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Educating for sustainability: Raising whole children

Educating for sustainability: Raising whole children

Raising whole children

Fyodor Dostoevsky said, "Beauty will save the world."

Expanding on the above thought, I wanted to share a story I read in The "Ecological Literacy".

Here is a story by Michael Ableman in his essay on "Raising Whole Children Is Like Raising Good Food...." consider this:

           

        Every evening we wrap up our new born son in his favourite wool blanket and ever so slowly walk the length of our farm saying good night to the chickens, touching the leaves on the asparagus, rubbing our faces on various herbs and flowers, and quietly sneaking up on the thousands of frogs that inhabit our pond.

            It's the same route each evening, but every walk reveals something new. Most nights just as we reach the farm-gate and turn to walk back home, young Benjamin's eyes have started to close as he is lulled and calmed by the life on the farm, which is also drifting into sleep.

            These walks include no talk, no explanations; there is no reading or study required to understand and learn from our experiences. But I am sure that young Benjamin is absorbing it all., even when his eyes are closed and he is asleep.

            But just as I immerse my young son in the natural circles of the farm as I give him responsibilities to care for some of the animals and plant life that exists on it, and feed and nourish him from it, our society must find ways to offer similar experiences to all families and communities.

            We have to deal with the world of worry in which so many of our young people live and the constant struggle between hope and despair by focusing on the small successes: on local and incremental change; one handful of seeds, one child, one garden at a time.

References and readings:

Dewey, J. (1929). Experience and nature. New York: Dover.

Orr, D. W. (1992). Ecological literacy: Education and the transition to a postmodern world. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Beauty WILL save the world!!

My grade 2 class showing love for Earth. Why won't these kids solve the problems of the world. They are already proactive.:) 

Fyodor Dostoevsky said, "Beauty will save the world."

"Eco-phobia" this word as I understand means "the fear of the environment". Actually Eco-phobia is more common in adults, youth and children than we think. I presume this is because we expose our children and students too early about the problems of the world - the problems that they think will end life on the planet.

Instead of instilling eco-phobia in kids, how about first making children fall in love with Earth -their planet and if we can do this successfully they will know the problems themselves. Children are experts at creating visions of places they've seen only in their imagination- places made real by the act of creation. Imagine what they could do when they are exposed to wonder and not catastrophe.

In recent years environmental education has too often focused on environmental problems and crisis such as pollution and species extinction. David Sobel says, "Emphasizing environmental problems with children, especially young ones, can leave them feeling disempowered and hopeless about the state of the world and their ability to affect it". It is so true, I believe that if children can learn to love a place or their connection with mother Earth, they will naturally grow up to take care of her.

There is an organization called RIVERS OF WORDS (ROW) founded by Pamela Michael which practices place-based learning by inviting children to use the arts to explore and express their understanding of and connections to their home places. People at ROW believe that children who come to understand and to love their home places will grow into engaged, effective citizens committed to preserving those places.

Fyodor rightly said, "Beauty will save the world".

Appreciating the local environment - How do children connect?

Place based learning appears as a new concept that is being talked about in the education world, but actually it is not new. Real education that is practical and experiential needs to be rooted in the local environment. I will highlight some background on this topic from the pedagogical standpoint and then extend my point with examples of how I integrate this pedagogy in my practice.

Place-based education has many roots: from the age-old practice of learning from our surroundings, to the ideas of Dewey (1929) and Geddes (Higgins and Nicol, 2009). However the phrase became popular in the last two decades in the United States through the work of the Orion Society (2010) and educators such as Gruenewald (2003), Knapp (2001) and Smith (2002). Place-based education marks the development of environmental education to include local as well as global issues, and engage learners with the interdependence of ecological and community issues around them (Smith, 2002).

Place-based learning is a philosophy of education that uses the local community and surrounding environment as an integrating context for multidisciplinary learning. It is characterized by student-driven, project-based explorations of local environmental issues, social questions, cultural heritage, or civic leadership.

The approach to Educating for Sustainability, as stated by the Center of Ecoliteracy, follows the following guiding principles:

• Nature is our teacher

• Sustainability is a community Practice

• The real world is the Optimal Learning Environment

• Sustainable living is rooted in a deep knowledge of PLACE

We practice Place Based Learning by growing rice, taking care of the crop, harvesting it and finally storing, selling or consuming it - this is a possibility because we are in a rice producing area, i.e Bali. If you are in a wheat producing area then you can teach your child/children to grow, harvest and devour the local grain. Similarly children can grow vegetables that are suited to the local climate rather than always buying non seasonal vegetables from the market. Such real opportunities help children to connect with their local environment and they learn first-hand several key science concepts that cannot be substituted by reading or experimenting alone.

Last year my students extended their connection to the place by collaborating with the local school to address a very local problem of unmanaged waste in the neighborhood. When children connect to a place they can take proactive measures in finding solutions to issues out of love and compassion for the place, much like increasing awareness of waste management amongst students and teachers of local schools and being role models for them in the community. This type of contextualized learning and creative participation in the locality can provide opportunities for students to investigate and deepen their relationship to their home places.

As parents we can extend our children's learning in Bali by encouraging and participating in place-based activities like local ceremonies, rice plantings, and walking through the rice paddies. We can inculcate love for our locality and a feeling of belonging by interacting with the local population. Eating locally grown foods is beneficial for our health, economy, environment and spirit. Encouraging children to make paints from plants, take care of animals,  and collect seeds to re-grow them provides hands on nature based holistic enjoyment. These and many more activities provide experiences that create special meaning and memories for our children, nurturing their connection with the environment and place.

References:

American Institutes of Research. 2005. Effects of Outdoor Education Programs for Children in California. Sacramento.

Bai, H., & Scott, G. (2009). Touching the earth with the heart of enlightened mind: The Buddhist practice of mindfulness for environmental education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 14.

Cameron, J. I. (2003). Educating for place responsiveness: an Australian perspective on ethical practice. Ethics, Place & Environment 6(2), pp. 99-115.

Dewey, J. (1929). Experience and nature. New York: Dover.

Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place conscious education. American Education Research Journal 

Orr, D. W. (1992). Ecological literacy: Education and the transition to a postmodern world. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Hidden Curriculum - Can we educate for sustainability through the hidden curriculum?

Can we educate for sustainability through the hidden curriculum? What do you think?

I feel I always want to talk about this important element of our lives. LIVES- did I say LIVES! Yes, Our kids are influenced heavily by their environment. We are what we are because of the environment we grew up in, to most part of it, if not all. I still find myself exhibiting many of my parents' behaviours. What we present to our children implicitly is what I think I mean by 'hidden curriculum'.

I read an essay on "The Power of Words" by Earnest Callenbach. I found it very interesting and relevant to education and community. You may find it interesting too. Curriculum for the Center for EcoLiteracy means the totality of a student's experiences, a mix of content and context. Organizing classes around projects rather than academic subjects is curriculum. 

An overlapping term, " Hidden curriculum" coined by Briar Jackson in the 1960s is the aspect of schooling that is implicit, usually unintentional that plays a role in constructing a student’s image of self, others, and the world.   These hidden aspects of learning are generally value-based ideas communicated indirectly, through actions and words that are part of the everyday life for children in their school community.  The messages imparted through the hidden curriculum usually deal with attitudes, values, beliefs, and behavior. 

I could identify several examples of Hidden curriculum in all the schools I have worked at. What about soda vending machines in the hallways of schools that are trying to promote healthy eating! I read about what the Wichita tribe, a Native American Indian tribe did when constructing roundhouses. They built roundhouses (community houses) that fall apart every 20 years, the reason is simple, they want every generation to have a chance to rebuild it. " If you want to make a building last you do it one way, but if you want to make the knowledge last, you do it another way. There are so many examples of hidden curriculum, we can find in our daily lives in we look and in schools. In an article 'Raising Whole Children', by Michael Ableman: he writes that making learning implicit rather than explicit, helps children make connections with systems rather than in isolation.

The development of morals is rooted in relationship to other people, animals, and the natural world. This is related to the insight that we all gain together. This is why schools have the responsibility to be aware of what messages we impart to children about learning, life, relationships, and connection to the world around them.  The school framework and institutional design, how children are learning, and how they are assessed are all key functions of what children learn in the hidden curriculum.

I really believe that what teachers have to do mostly is be a good role model for their students. In one my earlier posts on 'teachers as role models...' I try to strive for this.