|
|
|
Humane Education Courses
|
||||||||
|
CHAI has offered 2- and 3-day introductory Humane Education courses for teachers around the country. Teachers who attended received credit (salary increases) from the Ministry of Education. In addition, we offered weekly seminars for teachers. All were extremely well received.
Teachers who attended one of CHAI's humane education courses say the classes have forever changed the way they look at animals. In the past, when they walked by homeless animals in the streets, they said, they either didn't notice them or considered them potential carriers of dirt and disease. Now they look into their eyes and wonder if they are lonesome and hungry and ask themselves what they can do to help them.
When some of the teachers moved into a new neighborhood, they found crickets in their houses. Instead of considering them pests and killing them, it was suggested that they gently place them into boxes with air holes, observe them, show them to their children and ask themselves what might be their purpose on the planet, and then release them outside. The teachers, from a religious school, were delighted with the idea because, they said, it put into practice the abstract concepts they teach the children — that God created every living being and we cannot know God's mind and the purpose for which each animal or insect was created, but we must respect them.
One school has now adopted a new project that helps instill humane education concepts in students, while connecting them to Jewish values like bal taschit, do not waste or destroy. After lunch and break times, the students collect all the uneaten food and, together with their teachers, walk to a nearby small grove of trees. There, they place the food on the ground, stand back and watch who comes to eat it. Mice, pigeons, crows and other animals scurry to gather a delicious crumb. The children observe which animals come and who likes what food. They learn the importance of not wasting, of sharing, and the coexistence of humans and animals in the web of life.
Officials Praise CHAI's
Humane Education Classes Ministry of the Environment Teacher Training Center Jerusalem, Israel and Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport Teacher Training Center Division Municipality of Jerusalem Science and Technology Division
We wish to thank you for the most interesting and very special class for science and technology teachers and counselors you provided at the Teacher Training Center in Jerusalem. Your course, which dealt with the environment from both the educational and practical aspects, was enriched not only by the information you provided, but also by the professional manner in which the messages were delivered and by the sense of a genuine mission on the part of the presenter.
I am certain that the points CHAI expressed and demonstrated will bear fruit and the messages will ultimately reach the group for which they are intended — the students.
Best regards, Meira Halper and Edna Minmran, Co-Directors of Education within the Ministry of the Environment, Jerusalem Region and Members of the Planning Committee, responsible for approving financial support for education classes.
Rivka Zohar, Science Division of the Jerusalem Teacher Training Center and Member of the Planning Committee, responsible for approving financial support for education classes.
Ministry of Education, Educational Centers Municipality of Beit Shemesh Education Division Teacher Training Center, Beit Shemesh
We, along with teachers and counselors from the center of the country, participated in a seminar about humane education and coexistence with the environment, a study program offered by CHAI. The program was very professionally done and opened practical and meaningful educational horizons that can be applied to the Israeli educational system. The atmosphere was very impressive and unique. The workshops were special and provided practical tools for working with students.
With the enthusiastic, supportive, kind cooperation and assistance of CHAI, we began a humane and environmental education initiative in the "Elyakim" school in Beit Shemesh. CHAI will train the schools' teachers. CHAI does a great deal for education in the State of Israel and it is important that this activity be expanded.
Yours sincerely, Bracha Reizman
Batsheva Ledani
|
||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||
