Brian Sontag
March 1, 2013
Sustainability Education
Dr. Fortun
Sustainability Education Midterm
1. Describe ten influences on US children that shape their environmental attitudes.
Children in the United States are bombarded with opinions and messages from the time they are born. Unfortunately, childhood is also the most impressionable point in a person’s life. It comes at a point when they are trying to form their own opinions in life, but do not yet know how to analyze this information. Environmental attitudes are a difficult issue for adults to deal with, so when dealing with children, it can become even more difficult.
The most common influence on children is from their parents and society. In the documentary, “A Class Divided”, many of the children had racist feelings towards African Americans. When they were put in a similar situation, the students began to realize that there was no reason for them to harbor those feelings. The only reason they felt that way was because they had observed their parents and other members of society acting that way (A Class Divided, 1985). This holds true when dealing with environmental issues. If a family member lauds the benefits of oil while simultaneously making disparaging comments about wind power, that child will be ill-informed and harbor negative feelings towards wind power.
According to “What is Project-Based Learning,” students learn much better when they are working collaboratively on a project (Kuna, 2012). This allows them to develop analytical skills which will allow them to more easily develop their own opinions. Additionally, this allows for the critical thinking skills that are necessary for figuring out the root causes of environmental impact. The Media Literacy Project points to the role of media in influencing people’s opinions. People often take the source of the information for granted (The Media Literacy Project). For instance, “Toxic Sludge is Good for You” points to instances in which a public relations representative of a company produces a full news segment which then airs verbatim (Toxic Sludge is Good for You, 2002). There is absolutely no indication that this was not original reporting by the media organization. If the media airs information casting the environment in a negative light, children would often simply take it as a fact. The same documentary raises the issue of government policy. This often will go unnoticed because the child will not directly interact with this, but its effects could be even greater than other influences. For example, Food Libel Laws make it illegal to make disparaging comments about the food industry, even if it is a clear cut case of abuse by the food industry. Oprah Winfrey was involved in a large lawsuit stemming from her comments about mad cow disease and the meat industry (Toxic Sludge is Good for You, 2002). She ultimately won, but the case was long and grueling, effectively scaring away future opponents. The child would then not even have an opportunity to learn about the potential health impacts of food if the government is so closely regulating the expression of the media on the topic.
Childhood experiences can have a profound impact on children. By interviewing various environmentalists in the United States and Norway, it was determined that this was only one of many reasons for their sensitivity towards the environment (Klossman Agyeman, 2002) Similarly strong is experiencing their environment being destroyed. This would release a strong emotional response by the children. Once something is destroyed that they care about, it becomes obvious to the child that something must be done. Much like negative views held by families, positive influences can be equally important. A simple example is when a parent begins a recycling routine in their household. This will make the child not think twice about recycling. It will become engrained within them. When a young person sees people standing up for their opinions, they tend to take notice. This can be very apparent when an environmental organization takes a stand for protecting the environment that the child holds dear. This will cause the child to experience positive emotions towards the organization. In the future, they will be more likely to trust and understand the opinions of other environmental groups (Kollmuss Agyeman, 2002). Just like the environmental groups, role models are just as influential on a child’s life. This can even be true outside of their immediate circle of friends and family. If a young boy or girl looks up to a baseball player, they may be more likely to try and follow in their footsteps because they idolize them. This isn’t dissimilar to the education system. When students go to school every day they do not necessarily have a choice about what they do. They are subject to whatever curriculum is available, and however the instructor teaches them. (Kollmuss Agyeman, 2002) This could easily work both ways with regards to environmental curriculum. It depends on which case is being looked at. In conclusion, while children are highly impressionable at such a young age, this is not necessarily a bad thing. There are many sources in a child’s life that can convolute the message of sustainability. However, they could just as easily be taught about the positives of the environment and how to live sustainably.
2. Describe the message and supporting examples in each of the three sections of Education for a Sustainable Future.
Education for a Sustainable Future delves into the various circumstances that are negatively affecting our children’s ability to learn. Unlike many other accounts of the education system, they break it down into three easy-to-understand parts: the education system today, current relevant information in the field, and potential solutions to the issues at hand (Hallatt Hallatt, 2012). One of the major issues with the education system nowadays is that everything is declarative to the students. They are supposed to take what is told to them at face value without question. This lack of critical thinking effectively stifles an opportunity that the children have to escape the system of regurgitation that they currently follow (Hallatt Hallatt, 2012).
Teachers are often an underappreciated and underpaid resource in the United States. This is a very dangerous situation because teachers can single-handedly affect the outcome of future citizens. Unlike the current system where competition is the norm, cooperation should be the new standard. Children have been shown to perform better when they all play a cooperative game than when they much challenge each other (Hallatt Hallatt, 2012). They really excel when they challenge themselves. It nourishes the critical thinking that is severely lacking. This is much more important than making them masters of a certain subject matter. Their thinking should not be driven by the answers, but the inverse. The questions are what really matters when it comes to understanding the world.
Despite the current environment of schools, there are some proposed solutions. One interesting example is to nurture empathy in the children. This will teach the children that certain actions do not only affect themselves, but those around them too. Empathy will also teach them that some of those outcomes will negatively affect other people. The Roots of Empathy Program brings babies into schools to have the students try to understand what the child is going through (Hallatt Hallatt). They also switch the nationality and culture of the family to show to the students that everybody is the same. People have the same emotions, wants, and needs wherever they are from. Another possible solution is to involve the parents in the debate. Scientists believe that by including the parents in children’s learning, the child will have the opportunity to educate the parent. So if the child is being taught about sustainability, the parent in turn could also learn about it. These possible solutions will allow children to begin to question the world around them, think creatively, and potentially solve new world crises.
3. Describe what a well-designed, culturally inflected green school building would look like in the United States, in a region of your choice.
If I were going to choose to design a culturally inflected green school, I would personally turn to a region that doesn’t have as much cultural influence as other regions (in the hope of creating a new positive culture). For a region, I would choose a forested region of Maine, and I would make it a boarding school so children would be able to attend from many different cultures around the world. The goal of the school would be to teach children to be harmonious with both the nature around them and their fellow classmates. The benefit of living in a forested area of Maine is that the building materials would be readily available, and living in the environment would mean that the school could be a caretaker for the forest. This would allow them to replant the trees that have been harvested for building.
Much like The Druk White Lotus School in Ladakh, the school would feature a system of windows with vents to be able to control the temperature (Decana, 2007). The benefit of Maine is that the windows will mostly need to heat the building instead of worrying about keeping it cool. The bathrooms of the school would also mimic Ladakh because this is often the cause for a lot of the waste at large gathering points (Decana, 2007). Unlike Ladakh, there could be further use for the waste in the pits though. These could be used to begin a sustainable farm on the campus, there may be some initial opposition from people stating their worries about the health of the people, but it is no different than traditional animal fertilizer. Growing a large portion of the food supply will be better for their environment because trucks will not need to ship in all of the necessary food. Water could be gathered from a well like Ladakh, or if the school were near a river, a simple purification system could be used to make the water safe to drink (Decana, 2007).
One of the best things about the Ladakh school is its sense of community. I would definitely want to have a communal gathering area so the school doesn’t feel like a set of classrooms, but instead an actual community. Children would be able to share their experiences from their own culture because I believe that this is a very important aspect for children to learn. If they know that other people around the world share similar experiences and lives to their own, they would have empathy for what happens around the world. If children care about their fellow citizens, then important advancements can finally be made towards global unity.
4. Describe the premises and dimensions of project-based education, providing concrete examples of how it has been used.
Project-based learning is a unique take on the current educational system. Instead of having children simply regurgitate information, it focuses on teaching them to think for themselves, and more importantly, to think critically. The idea is essentially to give the students a task that they are to achieve. Unlike traditional schooling, it is not black or white. They have free reign on how they choose to approach the topic. Instead of pitting the students against each other, they form a group to work towards a common goal. According to the Buck Institute for Education, there are six main pillars: in-depth inquiry, driving question, public audience, revision and reflection, voice and change, and need to know (Buck Institute for Education). They believe that by following those simple steps, a real group project could emerge. A key aspect is to always have more questions than you possibly have answers because this will always drive you to want to know even more.
Another key aspect of project-based learning is the importance of dealing with other opinions. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the Sustainability Workshop in Philadelphia. This organization takes students from every different background imaginable, and puts them all together to try to reach new heights. They put all of the decisions into the hands of students (Melean, 2012). A very interesting aspect of project-based learning is that failing at something is not frowned upon. On the contrary, it is viewed as yet another opportunity to learn. One project that was undertaking was created by a student of the Sustainability workshop named Alejandra Melean. Along with her group, they were able to identify a problem that they saw in their community. They noticed that there was a lack of understanding in Philadelphia and instead of just making note of it for somebody else to deal with; they actually created a plan for a solution. They created their own textbook that celebrates all of the differences in Philadelphia. They also show how immigrants have positively impacted their community (Melean, 2012). Just like with West Philly High, the X-prize contest allowed the students to have a goal to reach. It pulled them away from the streets and made them begin to care about school once more (Frontline, 2012).
There are many positive aspects to project based learning. According to the study by James Anderson students perform much better than their peers in a traditional system. On average, students achieved higher test scores while also being better at critical thinking. This critical thinking will allow students to identify a problem in nature, such as air pollution and think of ways to achieve their goal (Anderson, 2012). If the world were to train all youth to think in that way, then there would be a much higher chance of solving the environmental crisis. One difficulty would be switching to the system to begin with because throwing a broad open ended issue to a student could be overwhelming to them. Another potential limitation would be that the students could obtain a false understanding of the information (Anderson, 2012). For example if one student has reached a separate conclusion that another person whose information is known to be true, that student will not necessarily know that they are wrong. It is possible to reverse that con however. It could be a valuable lesson to the student because often in the research world, it is not often apparent that you are right or wrong. If allow the student to collaborate and ask questions of other students, they could pool their understanding and collective knowledge into something greater than they may have been able to achieve individually.