Beautiful Friendships is dedicated to giving parents the tools they need to raise creative and compassionate children from the time they are very young. Our programs are based on the principles of Humane Education, which is an emerging field that seeks to educate others about the connections between different types of oppression and empower them to make a difference in the world through their everyday choices.

Humane Education takes a multi-faceted approach to understanding the problems that face our planet today. For young children, the most vital components include refining the 3 R’s of reverence, respect and responsibility, and cultivating the 3 C’s of creativity, curiosity and critical thinking. We also emphasize the importance of self-education and positive lifestyle choices for parents.

We strongly believe that in order to raise humane children, we need to raise our children humanely. That means we need to critically examine the things we say and do with our children to make sure we are modeling the qualities we are looking to instill in them, such as respect and kindness. The skills that we learn from practicing loving discipline with our children day-to-day can give us the techniques we need to approach everyone around us with the same patience and positive regard that we are cultivating within our families.

We recognize that all families are different. Everyone has different constraints in terms of time, energy and money, and everyone has different priorities. Taking the time to learn about the issues is a great first step towards making a difference, even if you aren’t ready to make too many lifestyle changes yet. Our goal is to help you learn more about issues that are important to you and ideas for ways to live your values.

Photo by Karen Parker