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The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries
How can we create a just, healthy, and humane world? What is the path to developing sustainable energy, food, transportation, production, construction, and other systems? What’s the best strategy to end poverty and ensure that everyone has equal rights? How can we slow the rate of extinction and restore ecosystems? How can we learn to resolve conflicts without violence and treat other people and nonhuman animals with respect and compassion? The answer to all these questions lies with one underlying system―schooling. To create a more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world, we must reimagine education and prepare a generation to be solutionaries―young people with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to create a better future. This book describes how we can (and must) transform education and teaching; create such a generation; and build such a future.
176 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2021
79 people are currently reading
521 people want to read
About the author
Zoe Weil
15 books63 followersZoe Weil is the co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education (IHE), where she created the first graduate programs (M.Ed., M.A., Ed.D., Graduate Certificate) in comprehensive Humane Education linking human rights, environmental sustainability, and animal protection, offered online through an affiliation with Antioch University.
Zoe is a frequent keynote speaker and has given six TEDx talks including her acclaimed TEDx, The World Becomes What You Teach. She is the author of seven books including "The Solutionary Way: Transform Your Life, Your Community and the World for the Better;" #1 Amazon best seller in the Philosophy and Social Aspects of Education, "The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries;" Nautilus silver medal winner "Most Good, Least Harm;" Moonbeam gold medal winner "Claude and Medea;" and "Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times."
Zoe is the 2023 recipient of the Spirit of America award and was named one of Maine Magazine’s 50 independent leaders transforming their communities and the state. She is the recipient of the Unity College Women in Environmental Leadership award, a subject of the Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait series, and was inducted into the Animal Rights hall of fame.
Zoe holds master’s degrees from Harvard Divinity School and the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Valparaiso University.
Zoe is a frequent keynote speaker and has given six TEDx talks including her acclaimed TEDx, The World Becomes What You Teach. She is the author of seven books including "The Solutionary Way: Transform Your Life, Your Community and the World for the Better;" #1 Amazon best seller in the Philosophy and Social Aspects of Education, "The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries;" Nautilus silver medal winner "Most Good, Least Harm;" Moonbeam gold medal winner "Claude and Medea;" and "Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times."
Zoe is the 2023 recipient of the Spirit of America award and was named one of Maine Magazine’s 50 independent leaders transforming their communities and the state. She is the recipient of the Unity College Women in Environmental Leadership award, a subject of the Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait series, and was inducted into the Animal Rights hall of fame.
Zoe holds master’s degrees from Harvard Divinity School and the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Valparaiso University.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 17, 2021
An exceptional book. Weil makes a strong case for teaching the interconnection between human rights, animal protection, and environmental issues. Revealing systems perspectives and individual stories, the book offers a look at the intersection between problems and solutions through the lenses of education and culture.
I appreciate the focus on critical thinking and "solutionary practice", a model to develop solutions that benefit not just humans but consider the whole: human, animal, environment.
I appreciate the focus on critical thinking and "solutionary practice", a model to develop solutions that benefit not just humans but consider the whole: human, animal, environment.
January 13, 2023
This book is a fantastic read for educators, and for anyone in the lives of children and teens. I love the author's humanitarian perspective on a hands-on and student-centered approach to learning and teaching!
June 2, 2022
I wish this book had practical day to day ways to help foster solutionaries.
During CoVid 2020 I feel like teachers tailored lessons to kids and made it more independent and self paced. I know I did. I also tried to foster lots of curiosity. But I learned something very very important. Many students do not want to be educated. They just want to play games or sleep.
One of the statements made in this book was about how the movers and shakers were so few. I don’t feel like this method of teaching would be beneficial to all students. In some cases when students care and want to be educated yes this method would be fantastic.
The major problems with US schooling in my opinion is the student lack of drive. The apathy is crazy. It doesn’t matter how the lesson is tailored or created. We have so many students that have learning disabilities, we can’t expect all students to think at this high of level. It would be amazing if it were possible but is not feasible.
With that said there were some positives. I definitely agree that there are many ways to improve education. I really like the idea of tailor some of the curriculum for certain students like we do for gifted and talented and ieps. I also like to put extensions. I have tried to foster a love for learning. I want kids to be curious and to research. We spend time doing this. But again the state has a test. The test does not encourage curiosity ❤️😞
During CoVid 2020 I feel like teachers tailored lessons to kids and made it more independent and self paced. I know I did. I also tried to foster lots of curiosity. But I learned something very very important. Many students do not want to be educated. They just want to play games or sleep.
One of the statements made in this book was about how the movers and shakers were so few. I don’t feel like this method of teaching would be beneficial to all students. In some cases when students care and want to be educated yes this method would be fantastic.
The major problems with US schooling in my opinion is the student lack of drive. The apathy is crazy. It doesn’t matter how the lesson is tailored or created. We have so many students that have learning disabilities, we can’t expect all students to think at this high of level. It would be amazing if it were possible but is not feasible.
With that said there were some positives. I definitely agree that there are many ways to improve education. I really like the idea of tailor some of the curriculum for certain students like we do for gifted and talented and ieps. I also like to put extensions. I have tried to foster a love for learning. I want kids to be curious and to research. We spend time doing this. But again the state has a test. The test does not encourage curiosity ❤️😞
June 24, 2018
Important Read
This book is so important for educators to read. It asks us to rethink or old goal of producing graduates who can compete in a global economy... what we need instead are people who can tackle the world’s problems and solve them: solutionaries.
This book is so important for educators to read. It asks us to rethink or old goal of producing graduates who can compete in a global economy... what we need instead are people who can tackle the world’s problems and solve them: solutionaries.
December 14, 2022
Absolutely love the pedagogy and solutionary approach presented in this book!! As a science teacher I will be implementing many of these practices, however teaching in a public school has limitations as addressed in the book.
April 2, 2020
Is it possible to feel both overwhelmed and rejuvenated at the same time? A short book that packs an educational punch.
April 29, 2022
As an educator, I love this book.
June 29, 2022
This is a wonderful, inspiring read for all teachers
October 26, 2022
Excellent! Gift a copy to the teachers and school administrators in your lives!
January 18, 2017
“How can we create a just, healthy, and humane world?” is the question Weil presents to us, and it’s one we need to think about deeply, seeing as we just elected an American President who is the antithesis of these values. We can continue to define ourselves by our ugliest impulses for years to come, or we can equip future generations to reject those who project prejudice and uncaring attitudes.
WORLD is a book about schooling—how we do it and how we can do it better. It is a compact book that crams a lot of thought-provoking questions and discussion starters, and no doubt, this is its intent. Best of all, it doesn’t demonize teachers or students, but acknowledges that problems in education are merely a symptom of a greater societal problem, and invites everyone to take proactive steps to make it better.
Teachers face an increasingly difficult job—and it’s one I never wanted, despite (or because of) having multiple teachers in my immediate and extended family! Many forward-thinking teachers, especially in public schools, feel as if they’re walking on eggshells and are fearful to provoke the wrath (real or imagined) of parents, administrators, and even state legislators. From this book I learned that in 2015 my state “introduced a bill to prohibit the teaching of ‘social problems, economics, foreign affairs, the United Nations, world government, socialism or communism until basic courses in American state and local geography and history are completed.’” Can we expect a generation of young people with no grasp of social or international issues to play any kind of meaningful role in the world they inherit? Do we even want them to?
Weil’s book is likely to cause readers to reflect upon their own current or past experiences in the educational system, and when they feel it supported or failed them. I recalled a handful of times when teachers made homophobic statements in class, including one in which a substitute science teacher used an anti-gay slur in a joke. How might that have made gay students in class feel? I also remembered that in high school, a small group of boys would wear incredibly offensive racist t-shirts, which the teachers just ignored and never asked them to change. How uncomfortable such imagery must have made the minority students in our school. Personally, I was mocked and criticized throughout my school years by teachers for being a vegetarian who supported animal rights—while this primarily happened in a parochial private school, it happened in public school too.
The experiences we have in these formative years shape us well into adulthood. I don’t want other students to have to go through the things I’ve described above. I’m glad Weil had the courage to write this book---let’s get it into the hands of as many educators, students, parents, and community members as we can.
WORLD is a book about schooling—how we do it and how we can do it better. It is a compact book that crams a lot of thought-provoking questions and discussion starters, and no doubt, this is its intent. Best of all, it doesn’t demonize teachers or students, but acknowledges that problems in education are merely a symptom of a greater societal problem, and invites everyone to take proactive steps to make it better.
Teachers face an increasingly difficult job—and it’s one I never wanted, despite (or because of) having multiple teachers in my immediate and extended family! Many forward-thinking teachers, especially in public schools, feel as if they’re walking on eggshells and are fearful to provoke the wrath (real or imagined) of parents, administrators, and even state legislators. From this book I learned that in 2015 my state “introduced a bill to prohibit the teaching of ‘social problems, economics, foreign affairs, the United Nations, world government, socialism or communism until basic courses in American state and local geography and history are completed.’” Can we expect a generation of young people with no grasp of social or international issues to play any kind of meaningful role in the world they inherit? Do we even want them to?
Weil’s book is likely to cause readers to reflect upon their own current or past experiences in the educational system, and when they feel it supported or failed them. I recalled a handful of times when teachers made homophobic statements in class, including one in which a substitute science teacher used an anti-gay slur in a joke. How might that have made gay students in class feel? I also remembered that in high school, a small group of boys would wear incredibly offensive racist t-shirts, which the teachers just ignored and never asked them to change. How uncomfortable such imagery must have made the minority students in our school. Personally, I was mocked and criticized throughout my school years by teachers for being a vegetarian who supported animal rights—while this primarily happened in a parochial private school, it happened in public school too.
The experiences we have in these formative years shape us well into adulthood. I don’t want other students to have to go through the things I’ve described above. I’m glad Weil had the courage to write this book---let’s get it into the hands of as many educators, students, parents, and community members as we can.
March 4, 2016
I'm the publisher of this book and thought I'd say a few words about it. I've known Zoe for twenty years, and she is a passionate advocate for humane education. This book has been deliberately created as a manifesto—a blueprint and a prospectus for the future of education (and the future of our planet). It's direct, straightforward, and very clear; its brevity doesn't make its message any less pungent or the challenges it throws down any less daunting. I don't agree with some of what Zoe argues for, but that is the point of this book: it's been written to start a conversation, shake up a few complacent assumptions about what constitutes a "good" education, and get people thinking just what it is we learn and why we learn it. We're hoping that the book stirs the embers of a debate and poses a question that should be at the center of politics today: What should teaching involve when our planet is under threat?
August 27, 2016
While reading this book, I couldn't help but feel some sense of pride, because from grades 3 and 4 through Grade 12, I homeschooled (I prefer the term "unschooled") our two children. We had the freedom to do much of what Zoe suggests in this book. If I could go back in time, I would implement even more of her ideas.
This is a book that every single educator should read and take to heart and put into practice.
This is a book that every single educator should read and take to heart and put into practice.
May 24, 2016
I love and share these big ideas.... but now we need the practical steps of what this transformation would look like!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews