In the minds of most people, there is a big divide between human issues and animal issues. Human issues are very important. Animal issues…. Well, not so important – at least not until we’ve got it right for the humans first!
It is because of this mentality that so many of us continue to see the teaching of kindness and compassion towards animals as something of no great value. We have not made the connection yet that the way we treat animals is a human issue. It is a human issue of huge and profound proportions, because how we treat those at our mercy is the truest reflection of who we are. As things stand, what we see in the mirror, regarding our treatment of animals, is so unpalatable that, for the most part, we are in deep denial about it.
It is with this in mind that The Humane Education Trust is single-minded in its passion to bring an understanding of compassion and kindness into every classroom throughout South Africa. Humane Education is a process through which learners are assisted in developing compassion, a sense of justice, and respect for the value of all life. And compassion towards animals is our starting point – because they are the most vulnerable to our callous disregard or cruel intent. At least abused children have our rage and outcry. Animals don’t even have that.
So what is compassion? It should not be confused with sympathy which is a different emotion. Compassion is more than simply feeling sorry for somebody – much more. It is stronger than empathy too. Compassion is when your heart moves at the suffering of another and this spurs you on to try to alleviate their suffering.
Debates abound about how to stem the violence in our society – we should have more policing, harsher sentences, bring back the death penalty, video surveillance in schools, body searches of learners, and the list goes on. But how often do we hear that humane education should be part of the solution? Almost never. Yet, that is exactly where we need to tackle the problem – right there within the hearts and minds of our country’s children.
A decade ago, in co-operation with the Western Cape Department of Education, the Humane Education Trust conducted a three-month pilot project on the impact of Humane Education on learner behaviour in 11 schools most affected by violence. (See the documentary Caring Classrooms). Of all the benefits the learners derived from this intervention, there was none as great as their development of self-esteem. As Elton, in Grade 10 put it: “For me, Humane Education was a great and joyful programme. It made me into a better person.” Brendan, in Grade 10, put it this way: “Humane Education gave me a new pair of eyes. Everything I look at now, I see differently.”
Following the success of this intervention, Human Education set about developing resources specific to the South African experience. Today, all 22 of our Humane Education Resources (readers and DVD’s) have been approved by the Department of Basic Education as well as the various Provincial Departments of Education. In addition, two of these resources have been selected by the Western Cape Department of Education for its ‘prescribed’ list for Grade 7’s for 2012. And, furthermore, The Department of Basic Education’s new curriculum for learners that comes into force next year (2012) includes multiple opportunities for learning about animal care as part of Life Skills at both Foundation and Intermediate Phases.
For some people, Humane Education has become just another phrase for programmes that teach children to treat their cats and dogs in a better way. This perception is like a scraping of the surface layer of what Humane Education is really all about. Humane Education develops a widening of our circle of compassion and respect to include each other, animals and the environment at large. Learners begin to consider a whole range of ethical issues using lessons designed to generate creative and critical thinking, and, of course, empathy. Humane Education assists learners in the development of their core values as human beings. It’s about why we bully others, about perception, denial and taking responsibility, about our treatment of the animals we use to feed ourselves, about the notion that hunting can be justified as a sport, about our decimation of the environment.
The world is full of ironies – and this is another of them: In promoting the well-being of those at our mercy, we ourselves find our own dignity and extraordinary capacity to heal the wrongs all around us. It is in this that we find purpose, passion and a res existence.
As the Reverend Professor Andrew Linzey, Director of Oxford University’s Centre for Animal Ethics, puts it: “The truth is that we are spiritually blind in our relations to other creatures, as blind as men have been to women, whites have been to blacks, and straights have been to gays.” He adds that at the root of the problem is the ‘idiolatry’ of thinking that God is only interested in the human species.
