Mike Seymour
M.S.
Mike Seymour, M.S., has been associated with K-12 education since 1990, most recently in his role as President and Co-Director of The Heritage Institute. Mike is also the founder and Director of a non-profit sponsored by The Heritage Institute, Youth for a New World, which engages youth in global issues and local solutions. Earlier Mike was a consultant and trainer to schools, school districts and Educational Service Districts on such diverse subjects as leadership, visioning and planning and at-risk students. Mike has been board member, Chairman of the Board and volunteer Executive Director of Community for Youth, a highly innovative and successful mentoring program for disadvantaged students in three of Seattle’s most low-performing high schools. Mike authored a text—Educating for Humanity: Rethinking the Purposes of Education—calling on a new vision for education, showing how important the stakes are today for an integral education realizing the interconnectedness of the world. Mike’s Awakening Self blog speaks about the important historic shift humanity is going through in our times, and how awakening into a new consciousness is a global phenomenon. Mike also authored a book about his work in Burundi, East Central Africa with a peacemaker, Priosper Ndabishuriye,
As part of Mike’s dedication to environmental causes he attended in 2013 the Climate Reality training given by Al Gore and his organization, and subsequently created an online course titlede CLIMATE CHANGE FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS, instructed by Charity Staudenraus.
Mike has a special interest in open, democratic forms of education that allow students to engage in real world issues. Mike has a B.S. in Comparative Literature from Columbia University and a M.S. in Marriage & Family Therapy from Seattle Pacific University.
Mike has created or contributed to the development of many Heritage Institute courses, the latest of which is a course instructed by Brenda McKinney on Mindfulness. Mike has over 40 years of experience in Buddhist and Christian meditation.
Offered Courses
HAVING THE LIFE YOU WANT
Course No. ED481V, ED581V
Humanity is on a consumption binge. It’s not going well and it’s not sustainable. We Americans are leading this binge followed closely by China and India, two countries that constitute almost 1/3 of the world population. We all need to slow down, take a breath, and ask ourselves what’s really important.
At our current rate we will see continued environmental and societal decline. The poorest in the world are paying the price for our over-consumption. Poor nations are burdened by parched earth in which nothing can be planted, others by rivers that are overflowing and destroying villages. In developed countries the rates of anxiety and depression in children and adults continue to rise creating huge stress on national health systems.
In this course, teachers will learn strategies and access resources that help them convey to students at all levels K-12 what it means to be a conscientious and healthy member of the global community. We need to look at what it means to be a citizen of the world, by taking responsibility for the impact of our actions on people near and far as we develop healthy lifestyles, and healthy social networks.
