Speeches from the Kochhar Humanist Education Center Press Conference

Roy Speckhardt – Executive Director, American Humanist Association

Today a new kind of education initiative is being launched here in Washington DC that will unite humanists and other philosophical and religious minorities across the country in a project geared to move society forward.

Before we unveil all that’s already been prepared for this day, and describe the next steps toward our vision, I’ll provide some grounding in humanism and our goals.

Humanism is a progressive lifestance that, without theism or other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

As our recent president, Kurt Vonnegut, succinctly put it, “Being a humanist means trying to behave decently without any expectations of rewards or punishment after you are dead.” Humanist values have a foundation in reason and recognize that everyone has inherent worth and dignity. Concern for ourselves and other minorities makes us supportive of a secular, religiously-neutral government.

The American Humanist Association advocates: freedom of religion, freedom from religion, and freedom of conscience. We’re activists against discrimination in many forms, including bias based on religion, gender, and sexual orientation.

According to a December 2006 Financial Times/Harris poll, between fourteen and eighteen percent of Americans consider themselves atheists, agnostics, humanists, or otherwise identify with no religion. An additional four percent, including Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Pagans, and others, do not identify with the predominant Christian doctrines. Not only do humanists and adherents of minority religions share many of the same goals but, also, by simple dint of our minority status, find it essential to join forces to guard against discrimination and to enhance outreach and education efforts.

Although our overall proportion of the American population is increasing, a 2006 University of Minnesota survey shows that atheists are seen by a large portion of the U.S. population as a “threat to the American way of life.” And other groups, such as Muslims, Sikhs, and Jews, share to a degree in this mistrust born of ignorance. The harmful effects of this, and the social ostracism that can come with it, is a weight on society’s progress.

So humanists have good reasons to unite a coalition to dispel harmful myths, teach positive values, and provide the educational foundation for an outlook that embraces all of humanity as one people. The Kochhar Humanist Education Center will offer lifelong education resources toward these ends and provide policy recommendations that stimulate society to break down the barriers of prejudice and leave a common and rational approach to knowledge in its place.

Our hope is that this new center will make humanist education accessible to all. Humanists see a need to defend minority faiths and philosophies from discrimination. And the best way to accomplish this is through education—not only education of people like us but also the wider public. We want to share our values with our children, refine our own sense of right and wrong, and promote understanding of our worldview among non-humanists. Thus we are working to fill a great need both inside and outside the humanist community.

While already well-connected in interfaith communities and progressive organizations, the American Humanist Association will work toward expanding that strong base of interconnection, making sure active contacts exist within a broad range of diverse faiths and ethnic minorities. This will enable us to best address the unique types of discrimination each group faces. The Kochhar Humanist Education Center can build on the goodwill generated by this effort to organize dialogues on such diverse issues as church-state separation, death with dignity, and civil liberties.

To embark on lifelong humanist education, our first focal point is early childhood. The Kochhar Humanist Education Center will draw on the expertise of both existing and start-up youth programs in affiliated local groups to create a national educational curriculum for humanist youth. Our new education coordinator, with a doctorate in curriculum development, will speak on this in detail shortly.

We’ll be working with other groups to provide educational experiences too. One example is OABITAR: Objectivity, Accuracy, and Balance In Teaching About Religion. This program helps teachers of secondary level history and social science classes with their handling of religion as curricular subject matter. Through OABITAR we’ll be able to impact secondary education in a direction of tolerance and acceptance.

The Kochhar Humanist Education Center will also connect with students at the college level.  Recent Secular Student Alliance board member Maggie Ardiente will offer her perspectives on the need of this work and how this new project addresses that need. And we won’t stop there, as we’re constructing an adult education curriculum with public courses in humanism. An adaptable curriculum that includes modules in defending church-state separation, rationally constructing morals, and fighting discrimination will benefit significant numbers of those nationwide who are interested in a humanist perspective.

In short, the Kochhar Humanist Education Center hopes to provide missing resources and networks to break down negative stereotypes of people of minority religions and philosophies. Through the education directly provided, and through the respect those individuals can then command for themselves, and for colleagues across many divides, we anticipate that walls of discrimination in this area will begin to crumble.

Now, I’d like to present the individual who helped make this new education center a reality, Pritpal Singh Kochhar.

Pritpal Singh Kochhar — founder of the Kochhar Humanist Education Center

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I feel privileged to be associated with the Humanist Education Center established by the American Humanist Association. I wish to offer some comments on why we need such a center, and what we hope to achieve from this effort. As we are all well aware, we live in a world today where societies are becoming increasingly pluralistic. The concept of nations based on ethnic, racial or linguistic homogeneity has given way to the current reality of people with very different backgrounds rubbing shoulders with each other.

Current philosophies which have been based primarily on a belief in some supernatural force guiding human affairs have not led us to living in harmonious societies. There is, and continues to remain, a tremendous amount of conflict in this world. Books such as ‘The Clash of Civilizations’ show how segmented the human race continues to be. We seem to miss the fact that we all share an underlying humanity that pervades our existence.

I believe the only way to effect a change is through education. Education is the key to the development of the human mind. As you may know, Humanism, as defined by Corliss Lamont, is a philosophy of joyous service for the greater good of all humanity. I submit to you that the emphasis is on the word ‘all’. We are here because Humanism embraces all, as one people. A need for a Humanist Education Center is therefore obvious. Imagine what a different world this would be if Humanism is taught in all schools across this world! Thank you.

Maggie Ardiente — Secular Student Alliance

Good morning. My name is Maggie Ardiente and I’m the development manager of the American Humanist Association.

As a longtime member and former Board member of the Secular Student Alliance, one of the premier organizations for secular youth, I am thrilled to see the formation of an education center for Humanism. Studies have shown that that today's younger generation is more interested in critical thinking and naturalism than ever before, with the Internet being the primary vehicle driving the next generation of young, active skeptics.

So, when we first began the idea of creating an education center for Humanism, I remembered my experiences—and the experience of many others—who were new to humanism and wanted to learn more about this positive, life-affirming philosophy, but knew that opportunities to explore humanism were limited.

The need is out there, as evident by the rising number of self-identified atheists, agnostics, and humanists. A recent report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that almost half of the general public "have either switched religious affiliation or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether."

As a result, the religious marketplace of America is becoming more and more diverse. The United States is now home to all major world religions, many of them minority ones, as Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and adherents of other world religions are becoming increasingly visible and vocal in America's public square.

The Kochhar Humanist Education Center sees this growing religious diversity as a strengthening factor for America. Religious diversity protects our First Amendment right of religious freedom. So, in the post September 11th--world where people see minority religious people as a threat to the American way of life and religiously motivated violence is at an all time high, we knew we had to act.

That’s why the Kochhar Humanist Education Center was formed, because we knew that it was time that we focus on educating the public about the diversity that Humanists, atheists, and religious minorities can bring to the table. It’s time to enlighten the public on the discrimination we face, for only education can help reduce the effects of discrimination on people like us.

Reaching out and providing an educational resource to the younger generation is the first step. The establishment of the Center fills a pressing need for hundreds of humanist parents who will no longer have to choose between sending their young child to one religious Sunday school over another.

For teenagers and young adults who are new to Humanism, this new education center will open many doors and opportunities for them to expand their knowledge. Classes on humanism are currently taught at the Mary and Lloyd Morain Humanist Center here in Washington, DC, and already a host of volunteers and former educators are lending their skills to bring humanism to higher education.
 
In addition, the Kochhar Humanist Education Center has funded a campus organizer in Northern California at Stanford University. The purpose of these campus organizers is to establish groups that provide a safe haven for humanists, atheists, and often members of minority religions such as paganism or pantheism.

These groups are vital to the thousands of university campuses across the country. Often, humanist groups are the first to bridge connections between larger Christian organizations and minority religions. These groups also provide a voice for the growing number of students who do not affiliate with any religion. Students can help stimulate discussion among each other while growing intellectually and emotionally in their beliefs and understanding of the world. Funding more campus organizers across the country is just one of the ways we can bring humanist education to the younger generation.

Education and enlightenment is vital to changing the hearts and minds of thousands of Americans across the country, and that’s why I’m proud to be a part of the launching of the Kochhar Humanist Education Center. For the next generation, and for the good of America, we need to educate and enlighten the public on the growing religious and nonreligious diversity in the United States.

Bob Bhaerman—Education Coordinator, Kochhar Humanist Education Center

My name is Bob Bhaerman and I am the Coordinator of the Kochhar Humanist Education Center.

I would like to spend the next few minutes briefly telling you about some of the major accomplishments of the Center since its conception a short time ago. You have heard some of the visions for the program and may wonder how we will implement the various aspects of the program. There are several ways. The first and most obvious is through the 119 chapters and affiliates of the American Humanist Association. We also will work closely and share resources with the Ethical Culture societies and Unitarian Universalist churches.  Moreover, we will develop resources for parents and individuals who wish to learn more about the Humanist life stance. We, therefore, will develop online and traditional courses of study for all age levels as well as public policy statements, and – we anticipate – we will foster the active involvement of families and parents in all of our chapters and affiliates as well other national organizations that have their own local networks including those for parents.

What is our rationale for establishing the Center? As we know, religious organizations have long had educational programs and institutions for passing on their values to each new generation. These have included Sunday schools, private religious schools, and an abundance of resources for parents. Now it’s time for nontheistic people – whether they call themselves humanists, atheists, agnostics, or even identify with a more traditionally religious label – to more effectively share their values with future generations and deepen the understanding of those values among adults.

The first two related things we did were to set up two frameworks in which to operate. The first is “An Ongoing Repository of Humanist Education Curriculum and Related Resources.”  The repository includes lesson plans and instructional approaches at all levels -- early childhood, elementary school age, middle and high school age, college age, and adult; progress reports from chapters and affiliates; resources that are available elsewhere and access information and linkages; results of relevant literature searches; contact information for organizations and people in the field with relevant knowledge and expertise; annotated bibliographies for children and youth, parents and adults; and access information for all of the above In short, we are building a knowledge base of resources for Humanist education.

The second related task was to develop a Curriculum Framework. As you will see, there are eight focus areas and four target audiences. We are talking about Humanist education across the life span.  And here too we will “fill in the boxes” – as it were – with curriculum and instructional resources… building a second knowledge base. In the brief time of our existence, we have compiled 32 citations of resources – a total of 38 pages of text. For example, in the data base, we currently have eight citations/resources relating to secular Humanism, four relating to secular values and virtues, three on critical thinking, three on human freedom for all, and one on ethics in action. We also have identified 13 resources in the area of science (and evolution) including four extensive lessons from the Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes. This, too, will be an on-going process as we continue to identify and develop resources for the Curriculum Framework.

This is not an academic exercise in seeing how many resources we can identify and/or develop ourselves.  We won’t be sitting on them.  This is a field-base initiative for we will be sharing our findings with all of the chapters and affiliates of the American Humanist Association. We are – and will continue to be – in constant contact with many of our member groups, for example, those in Houston, Portland (OR), Palo Alto, Sacramento, Chicago, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and the chapter to which I belong: the Humanist Community of Central Ohio in Columbus. These and other chapters will pilot these teaching resources; we will then “fine tune” them; and disseminate them on line and in print throughout the country.

Here are several other important activities in which we are engaged.

• * We are establishing an online library of several hundred books on various aspects of freethought. This is the first repository of its kind that will bring nontheistic perspectives to millions of people. We have already begun this project and it will be greatly enhanced many times in the very near future. Ultimately we anticipate that the number of books will be in the thousands.
• * We have begun an extensive search for Humanist books for children and youth on all content issues in the Curriculum Framework. The intent is to develop a section of the framework tentatively called “Building Your Own Curriculum with Books for Children and Youth.”  We have identified a number of terrific books so far and will continue to do so. 
• * We continue to search for curriculum and instructional resources dealing with a variety of content areas with an initial focus on the teaching of evolution. We have identified an extensive array of resources on this topic.
• * We are beginning to formulate guides for various faith groups explaining how humanist members of those groups might fit their Humanist beliefs with their religious traditions. The groups include Unitarian Universalist, Pagans, Sikhs, Hindus, United Church of Christ, Episcopal, Freemason, Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Jain. Initially these are to be one-page items but will be expanded into more extensive analyses and in-depth publications.
• * We are developing Citizen Action Guides. These are short statements on current situations that are in need of serious attention on a variety of political, social, and educational issues (for example, death with dignity, church-state separation, capital punishment, efforts to impose intelligent design in public schools, sexual openness, religious discrimination, and the like.)
• * We are laying the groundwork for creating connections with interfaith communities and progressive organizations and organizing dialogues on common issues of interest such as instances of discrimination.
• * We have begun – and will continue – to secure feedback from local groups in the American Humanist Association.
• * We are researching and reporting on local activities – in order to maintain close relationships with American Humanist Association groups – and also writing case studies describing the educational activities of those groups.
• * Some of the web-related activities include beginning an online discourse on Humanist education;   expanding the listserv to include program leaders from groups inside and outside the American Humanist Association; and establishing Yahoo or Google discussion lists for use by local education committees.  
  
• * Most importantly, we also will assess all of our activities to determine “how we are doing” and to improve on what we are doing.

I would like to end by sharing a brief introductory statement that will accompany the Curriculum Framework – wherever it goes.

While the curriculum is obviously the centerpiece of an educational program at all age levels, it is essential to build on a strong foundation of group commitment to Humanist education.  No curriculum can be imposed from the “top down.”  Other “C” words must precede the word “curriculum.” They are Commitment, Communication, Culture-building and Community of learners. These concepts serve as the foundation for establishing quality educational programs across the life span.  The starting place is not the Course of Study; the place to begin is with the identified needs of the learners – children, youth, and adults. 

Families and family involvement must be at the core of any successful effort. Developing such a program should be viewed as a process rather than a set of fixed steps to be followed. A support structure needs to be built with families at the base.  For example, the Humanist Community of Silicon Valley in California believes that the quality of the family connection is most important.  Theirs is a cooperative model which is reflected in the name describing the program: The Humanist Community Family Cooperative Program. Parents and families pool their resources and serve as role models for their children.  This is the foundation on which quality programs should be built.