For over 30 years, The Heritage Institute (THI) has been a leader in progressive continuing education programs for K-12 educators in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. Beginning in 1977 with a handful of field studies on the natural history of Washington state, our program has grown to include courses in most subject areas and teaching methodologies across the K-12 curriculum.

Our workshops and field studies are offered throughout the four northwestern states of Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho, while our distance education program reaches teachers around the US and the world. Global travel studies take groups of teachers to Asia, Hawaii, Europe and Central America for immersion studies in the natural and social history of other cultures.

Our philosophy of Educating for Humanity provides the framework and inspiration for our leading edge perspective on teaching and learning and for our vision of schools as enriching and productive learning environments for all children. Our goal is to renew teachers with learning experiences that empower them to inspire children with the joy of learning and a care for the whole community of life.

Our philosophy: Educating for Humanity

Educating for humanity is a necessity if we are ever to achieve meaning, heart, peace and sustainability for the human family. We must support wholeness within each person as a foundation to create unity between individuals, communities, nations, and between humans and the great natural web of life of which we are a part.

At the individual level, we seek to educate the humanity of each person, supporting them in discovering their own unique gifts and purpose, and fostering the growth of personal meaning and fulfillment. Individuals connected authentically to themselves are best able to relate meaningfully to others and contribute to social harmony.

At the collective level, educating for humanity means recognizing the interdependence and unity within the human family, acting consciously to address social and economic injustice of any form. It recognizes that we cannot have a true peace as long as crushing inequalities between people are allowed to persist, promoting envy, violence and leading to environmental destruction from the failure to achieve social cohesion and consensus.

At the other than human level, educating for humanity means realizing our interdependence with the natural world and our role as responsible members of the larger earth family. We must move away from a human-centered view of the natural world as a resource existing for the benefit of man, and begin listening to the language and wisdom of nature, according her rights at least equal to those we give ourselves.

Finally, at the spiritual level, educating for humanity defines being human as being one consciously with an underlying unity that gives varied but equal meaning to all of life. It means sensing and respecting the one spirit inherent in all of life, allowing us to celebrate the rich diversity of religious and spiritual expression and the spirit within all things.