Humane Educator Debbie Gladwin with “Slow Moe”, by April Pedersen

Who Chains You Books loves to feature humane educators using our books in their programs. We asked Debbie Gladwin, founder of HumaneEducator.com, about her work for the animals and children, and how she finds our books useful. Here’s what she told us:

As a Certified Humane Education Specialist, I am always on the hunt for books with a humane education theme. At HumaneEducator.com, we often use animal themed literature. There is a unique bond between young people and animals that helps us to communicate empathy, compassion and respect for other living beings.

In our Bella’s Backyard Buddies program, we use many of the books published by Who Chains You Publishing. Books like Happy Dog: From Chained to Cherished, Sloe Moe: A Snail Tale and Doodle Bugs Second Chance are a part or our literature curriculum. They are perfect for read-alouds and compassion circle discussions. We have created art projects, writing activities, puzzles and games…all based on these animal-themed books.

We’ve created a body of curriculum based in part on the books and use them in a variety of environments like classrooms, after school programs, and service learning projects. These books make it easy for us to create activities that meet state academic standards and can easily be blended into an existing curriculum.

Debbie’s rescue pups waiting for their bedtime story!

They are also great for family time reading at home. I’ve been known to read these books to my own rescue dogs!

What I love about Who Chains You Books as part of our program is watching the faces of the audience of young people light up as they listen to the stories of compassion and caring. They want to help.

We love that the heroes and heroines of these inspirational books are compassionate and respectful activists who are role models for the young people we teach. We also love that the stories are about all kinds of animals…dogs, cats, horses…but goats, pigs, rats, mice, snails and birds too!

At HumaneEducator.com, we strive to provide young people with opportunities to develop critical thinking skills that will help them to make informed lifestyle choices. We help them to understand critical issues like animal abuse in a way that will help them to see that they can be a part of the solution instead of the problem.

Located in central Oklahoma, our mission is to empower students to understand the effect that their actions have on other people, animals and the environment. We give them the tools and skills they’ll need to make responsible lifestyle choices. In addition, we provide parent/caregiver training that empowers them to help the children in their lives to live with kindness, empathy and compassion. We partner with schools and individual educators to enable them to incorporate humane education principles into their existing academic curriculum and school culture.

Currently, we have three projects—Bella’s Backyard Buddies is our humane education literacy program. HumaneEducator.com is our character education program and BullyCrisis.com is our program designed to empower kids to be upstanders against bullying.

When I am not creating curriculum, searching for new ideas or attending events, I love spending time with my husband and three rescue fur babies. Charlie and Bella are my two senior dogs and Catboy is my senior cat who were all rescued while we were living in Southern California. My personal life goal is to partner with people, especially children, to help them to discover their own skills and talents and how they can use them to live socially responsible lives.

If you are interested in further information about our humane education programs, please contact us at any one of our websites: HumanEducator.com, BellasBackyardBuddies.com or BullyCrisis.com.

—Debbie Gladwin, founder, humaneeducator.com

P.S. We LOVE working with humane educators! We’ve created some amazing books—featuring animals and issues that haven’t been addressed elsewhere—but we partner with those doing the work in the field to bring the animals’ voices to the children. That’s why we always offer wholesale discounts for humane educators and nonprofits. Check out our program for humane educators here, http://whochainsyou.com/humane-ed.html, and drop us a line if you have other ideas for projects we can do together at info@whochainsyou.com.