The Failure of Environmental Education (And How We Can Fix It). Charles Saylan
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ingenuity was confused and shaken. It was that very same ingenuity, for the most part, that brought about this assault on nature.
We are both fortunate to have grown up with abundant opportunity to experience the wilderness in many forms, and we care deeply and personally that the opportunities we enjoyed will not be lost to children of future generations. Our children. Your children. Nature is a humbling force that teaches us we are all part of a greater system. Whether one chooses to believe that the origins of such complexity are random or divine is unimportant. Nature, a very different nature, will persist as some new balance sorts itself out. Evolution will proceed. It is humanity's place in the balance that is threatened.
Our perspective emerges from a combination of our two diverse backgrounds: Blumstein as scientist and educator, and Saylan as entrepreneur and, later, director of an environmental nonprofit. This diversity helps us approach this subject in a novel way. Each of us has worked toward raising public awareness of environmental issues in different ways. We have written popular articles, given public talks, and designed and implemented educational programs, albeit on a relatively small scale. We have repeatedly followed available funding, sometimes reformatting our programs to fit grantor's parameters and carefully wording our evaluations of program effectiveness in ways that would not jeopardize future opportunities by seeming negative. From very different experiences, and for very different reasons, we both arrived at the stark conclusion that both environmental education in its current state, and the institutions responsible for its implementation, do not effectively provide what is necessary to turn the tide of environmental deterioration. Importantly, we believe that this failing has not been widely recognized.
We firmly believe that change is not only possible but within reach if all of us begin to look at the problems differently and accept the collective and individual responsibilities required for wise stewardship of our earth. This, however, is no easy task. We hope future generations will have fish to eat, unpolluted water to drink, and a rich web of vibrant ecosystem services. We hope future generations will hike, bike, sail, and explore and enjoy what we so enjoyed growing up: open spaces, biodiversity, nature's processes. We hope this book helps achieve this vision.
CHAPTER ONE
The Problem(s)
Environmental education has failed to bring about the changes in attitude and behavior necessary to stave off the detrimental effects of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation that our planet is experiencing at an alarmingly accelerating rate.
For decades, scientists have warned of the potentially devastating consequences of climate change, and although it has become a highly politicized issue, serious problems still loom in earth's near future. A conservative approach would dictate that our societies act expediently to mitigate these potential threats. But that is not happening. Instead, we are all paralyzed by indecision, argument, misplaced politicization of the issues, and a widespread lack of commitment to change. The pace of environmental degradation, however, is not slowing.
This collective inability to act is brought about in part by educational institutions that generally do not provide the tools necessary for critical thinking and for understanding the modern world. Nor do they teach individual responsibility and social engagement, two fundamental tenets of free and democratic societies.
So what exactly is it that is failing? Is it environmental education or education as a whole? We believe they may, in fact, be one and the same. Although many consider environmental education to be a subheading of science education, it must be more than that. Not only must environmental education teach people about their physical environment, it must go further to teach how to live and flourish in sustainable ways. Environmental education has failed in part because of its limitations.
Who can be held responsible for this inefficacy? In fairness, the blame must be borne by everyone, as we are all responsible citizens of earth, whether or not we choose to acknowledge it. Each of us bears a moral responsibility to protect the resources that support life on our planet, not only for those we share the planet with, but also for those who will come after us. If our societies fail to do this, they fail humanity. People have the collective power to effect change on local and national levels alike. But that power must be realized and acted on by individuals, and we believe that education has a role in providing the skills to do so.
As parents, we must work to assure a safe and healthy future for our children. A future that includes time spent exploring wild places and learning about the creatures that inhabit them. A future that helps children learn who they are by connecting them to where they live.
As teachers, we should work toward providing students with the creative and analytical skills they will need to live good lives within whatever communities they choose. We should also strive to instill a creative curiosity about the world and an interest in learning that will remain with students throughout their lives. Just as important, we need to stay focused on improving the institutions in which we teach and our personal skills and abilities as well.
As students, we must hunger for more exposure to new and broader concepts. We must understand that we are authors of the future of our communities and nations, and that we possess the power to make ourselves heard and to effect change.
And as policy makers, we must listen carefully for the voice of the people and encourage participatory good citizenry at every opportunity.
What is needed is a modern, practical redefinition of environmental education. One that encompasses multidisciplinary teaching approaches. One that seeks to cultivate scientific and civic literacy. One that stimulates community engagement, fosters an understanding of moral systems, and reinforces the appreciation of aesthetics. We believe it is time for a full integration of environmental education in a form that inspires practical and critical reevaluation of education as a whole. We believe this reevaluation will lead to synergistic action and real impact.
The obstacles to such an educational approach are many and diverse. Understanding the complexity of the environmental problems facing our world requires a working knowledge of politics, consumption, the nature and state of educational and legislative institutions, effective metrics for measuring successes and failures, and a healthy dose of background information. Together, these ideas and disciplines will create a new vision of environmental education and environmental literacy.
Our societies increasingly seem to hunger for information in the form of distilled snippets and simple solutions, quickly expressed and easily digested. Perhaps, because of the barrage of information that confronts us all daily, the trend seems to be toward a synoptic world of bullet points and “elevator speeches.” But the problems affecting education, and consequently society, are too diverse to be assimilated quickly. If the solutions were simple, the problems would have been solved by now, and this book would not be necessary.
The arguments we will develop require some short-term faith on the part of the reader. We will, at times, go against the typical definitions and responsibilities of education. We may sometimes sound utopian as we offer diverse ideas on our duties as parents, educators, scientists, and citizens. Nevertheless, we strongly believe these things must be said and that a new approach for environmental education must emerge. We believe a comprehensive, integrated, revitalized, and revised environmental education is essential for the survival of us all.
We hope that humanity will flourish in increasing harmony with its surroundings. Humans are creatures of remarkable capacity and, without question, have the ability to find a sustainable place in this world. People need only the collective will to do it. So, how can this metamorphosis come about? We think environmental education is a logical and essential step in the process. But we must qualify this statement by emphasizing that the education of which we speak must be responsive, self-critical, flexible, and focused on the common goal of immediately reducing our destructive human impact on the ecological systems that support us.
We want to provide a sort of manifesto for addressing how people think about environmental education, rather than a fix-it list for troubled, politicized, and overly bureaucratic educational systems. But to do that, we'll need to look deeper into those educational systems and the political climates in which many exist. Readers need to understand why education