What Makes a Project Neohumanist?

Reflections from the Introductory NHE Teacher Preparation Course

By Ruai Rekha Gregory and Didi Ananda Devapriya

Developing neohumanist insights – from the “Voice” in Australia to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

We just completed co-teaching NHE 100: Introduction to Neohumanist Philosophy, for the new cohort of 32 students in the NHE Teacher Preparation online program offered through Gurukula and the Neohumanist College of Asheville. It was a very exciting learning experience. The students reflectively read and analyzed the seminal text of neohumanist philosophy, “Liberation of Intellect” by Shrii P.R. Sarkar. They practiced applying the process of rationalistic thinking described in the text, looking for examples from history and current events that illustrated its key concepts. For example, in Week Five, the online discussion forum questions were:

• Take a piece of news from current events and paste a link to an article / video you will be analyzing from a neohumanist perspective.
• Apply the steps of rationalistic mentality to fact check, and to uncover hidden sentiments or logical fallacies distorting it.

Good, valuable service projects vs neohumanist projects:

While there are many ways to serve the world that are important, rewarding and valid, we wanted to differentiate the elements that make a project truly “neohumanist” in its impact. For example, during a humanitarian relief operation, it is important to address the immediate and urgent basic needs that save lives: search and rescue, medical care, food, water, safe shelter etc. There are many humanitarian relief operations that may serve thousands of people with urgently needed services and are extremely relevant and needed. However, they do not necessarily contain a neohumanist dimension, nor do they need to in order to be worthwhile. Similarly, programs that feed the homeless or distribute blankets are a simple, rewarding kind of service to engage in, as those providing the service have the opportunity to do something direct, immediate and tangible. Someone who was hungry had a meal, someone who was cold had a blanket. However, once again, most of the time, such projects do not empower those served, or have a transformative neohumanist impact. It is a kind of service that treats the symptoms of a complex problem in a straight-forward, kind and compassionate way, but it does not attempt to address the underlying causes. In some cases, there can even be the risk that it enables dysfunctional patterns to persist. For example, it is important to be aware of the risks of participating in a power dynamic in which those being served are only the recipients of a service, and thus in a position of relative inferiority, dependency and potentially even pity. Pity is a trap which distances and reinforces the powerlessness of those helped. Such a dynamic can further disempower those that are already vulnerable.

On the positive side, however, simple distribution initiatives mobilize those engaging in such services into action and help them step out of inertia, cynicism and indifference, which can be a powerful, transformative experience for volunteers. It does not require specialized skills, so it is an easy and accessible form of volunteering. Also, when volunteers use the opportunity to individually understand and connect with those being served, it can also be an important way to become more empathic and understand the personal dimension of a phenomenon like homelessness.

So what are the characteristics that make a project neohumanist?

When speaking of neohumanist projects, most of those engaged in the Neohumanist Education movement immediately think of kindergartens and schools. These are indeed, one of the most concrete, important and direct ways to contribute towards awakening neohumanist consciousness in the next generation. However, we wanted to challenge and expand the definition of neohumanist projects beyond schools, to include other types of scalable initiatives.

Utilizing the framework of “Liberation of Intellect”, for the purpose of the exercise, we defined neohumanist projects as ones that address one or more of the following systemic issues:

• Geo and socio-sentiments: Overcoming limiting and divisive geo and socio sentiments and encouraging universal unity and inclusion (projects that work on overcoming stereotyping, prejudices, hate speech, geo-political conflict, racism, sexism etc.)
• Humanism to neohumanism: Expanding love, protection and rights to nature and other beings (projects that challenge anthropocentrism)
• Pseudoculture: Projects that awaken critical reflection abilities to recognize manipulative strategies or cultural projects that by contrast, transmit subtle ideas and values, preserve traditional heritages etc. (projects that train critical thinking abilities like media literacy, cultural projects)
• Cynicism: Overcoming the disempowering effects of the bondage of cynicism (projects that engage people to take an active and empowered relationship to the world, cultivate of leadership qualities, activist training)
• Devotional sentiment: Finding common ground to address and value the spiritual dimension of human existence across different cultural, religious and personal perspectives that have historically led to divisions

Adding neohumanist dimensions to traditional service projects:

Although earlier in the article we mentioned that humanitarian projects usually focus on direct assistance, when AMURTEL Romania began work within the Ukrainian Refugee Response, the donor organisation we worked with was very progressive and proactive in its thinking and already encouraged us at the outset of the war to build into our response “social cohesion” events. The concept of social cohesion is an NGO term that addresses the need to make conscious efforts to overcome the natural formation of divisive socio-sentiments that tend to create resentment towards an influx of new arrivals into any society. It also addresses pseudoculture by using authentic forms of cultural exchange to build relationships and respect between refugee and host community populations. In this way, it was possible to bring a neohumanist dimension into the project that went beyond the main focus of the project, to connect refugees to needed resources. The fact that we also formed the team of outreach workers by hiring Ukrainian women that were themselves refugees, was also an approach designed to empower and ensure that services met the refugees’ actual needs, not just what outsiders imagine or project.

Similarly, there are projects for homeless people that facilitate their publishing and selling a newspaper of their own articles. This allows them a dignified way to earn money, rather than begging, and raises more empathic awareness about their actual, human stories and challenges stereotypes, cynicism and indifference.

Developing a neohumanist project outline:

Once students had identified the type of issue they wanted to work on we asked them to narrow it down. “Identify a problem in the world that you are personally interested in and passionate about helping to change. A good problem is one that is specific, that you have knowledge about, and that you can do something concrete about.” The next step was to decide on the target group: “who will you be working with directly?”, such as “30 kindergartners and their families in Bucharest, Romania”. Students were then asked to describe their main goal for the project—in a specific, realistic, and achievable way. They then listed specific activities that would help them achieve their goal. “Outline a few specific project activities that you can do, in your field of work (whether in education, social work, artistic, cultural or another field of activity) that would help to make a positive difference in achieving the goal.”

The results of this assignment were truly inspiring! In many cases we encouraged students to develop their ideas further and go for it, and some projects are already moving forward. Students have the option to develop them further for their “capstone” project, which is their final assignment for the 2-year Teacher Preparation certificate program.

Exciting plans for future neohumanist projects:

All of the projects proposed were inspiring and brought in empowering angles. Here is a small sample of project titles and problems students addressed:

• • Pribumi and Chinese: In Java Indonesia, the Chinese Christian minority and Javanese Muslim majority often stereotype each other and lack true empathic connections because of socio-sentiments. The project would take place in a small Chinese Christian kindergarten, inviting a guest who is Pribumi Muslim to get to know the children as a friend, discover similarities and empathic connection, and to challenge critical thinking about socio-sentiments with accurate information.

• • Kids who love football: This project would build friendship and connections between refugees and their host community through a local football program.

• • Harmonizing similarities in cultural diversity between Ezio and Ezzat in Ishielu local Government in Ebonyi state – Nigeria: This project would aim at reducing discrimination through designing a three-day sensitization on the similarities of these communities as well as differences and solutions.

• • Stage clear for: neohumanism! Ways to make art meaningful: this project addressed the rise of cynicism and the mental health crisis amongst youth in particular and aimed to inspire theater students to use their art to make a positive change with cultural evenings and exchanges.

• • Lobbying for mindfulness skills in Finnish schools: This ambitious and visionary project would target policy makers and network with other associations to bring mindfulness skills into the national quality standards and didactic materials. Its focus is on formulating an approach to recognizing and nurturing the spiritual dimension of a child’s development in culturally appropriate ways that are universally acceptable in a secularized society.

• • Ubuntu Junior School, Uganda: To offer kindergarten children the opportunity to learn how they can create their own source of food and shelter. This project would not only give children the opportunity to establish a deeper connection with nature, it would also teach them practical and empowering skills in cultivating their own food.

• Strengthening Resilience and Social Awareness in Children Through the Lens of Political Science in Myths and Art: This project aims to contrast shallow pseudoculture with ancient, traditional mythology, while at the same time teaching them critical thinking by posing questions about universal human experiences that can be observed operating in the myths (exploitation, harassment, different types of leaders and societies, etc.).

There were many more excellent projects reflecting neohumanist themes with originality, depth, and interesting insights.