A New Approach to Environmental Education - Essay Example

Oenga Dr. Walter English 1A Research Project November 02, A new approach to environmental education This research project seeks to explore the deeper meaning of the word environment besides environmental education. These will make part of the introductory stage. Afterwards, the paper would want to propose and argue for a new approach to environmental education in the USA. The focus will be on both at the childhood and adulthood environmental education and the following will be tackled: The current research on the environmental curriculum and pedagogy: what is happening on the ground at the moment o r put it in another way: what is the current status of the educational system in USA? Is it of any good to our children and adults or rather how is it affecting them both positively and negatively? Why is environmental education lacking? What type of curriculum is needed and why? What are the precautions and strategies that need to be implemented or put in place to ensure that our environment is taken care of? Of what good will it bring to our generation to come? What is the philosophy behind this educational approach? And finally, do ethics play a role in education? These and many more will be featured in our research project. The first question that rings in our mind is the meaning of the word environment. Environment is a very broad terminology that is taken to mean generally the flora and fauna (Trees and animals). Environment entails trees, animals, air, waters, the soil (earth) and even people. It is in the broader sense of the word everything that there is in the Universe that supports life is what we call our environment. Forests for instance contribute to a greater amount of our environment without forgetting the animals. In short therefore, environment is our surroundings. Environmental Education is generally making people aware of the environment. It is the integration of what is learned in class in relation to our environment. Or rather put it this way that environmental education is the incorporation of both the materials acquired in classroom and then apply them to the environment. It is about informing the Citizens about the beauty, the love, the goodness, the friendship, and the values of always ensuring the safety of where we live. It is all about keeping the good relationship between ourselves and the place in which we live; and these can be achieved through ensuring that our environment is always clean. In short, this is a call for the virtue of responsibility. However, let us first look at the current environmental educational system in the USA. The culture here considers every aspect of our environment as being important. Take for instance the flowers that reflect the beauty of creation, the roses, the lilies and the sun flower; is such an amazing environment. Besides, we rear pets; we walk with them whoever and in fact we carry them into our classrooms. They give us company and a long with it they are our closest friends. We know them and they know us. We make sure that they are taken care of as we are. Indeed all of our animals of all kinds, the insects of all kinds, the plants with flowers inclusive reflect the wonderful creation. We know on the other hand, that our educational system is no better because it doesn’t at all give a clear cut on how to deal with or rather handle such creatures. It does not tell us the need to learn from experience, the urgency of getting deep down into our ecological systems, the forests, the soil, the need to control pollution from industries, allocation of our resources in both urban and rural programs. To be precise enough, our culture has not yet been fully incorporated into our educational system so that our environment can be part and parcel of our earthly life. And since we had no better ways or no better methodology diploid by our teachers, we have continually not understood the less harmful ways of dealing with our environment. Our environment is not friendly to us anymore. Look at how we lose lives, our properties among others due to heavy storms. But then the question here is: is there any better way that has been laid out to educate our people; old and young inclusive on how to take care of the environment? How to use the knowledge in class and apply it to the environment? If no, how then can we move out of the status quo and create new systems, new approach and a new curriculum that can be used throughout the USA to inform the people of the 21st century about the need for incorporation of environmental studies in our education system. In Berry’s book: The Great Work: Our Way into the Future, he says, that if the outer world is diminished in its grandeur then the emotional, imaginative, intellectual and spiritual life of the human is diminished or extinguished. Without the soaring birds, the great forests, the sounds and coloration of the insects, the free-flowing streams, the flowering fields, the sight of the clouds by day and the stars by night, we become impoverished in all that makes us human’ (200). But then his message is clear, a message of hope. That indeed the work we have now is to orient our educational centers/ institutions with the need to protect and preserve the environment with our good consciousness and the will to begin the great power right from our childhood level and continue to provide a holistic approach to our children in emotional, intellectual and spiritual upbringing. Children cannot only learn from listening and watching but also participate actively in observing the environment. The adults on the other hand, should ensure that the necessary steps and precautions are put in place to eradicate any future problem. In relation to the above point, Sierra Club article informs us that apart from the elements of the natural world already present in an outdoor setting, you can use many different strategies to transform a typical playground into an environmental yard. Start by adding bird feeders, wind socks, flower and vegetable gardens, tree houses, rock piles, and logs. The main objective of environmental education is to develop awareness among the people of the earth about the environment which is sum total of water, air and land, inter-relationships among themselves and also with the humans. Environmental educations develops the proper use of resources and develop the proper consciousness for the protection of the environment and proper utilization of natural resources. The puzzling aspect of such situations is that the existence of obligations over and above self-interest is taken for granted in such rural community enterprises as the betterment of roads, schools, churches, and baseball teams. Their existence is not taken for granted, nor as yet seriously discussed, in bettering the behavior of the water that falls on the land, or in the preserving of the beauty or diversity of the farm landscape. Land-use ethics are still governed wholly by economic self-interest Work cited Berry, Thomas. The Great Work: Our Way into the Future. New York: Bell Tower, 1999. Leopold, Aldo, Charles Walsh Schwartz, and Aldo Leopold. A Sand County Almanac. With Other Essays on Conservation from Round River. New York: Oxford UP, 1966. Print What Can I Teach My Young Child About the Environment? - Environmental Education - Sierra Club." What Can I Teach My Young Child About the Environment? - Environmental Education - Sierra Club. 30 Nov. 2012 . What do You Mean by Environmental Education? 30 Nov. 2012 Read More