Christopher Greenslate
At six years old I had decided that if I wasn’t a professional baseball player when I grew up that I would have no problem being a veterinarian. My love of animals is something that grew from that point forward. I remember my mom letting me stay home to watch our golden retriever give birth and naming all the puppies after baseball hall-of-famers like Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Hank Aaron. I remember later picking up animal rights literature at a punk rock concert and being appalled by conditions that animals faced on factory farms. Punk rock songs and ideology quickly planted seeds of concern for other human beings and compassion for those who had faced oppression based on race, ethnicity, political views, social class, gender and sexuality. The recognition of the power imbalance that allows humans to treat each other with such willful indifference quickly helped me see that the plight of animals in factory farms and laboratories was also morally reprehensible. These experiences helped shaped my path to becoming involved with activism and community programs, and eventually into becoming a public high school teacher. My sense of responsibility to serve others was strong and only grows as I move forward.
Since becoming a professional humane educator and founding the Social Justice program at La Costa Canyon High School I see the same passion and kindness in my students. This new program focuses specifically on three comprehensive units: Human Rights, Animal Protection and Environmental Ethics. Students learn information through an inquiry-based model wherein they research sub-topics within each unit and present their findings to the class. This allows students to discover information on their own, making the impact even more powerful. SJ students recently held a Social Justice fair at lunch, for which student and community groups tabled about different issues; they started the LCC Sweat-Free campaign to help our school transition to producing sweatshop-free apparel; and, they’re holding a school-wide showing of the film "Invisible Children.” (To watch a short video and learn more about how humane education is taking hold through our work at La Costa Canyon, please
visit: LccSocialJustice.com.)
Through the M.Ed. program at IHE I have become more adequately prepared to serve my students and to explore issues that I had previously known little about.
I am always working on new projects and programs, writing, practicing Jiu-Jitsu, traveling abroad and someday will have an eco-helping home founded on the principles outlined in William McDonough’s Cradle to Cradle.
August 30, 2008 - 8:30 am to August 31, 2008 - 4:00 pm | Location: Farm Sanctuary
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