 |
Letter to the Teacher
The goal of this curriculum is to help you guide your students as they attempt to understand and respond to tough environmental issues. The authors believe that environmental literacy (the ability to analyze, create, and evaluate solutions to environmental problems) requires a healthy respect for complexity and interconnections in the world around us.
To be environmentally literate, one must be able to take apparently unrelated information from science, society, psychology and diverse cultural beliefs and use it to create whole, meaningful thought processes. This curriculum is designed to help students put pieces together, to construct wholes through a variety of art forms, because art is an ideal way for a learner to capture these elusive, whole images. It is no longer sufficient for students to be able to memorize and retain large quantities of information. The need for a healthy, clean environment demands that students develop thoughtful skills necessary to use, modify and question the constant stream of information they receive. We hope this curriculum, with its heavy emphasis on journal reflections, will help your students in this way.
The following are ideas that motivated the writing if this curriculum which can serve as overarching goals: help students to move toward self-direction and initiation; give students permission to care by reviving their sensitivities, motivate students to create new patterns and visions from old ideas; guide students to develop personal connections between science and life; help students find their passions; challenge students to articulate and reflect on their values and beliefs; show students how to ask good questions and encourage them to strive to resolve conflicts. The authors believe that these skills are critical to environmental literacy, as critical as knowing the parts of an ecosystem or the name of a plant or animal.
To this end, the curriculum consists of ten themes that capture a vision of an integrated world and challenge students to learn the important lessons of environmental literacy. These themes teach that the relationships humans have with nature have and will continue to determine the kinds of social and individual decisions we make concerning the natural world. Each theme can be used as a unit of study and reflection, lasting anywhere from one to several weeks. The activities are examples of pathways for students to respond to the challenge laid down at the start of each theme. Many other explorations are possible. All activities are tied through the student journal which the authors hope will grow with the student's use of the curriculum. The journal reflections are a critical part of the success of this curriculum.
A hint for making this curriculum work: be flexible and sensitive to students' concerns. Remember, a major thread of this curriculum is that everything is connected. Even though student preoccupations may seem unrelated to your educational goals, it is impossible to impart an environment ethic. This awareness must grow from an individual's experience and reflective processes. The most we can do is challenge and motivate by providing interesting and though-provoking activities.
Finally, in writing this curriculum, the authors attempted to develop a new respect for the power of art and aesthetics to motivate a deeper understanding of nature and the origins of environmental difficulties. Through the arts we envision a new world. To bring it about, this new world vision demands the full integration of all our knowledge, understanding and skill.
Return to Pathways