The Effects Of Environmental Education On The Environment

As you can clearly see the early Native Americans culture regarding the surrounding ecosystem would probably horrify many ecologists upon first look, but perhaps if we look deeper we can learn a truer meaning to the idea of environmentalism. If we plan to sustain the resources of the earth for our children we must find a balance and end the selfish taking of resources. We can learn much from this

“The most practical and the most feasible solution offered, and the one on which this paper will center, involves the schoolyard. The schoolyard habitat movement, which promotes the “greening” of school grounds, is quickly gaining international recognition and legitimacy.” This quote touches on the fact that currently our schools need to “greened” meaning nature needs to be implemented not on the sidelines of fields but rather right in the center for kids to explore. There are many studied showing how children’s connection with nature at a young age helps them have a strong connection with nature along with having better health and lesser chances of depression. There are many organizations such as the National Wildlife Federation, Council for Environmental Education, American Forest Foundation, Britain-based Learning through Landscapes, Canadian-based Evergreen, and Swedish-based Skolans Uterum, that have all expresses interest in helping out with this cause. A theory that is very interesting that relates to this issue is a theory by Edward Wilson from Harvard. He had a theory that he named biophilia. Basically what this theory was about was that all people are simply drawn to nature by their very instinct. This quote has a lot of truth to it. Almost all

In his 2008 novel, Last Child in the Woods, journalist and natural idealist Richard Louv demonstrates the effect that separation from nature has on children. Using a variety of rhetorical strategies, Louv reminds the different parents, as agree cohort which adapted alongside new technology, of the benefits they received from nature prior to the technological revolution. Louv persuades them to instill an appreciation of the natural world in their children, even if such appreciation deviates from societal norms.

Nowadays, children have become very dependent on technology, rather than observing the world around them. Richard Louv's, "Last Child in the Woods" excerpt portrays to readers that children, nowadays, aren't being given the opportunities nor choosing to embrace nature for themselves. Instead, they're using technology to sort of "mask" reality. Louv provides logical reasoning, real examples, and emotional and relative connections with the reader to strengthen his opinion on this topic. The title, "Last Child in the Woods", also assists with the emphasis that children aren't embracing nature. Author Richard Louv effectively uses rhetorical strategies in this excerpt from "Last Child in the Woods" to emphasize the importance of embracing "true" nature.

Nature should play a massive role in a kid’s life. Even though, in today’s society, it is hard to do so. Being

“I like to play indoors better, ‘cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.” [RL 10] This quote said from a fourth grader shows that children have become more attached to electrical technology then to be outdoors. Many are now suffering from what is called a “Nature Deficit Disorder.” “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv is based upon the disconnection that society has established with nature. He shows how that suspension made with nature has brought an escalating rate of depression, anxiety, ADHD, obesity, and much more. Throughout the story Louv expounds on how nature could be the cure to those symptoms. He even presents all the benefits that being connected to nature could bring. Furthermore into the book, Louv explains how

Along with my love for the environment came a pain in watching it suffer around the world as human development encroached onto once untouched regions. I felt powerless and desperate to somehow use my individual influence, no matter how small, to slow the damage to the planet and lessen the impact a growing population was having as we dive deeper for resources.

The statistics and facts I learned from that class were really eye openers to the world around me.” On the outside of a educational setting, people are still trying to promote the change towards bettering the environment. Carol, a mother, teaches her children and others to, “respect the value of our natural resources, and for all things in life.” Carol uses her experience with education to help teach others about respecting and valuing the earth.

Place-Based education has been valuable throughout in schools and developing children education. The goal of place education is to serve as a learning organization for program developers, fueling internal growth and program development for the individual organizations. Nonetheless develop an identity, disseminate evaluation techniques, tools and approaches that can be applied elsewhere; and contribute to the research base underlying the field of place-based education and school change (peecworks.org). It has focused on using the local community as an integrating context for learning. This allows students to explore the world around them. Students will gain experience in the real world and face different issues that might not be taught in the schools. Moreover, learning the culture that students live in can give a history to how their area grew into what it is today. One of the key factors that can be used to be help elementary, middle and high school in the Sewanee area is The Annenberg Rural Challenge.

Despite being an environmental studies major, I would be lying if I said that the environment and nature has always had a huge role in my life. The only reason I became interested in the “environment” was when I found out about environmental justice and environmental racism. In other words, because of people. Before I made that connection sometime in high school, I, like many others, never viewed “nature” as something that should be, rather something that just was. Appreciating nature was a subjective value that I had no particular interests in. Because of this, although I am now what I consider a fully-committed and passionate environmentalist, Last Child in the Woods by Richard Lou was difficult for me to read because it pointed out how

Our education should be aimed at educating people who love the world they lie in and who are ready to become peacemakers and healers of the world (Orr 55). A sustainable society “consists” of citizens, workers, specialists, technicians, etc, who are ready to work in order to build and support such society. One of the ways to provide such education is to “get outdoor”. The skills and abilities develop in real world and not in artificial situations in class. In this regard, we may refer to the Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. One should “touch” the real world problems and get personal experience from it. Shadows in the cave are the retrospectives of the real knowledge. To acquire the knowledge, we should leave the “cave”. We can learn theory separated from practice and this will not have any result. Instead, we should understand that every individual is a part of the natural world, thus, education should be based on ecological literacy as “health of our planet” is one of the most urgent questions of the modern social community.

Grigg and Lewis (2016, p. 19) define learning outside the classroom as “children learning about people, their heritage and the natural environment, largely through play and first-hand experiences, in a wide range of contexts beyond the classroom.” Learning outside the classroom enables teachers to bring the curricula alive by integrating the school grounds and the local landscape into their teaching (Beames et al., 2012). It is important that children are given more opportunities to explore the natural world as there is no doubt that there are many benefits to outdoor learning. Furthermore, according to the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto:

This should be firmly implanted in a child’s mind so that he may constantly be aware that man has a special responsibility to protect Nature. Students should be made aware of their responsibility and duty towards protecting nature and prevent its wanton destruction which unfortunately seems to be order of the day. Some simple practices like encouraging planting of trees periodically in their neighbourhood, watering the plants and nurturing them, digging pits for rain water harvesting should be taught. These and other would foster in a child caring and sharing attitude towards nature and life on earth and a deep appearance of the flora and fauna.

This essay will review two significant environmental experiences I have encountered exploring the influences of these my life and how these have altered my view on what is environmental sustainability. An examination into these two experiences will follow into reviewing my perspectives on environmental sustainability and how these two experiences influenced this. To conclude a discussion on my role as a teacher and how this will impact myself when in the classroom.

As a 17-year old teenager going to high school, contrary to the environmental activist, David Suzuki’s, remarks about the ignorance of humans about nature, I receive much information about these kinds of problems at my school, from dedicated assemblies, eco fairs and special days that address our responsibility to deal with nature in a more responsible fashion. Yet, when the school day is over, all of the information seeps out of the roof of the school; plastic water bottles are still found in the corners of hallways and leftover Tim Hortons cups are still present in the desks of my former Business class. Even when I step inside the door of my house, the disconnection from nature is apparent. Most of my time at home is spent looking at a screen and doing homework and the only sign of nature would be the fly