Humane Education by Diana George (tenth article) I recently returned from a week long national animal rights conference in California. I met many people from around the country and around the world. There were people filled with anger and there were people filled with compassion. All want to make a difference and see a change in the way humans treat and think of animals ~ from companion animals to farmed animals to wild animals. I felt great discomfort, disbelief and sadness for those filled with anger. I was inspired and uplifted by those filled with compassion. Three of those compassionate and inspiring people gave a workshop on humane education. Without placing judgment and in a non-threatening way humane education comes from a place of compassion. Humane educators encourage critical thinking, so that each and every one of us can decide for ourselves and make conscious choices based on knowledge, research and what we believe is the right thing to do. Our choices do matter. In our last article we touched on the subject of humane education. Humane education was recognized in America as early as 1933 when the National PTA Congress issued the following statement: “Children trained to extend justice, kindness, and mercy to animals become more just, kind, and considerate in their relations with each other. Character training along these lines will result in men and women of broader sympathies, more humane, more law-abiding – in every respect more valuable citizens. Humane education is teaching in the schools and colleges of the nations the principles of justice, goodwill, and humanity toward all life. The cultivation of the spirit of kindness to animals is but the starting point towards that larger humanity which includes one’s fellow of every race and clime. A generation of people trained in these principles will solve their international difficulties as neighbors and not as enemies.”