In
Towards Ecopedagogy: Weaving a Broad Based Pedology of Liberation for
Animals, Nature, and the Oppressed People of Earth Richard Kahn explains
that the world is lacking in environmental literacy. It was only in the last 50
years that people began to care about what is happening to the environment.
Even more shocking is the fact that a mere 20 years ago there were no
environmental classes being taught in American schools. This has changed to
some extent but most humans only possess a limited knowledge of the Earth’s
environment.
The
Earth is experiencing a period of mass extinction, the like of which have only
been seen five times before in the history of the planet. Species are being
lost with appalling speed. The reason for this massive loss of biodiversity is
human expansion. As more of the world’s great untouched landscapes are
bulldozed for land Earth’s most beautiful organisms are pushed to the brink of
extinction. Odds are that we have already eradicated a plant that held the cure
for cancer.
The
state of American Education is abysmal. A recent study by the Program for
International Assessment (PISA) ranks the United States 30th in
world for education. The United States has also taken a back seat in the
movement towards environmental literacy. While classes on the environment are
part of most basic curriculum this basic knowledge is rarely expanded upon,
resulting in the students eventually forgetting the information. By investing
more in education we stand a chance of being able to combat the environmental
changes that we ourselves have caused. Literacy and texts taken from the Middle
East to Europe in the wake of the first crusade brought Europe out of the dark ages,
could the same be possible for our current “dark age?”
I
agree with Mr. Kahn that education is one of the most important tools for
combatting global climate change. By informing the general public about the
environmental effects of their current lifestyles more lasting changes would
occur. Khan uses the Zoo School in Minneapolis, Minnesota as an example for a
progressive learning technique. Even though schools like this have their flaws,
test scores for students as the Zoo School are higher on average than those of
students that are forced to sit in a classroom for countless hours every day.
By making learning more interactive students would not be as opposed to it. This
is why I believe that environmental classes should be taught outdoors, with
hands on experiments, rather than from a textbook. If schools transitioned from
the “normal” teaching methods, a more lasting effect could be seen.
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