Jamie Johnson
March 30, 2011
Environmental Education: Which Side of the Fence Are You On?
Everyone believes their child should have a quality education, right? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but not everyone believes that, when it comes to environmental education. I believe that environmental education is just an important, if not more important in today’s world, than the standard reading, writing, and arithmetic that is taught in schools in grades K-12. I am a strong believer that in order for our children to grow up strong, well educated and well rounded they need to be exposed to some sort of environmental education, preferably at the youngest age possible. If you are opposed to, or in favor of environmental education, I would advise that you keep reading. Even if you don’t know about this sometimes heated debate you may want to read on to get informed about the issue. Please enjoy!
I am an environmental interpreter and educator at the Seacoast Science Center in New Hampshire. I have been working here for a little over a year now, and have found this to be one of the greatest experiences of my life. This is the job that I always dreamed of having when I was in college. The job had brought me new experiences, new friends and acquaintances, and an even greater love for the marine environment and children. All of these things are great, but as with most professions, there are some challenges to be being an environmental interpreter and educator.
I was teaching a 5th grade class a lesson about the importance of protecting the world’s coral reefs last week. Everything was going great. I was having a blast, and it seemed that most of the children were too. We were doing really fun hands on activity and everyone was getting involved and seemed to be enjoying themselves. All was going well, until one of the children raised his hands and said, “my mom and dad told me that environmental education isn’t important and that it should not be part of this school’s curriculum.” I was somewhat shocked, but at the same time I knew that some time during my career I would face a road block similar to this one. Here is where the difficult part of my career began, and I knew I would face many more situations similar to this one in the future.
Why on earth would someone tell their child that that environmental education isn’t important? The debate of environmental education is very much played out in the media. There are such critics as Rush Limbaugh, and ABC news reporter John Stossel. They, among other critics, believe that environmental education is not faced based, but based upon emotions. They feel that environmental educators use the “doom and gloom” approach to try to get people to ‘think’ that there is an environmental problem occurring. They say that environmental educators teach children that humans are a nuisance on this planet and that plants and animals are more important. This garbage that the media is feeding parents across the county is what is causing this debate. Then the parents pass this nonsense on to their children and it can seem like a never ending cycle.
I hope that this does not discourage current and/or future environmental educators or interpreters. I certainly have not let it get in my way of finding a career that I absolutely love. Each day I wake up and think about all the people, especially children that will hopefully have a positive learning experience in the out of doors. I hope you enjoyed my story and that you continue to do research to form your own opinion about this very important debate.
3 comments:
Great personal connection, Jamie! Thanks for this post.
It's easy to believe that such "forward" thinkers such as Rush and the rest would only choose to showcase the 'doom and gloom' aspect of environmental education to fit into what their audience wants to hear. The truth is that environmental education, particularly for children, is not at all about doom and gloom! It's about learning about your surroundings, the natural world and its systems, and the creatures that inhabit them. Nature and all that it offers us is fundamental to our being human, whether you choose to exploit it or conserve it. People like Rush and the rest, as well as those who use environmental programs to preach their doom and gloom, need to stop making everything political and one sided. Once we can look past our petty differences, maybe we can realize that nature is worth our attention.
Great post; yes, people need to realize that environmental concerns ARE important and necessary especially in recent times. It baffles me that people would so easily buy into such claims against environmental matters. While I definitely agree that humans can be a nuisance on this planet (mainly as our population and technology increase steadily), I have rarely (if ever) see environmental educators taking this strict viewpoint. It is a great topic to debate between adults as well as peers/friends, but it generally doesn’t come out that blunt to public receptors. Many of these people that tend to embrace pitches from critics such as mentioned in this blog post, can too easily be influenced by political views along with chasing that almighty dollar and only giving a damn about the property/belongings they own and their immediate family(not giving any concern to these other issues). “Why should we care for environmental matters, c’mon we own it anyway…it’s here for us!"
Adults and children alike need to be acquainted and informed about modern day troubles and the fact that this human lifestyle is unsustainable. We dearly rely on nature and everything about it, yet it gets shoved to the back in many individual’s minds and so obviously exploited. This is a huge frustration for environmentally-minded folks and sometimes it really makes you feel like there is little hope, but recent progress in this field is great and regardless we must keep chipping away. Even though I am not an EE by specific training, I plan on helping out and raising awareness as much as I can.
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