Compassion and Character at School. I find Rachael thoughtful, aware, dedicated
and a highly engaging presenter whose workshops we have sponsored for several
years in Seattle through The Heritage Institute. The Passage Ways Institute
which she founded is at: http://www.mediatorsfoundation.org/isel/institute.html
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As did many reading these pages, I read Schools With Spirit, the book
Linda Lantieri edited in 2001, with great enthusiasm not only for the articles,
but also for the fact that such an important subject was being addressed by
someone with such a high regard in the education community, Linda Lantieri has
over 30 years of experience in education as a teacher, administrator, university
professor and an internationally known expert in social and emotional learning
and conflict resolution. She serves as the Founding Director of the Resolving
Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) of Educators for Social Responsibility, which
supports the program in 400 schools in the United States. She is also the Director
of the New York Satellite Office of the Collaborative for Academic, Social,
and Emotional Learning (CASEL) whose central offices are at the University of
Illinois at Chicago. Linda is co-author of the book, Waging Peace in Our
Schools (Beacon Press, 1996) and editor of the book Schools With Spirit:
Nurturing the Inner Lives of Children and Teachers (Beacon Press, 2001).
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Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, scholar of mythology and student
of ritual in traditional cultures. He has the unusual ability to illumine how
we live today through myth and traditional ways of knowing. Michael is the founder
of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation with a mission which includes a commitment
to youth-at-risk, ‘genius based’ mentoring and developing the ‘arts
of community’ in diverse organizations and groups. He is author of Men
and the Water of Life, Crossroads: Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage,
and Holding the Thread of Life: A Human Response to the Unraveling of the
World, and co-editor of The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart. The following
is adapted from an interview with Lauren de Boer, Earthlight magazine editor,
and appeared in the Winter 2002, issue of Earthlight under the title “Youth
Rising.”
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Few educators have inspired progressive education as much as Deborah Meier.
When I met her at her Hillsdale, N.Y. home, fresh back from a swim in the pond
on her property, Deborah seemed like someone’s grandmother, but not the
visionary behind Central Park East Elementary, and later, Secondary schools—and
that’s part of her success. In 1974, Central Park East Elementary School
(CPE) in East Harlem opened its doors with a mission to provide inner-city children
with the finest educators and pedagogy available. Instead of saying that the
old neighborhood had to be torn down and students more rigidly tracked, the
reformers dared to ask the question: “What would happen if we gave inner-city
students the best education the country has to offer?” The results of this
bottom-up reform were astounding, and to this day, Central Park East, and its
later secondary school, are known as one of the most academically enriching
schools in the United States. And Meier’s work has given inspiration to
literally hundreds of academically rigorous, progressive schools around the
country. Her books – The Power of Their Ideas : Lessons from America from
a Small School in Harlem, In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning
in an Era of Testing and Standardization and Will Standards Save Public Education
– are a must read for those involved in meaningful school reform. She is
now Principal of Mission Hill School in Roxbury, MA.
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I met Sonia Nieto at the University of Massachusett, Amherst campus and we talked
for what seemed several hours, like we had known each other before. She is a
passionate and leading spokeperson for multicultural education, born out of
her Puerto Rican roots and early career in classroom teaching. She is now a
Professor of Education at the University of Massachusetts, where she has taught
courses in language, literacy, and culture. She has served on several national
advisory boards that focus on educational equity and social justice, and she
has received many awards for her advocacy and activism, including the 1989 Human
and Civil Rights Award from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the 1995
Drylongso Award for Anti-Racism Activism from the Community Change in Boston,
the 1997 Multicultural Educator of the Year Award from NAME, the National Association
for Multicultural Education, and the 1988 New England Educator of the Year Award
from Region One of NAME. Her latest book, What Keeps Teachers Going,
follows her previous works including Through Students' Eyes: Combating Racism
in United States Schools, Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context
of Multicultural Education and, The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural
Learning Communities.
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When I met Nel Noddings at her Ocean Grove, N.J. home, I was struck by her warm
and engaging manner and her impressive vegetable garden—her zest for the
earthy making a nice balance to her considerable intellect. Ever since reading
her book The Challenge to Care in Schools: an alternative approach to education,
I knew I had found a kindred spirit in this leading figure in the field of Educational
Philosophy, feminist ethics and moral education. She has been Professor of Philosophy
and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Lee L. Jacks Professor
of Child Education Emerita at Stanford University. She is author or co-author
of numerous books including Justice and Caring : The Search for Common Ground
in Education, and Awakening the Inner eye: Intuition in Education.
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David Orr is a passionate orator barnstorming the country for the environment
and a sustainable human future, reflecting his childhood in nature and a family
line of preachers. Connectedness is at the hub of his philosophy, and he flows
easily between the connections of spirituality and ecology. His is one of the
most probing criticisms of education and its contribution to the mess we are
in today. Orr chairs the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin, where he
oversaw the development of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies,
a facility with state-of-the art ecological design that would redefine the relationship
between humankind and the environment. He is author of numerous books including
the must-read Earth in Mind and Ecological Literacy.
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Nancy Carlsson-Paige is a professor of education at Lesley University and a
co-founder of Lesley's masters degree program in conflict resolution and peaceable
schools. For more than twenty years, Nancy has been studying both the effects
of violence-- especially media violence--on children's social development, and
how children learn the ideas and skills for caring relationships and positive
conflict resolution. She has co-authored four books and many articles on media
violence and its effects on children, how children learn the skills of conflict
resolution, and is the author of Best Day of the Week, a children's book about
conflict resolution. I was delighted to finally meet Nancy on a trip back to
Boston, and found her to be a kindred spirit and a compassionate advocate for
all the values expressed in Educating for Humanity.
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Prior to vistiing Parker Palmer at his home in Madison, WI., I had the pleasure
of hearing him speak at the Boulder, CO. conference on Spirituality in Education
in 1997 and, again, in Seattle at a day-long presentation. Parker fulfilled
all the expectations I had of him from reading his many books, as a person truly
big in heart, courage and wisdom. He has evolved a language that makes self
and spirituality accessible and relevant to teaching and learning. Palmer is
author of To Know as We are Known:Education as a Spiritual Journey, The
Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity and Caring and Let Your
Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. But he is best known among
K-12 educators for The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a
Teacher’s Life and for the Courage to Teach teacher formation programs
which he initiated with support from the Fetzer Institute. Reading over this
conversation, I have been amazed at how fluidly and coherently he speaks about
these importance of joining soul and role as teachers and learners.
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Eric Schaps is founder and president of the Developmental Studies Center in
Oakland, CA. Established in 1980, DSC specializes in designing educational programs
and evaluating their effects on children's academic, ethical, social, and emotional
development. The Center has a full-time staff of 60; its work has been supported
by 40 philanthropic foundations and governmental agencies; its in-school and
after-school programs have been recognized as exemplary in a number of governmental
and other program effectiveness reviews. Dr. Schaps is the author of three books
and over 60 book chapters and articles on school change, character education,
and preventing problem behaviors. He serves on several boards including the
education advisory board of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. This article
by Eric Schaps first appeared as "Creating a School Community" in
Educational Leadership, March 2003, Volume 60, No.6, pp.31-33.
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Thomas J. Sergiovanni is Lillian Radford Professor of Education and Administration
and Senior Fellow, Center for Educational Leadership at Trinity University,
San Antonio. Prior to joining the Trinity faculty he was for eighteen years
Professor of Educational Administration and Supervision at the University of
Illinois (UC). Dr. Sergiovanni serves on the editorial boards of The Journal
of Personnel Evaluation in Education, and Catholic Education A Journal of Inquiry
and Practice. He has broad interests in the areas of school leadership and the
supervision and evaluation of teaching. Among his recent publications are Moral
Leadership: Getting to the Heart of School Improvement (1992), Building
Community in Schools (1994), Leadership for the School House: How Is
It Different? Why Is It Important? (1996), The Lifeworld of Leadership:
Creating Culture, Community, and Personal Meaning in Our Schools (2000),
The Principalship: A Reflective Practice Perspective, Fourth Edition
(2001), Leadership: What’s in it for Schools? (2001), and Supervision
a Redefinition (2002).
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Gregory Smith is a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Lewis &
Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He is a co-author of Reducing the Risk:
Schools as Communities of Support; the author of Education and the Environment:
Learning to Live with Limits; editor Public Schools that Work: Creating
Community; and co-editor with Dilafruz Williams of Ecological Education
in Action: On Weaving Education, Culture and the Environment. He is currently
exploring the role of place-based education as one means for moving our society
in the direction of ecological sustainability.
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I met Dilafruz Williams shortly after her election to the Portland Schools Board,
no small accomplishment and a great win for those who care about sustainability,
the environment and a progressive approach to education. She is a professor,
Educational Policies, Foundations & Administrative Studies, Graduate School
of Education, Portland State University. Among her numerous books and articles,
she was co-editor with Greg Smith of Ecological Education in Action: On Weaving
Education, Culture, and the Environment. Dilafruz has served on numerous
Boards and Advisory Committees that address public education, citizenship participation,
and environmental issues, and is a founding member of the Environmental Middle
School, an alternative school in Portland.
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Ronald G. Veronda is an educator of children, teens, and adults with over three
decades experience. He is the author of No More Turning Away, A Revolution
in Education, Solutions for a Violent World and cofounder of the Children’s
Consulting Center, a nationally recognized educational center. Over the past
ten years, he has been asked to travel across the United States and into Europe,
working with educators, parents and concerned community members to offer ways
of using education to create a healthier world. Portions of this article are
excerpted from Ron’s book No More Turning Away.
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