Sunday, February 5, 2012

Ecopedagogy: Could Education Save the Environment?


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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