To help give the young people of New Zealand, through positive health-based education, the knowledge and skills to raise their awareness, to live a fulfilling and healthy life.
As children grow they face a number of negative influences that can over time have an extremely negative effect changing their desires and leading, in the worst cases, to personal and social problems associated with poor health, low self-esteem and abuse of people and substances.
Life Education is a non-profit organisation. We teach health to over 200,000 primary and intermediate school children each year. We go into schools by invitation, not by right. We are linked into the school curriculum.
Life Education is a preventative approach. We teach children about the wonder of life, themselves, and other people, with the aim of showing them how to reach their full potential. It is a totally positive approach. Life Education does not necessarily work on changing children's behaviour, it works on changing desires. Rather than frightening children with various forms of scare tactics, the Life Education philosophy focuses on creating a sensitivity to values which lead to an understanding and appreciation of human life. This enables the child to make decisions about any negative influences that might impede the development of their fullest potential.
We do this by taking children on an adventure in a mobile classroom that is equipped with sophisticated sight and sound techniques to capture children's imaginations. Our educators (registered teachers) take children on this journey, along with Harold the Giraffe, our mascot. These educators are chosen for their x-factor and together with Harold make the journey fun as well as educational.
Sometimes I look about me with a feeling of complete dismay. In the confusion that conflicts the world today, I see a disrespect for the very values of life. Beauty is all around us, but how many are blind to it! They look at the wonder of this earth and seem to see nothing. Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them: do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. And look at your body - what a wonder it is! Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must cherish one another. You must work - we all must work - to make this world worthy of its children. Pablo Casals