No matter whether it’s playing pretend, conducting a scavenger hunt, exploring a creek or tutoring a fifth grader, spending time with children reminds me of the joys of soaking up the here-and-now. Given my druthers, I much prefer giggling with kids than stressing with adults. At the start of nearly every school visit, I admit “children are more fun than adults.” That being said, I now devote most of my time and energy to children and children’s education.

Thoughts I’ve learned from innovative educators implementing bigger thinking and better teaching:

Connect children with the world around them.
Children have learned through play for hundreds of thousands of years and that won’t change anytime soon. Zoo animals don’t do well cooped up in cages all day, and neither do young kids sitting in their desks asked to memorize abstract concepts. Boring and ineffective.

Unstructured outdoor time— time to wonder, wander, explore and investigate— is not only good for children, e.g. developing coordination & thinking skills, it leads to happier and healthier children. While logical, it took Richard Louv’s best selling Last Child in the Woods to remind many of us of those things.

Give children time to love the earth, before we ask them to save it.  —David Sobel

 
Teach children where they live, who lives with us and how the world around us works.
The industrial revolution brought luxuries to the masses and disconnected us from most of the direct interactions with how we used to live, i.e. we no longer dirtied our hands in the soil, plumbing was installed and fossil fuels replaced most human labor. Today, a fifth grade class is more likely to study feudal Japan than learn water doesn’t come from the tap, food doesn’t come from the grocery store and gasoline doesn’t come from the pump.

All learning ought to begin locally. Creating and using nearby maps is a good start. Studying habitats nearby allow students to engage hands-on and makes more sense than a unit on the rainforest or the Arctic. Or, when studying exotic places, do it while comparing those far-away lands to life nearby.

I do not propose adding environmental education to the curriculum, but rather argue using the environment to help students learn across the curriculum, i.e. language arts, math, science and social science.

A skilled young teacher told me recently, “There is no way to get through all the state curriculum standards if you address them one at a time. That’s why I find ways to cover multiple standards at the same time.” Exactly. This way, subjects aren’t separated in 45-minute silos- similar to the issues surrounding life, i.e. we can’t solve a single problem unless we tackle everything at once.

Tug on anything at all and you’ll find it connected to everything else in the universe.  —John Muir


Choose depth over breadth. Go deep and get to the root of issues.
In a race to get through everything we’re supposed to know to perform well on tests, we cover basics. Check them off the list and move on. Why not consider using our immediate surroundings to aid understanding? As Environmental Professor David Orr at Oberlin College advocates, use the school campus as a teaching tool. Begin in first grade and continue through university studies. Understand things locally and apply them globally.

An early elementary class may begin with the wildlife on the school grounds—reading, writing and drawing about the existing life and the interactions. Try acting out and creating stories about the roles of plants and animals. A sixth grade class may study the history of the community, interviewing longtime residents. Perhaps they can focus on a nearby river—writing a story as a Native American, becoming an expert on all things relating to that river and engaging with local businesses and politicians to debate current policy impacting its use. In high school, students may study the origin of our food, the water cycle and the energy flows of the building. Hands-on learning raises test scores and teaches that what is learned at school applies to everyday life and their well-being.

Inspire children to be part of the greatest century in the history of the world.
It’s too simple to argue we’re going to change the world just by teaching about life around us. We still need to know where we’re going and how to get there. How do we stop the destruction of nature and switch to a system capable of providing food, water, shelter and healthcare for nine billion people over the long haul? Oh, and we need to create a billion or so new jobs.

The answer is all around us. Nature teaches us everything we need to know. Since life on earth began a couple billion years ago, earth has been a laboratory and has figured out what works and what doesn’t.  Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry, outlines several rules of nature:
•    Recycle everything (no more take-make-waste system)
•    Run on current sunshine
•    Demand local expertise
•    Thrive on diversity
•    Reward cooperation over competition.

Growth as we know it in the current industrial revolution sense means take-make-waste, i.e. extract “stuff” from the ground, use energy to manufacture “goods” for consumption, then dispose it in the landfill. In the process, we’ve polluted the air, water and soil. Remember, there is no “away” and everything is connected.

Imagine what will happen when a new generation comes of age, capable of changing the perverse subsidies that favor waste and pollution. This presents an opportunity like no other: jobs for graduates to do well by doing good. Doubters may argue real reform in the way we live is just for dreamers, but the abolitionists, only 200 years ago, were mocked and derided. Just like the environmental crisis today, it was an ethical and moral issue and the forces of status quo peddled fear, uncertainty and doubt.

In the words of Paul Hawken,  “If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t a pulse.”

Let’s get some help to the millions who are already working to protect the earth.  Educating and inspiring the next generation is the answer.