and planting native plants, to mulching and watering the new sharp and useful as the one EarthCorps crews use when they
plants so they’ll survive the summer. All through this process, as do the same work for pay. The field guides are the same ones
we experience the changes in the seasons, the students are using that I use to key out plants. Some observers of my program have
their critical thinking skills and making decisions about their worried about this — aren’t the tools too dangerous? Aren’t
plot. What’s the best way to use this tool? This alpine lily is re- the field guides too hard to
ally pretty, but does it grow here? Where should we put this tree read? Shouldn’t you give
There is a reason
that will be one hundred feet tall? My goal for the students is to them something more “age-
have them understand the process, not just be laborers creating appropriate?” Sara Stein, in
that students
a product. By the time we finish in June, the students will know her book Noah’s Children
respond to doing
this place — its plants, its animals, its sounds, its smells, every- sums up this attitude so well:
thing — and they will care about this place, because they have “There seems an urge in
real-life projects.
just spent a year making it healthier. our present culture to keep It provides a sense
By students’ standards what makes this a cool project is children childish. Instead of
of hope and an
that they are outside learning all this neat stuff and also doing introducing them to actual
something meaningful that will last a long time; not to mention tools and the skills needed to
awareness that we
to fact that they get to use their muscles and their brains, make use them, we encourage them
can make a difference.
decisions, and use tools. This tools thing is more important to to make believe what’s real…
my students than you might think: these are “real” tools, just as Our neglect to teach children
useful handiness insults our
kind, whose hands preceded
our heads in the evolution of
Place-based Education Questions:
a unique intelligence.” My students take the tools so seriously
because at ages ten and eleven, they have had enough of the
pretending and are ready for the real work and the real sense of
1. How can the work of place-based educators be more explicitly tied
accomplishment that comes with it. (And, by the way, they use
to concerns regarding equity and social justice as well as environmental
the tools safely — because they know if they don’t they won’t
stewardship?
get to use them for the rest of the class time, and they really
2. What can be done to enlist the support of environmental and social
want to use those tools!)
justice organizations in school-based efforts to prepare young people to
So why does any of this matter? Are test scores going up
participate in the shaping of a more sustainable and equitable society?
because of this program? I have no real way of knowing. The
teachers that I work with integrate the forest project into their
3. How can we develop enough of a research base to demonstrate the link
classroom activities. I can show which Essential Academic
between the authentic learning experiences offered through place-based
Learning Requirements the program meets, and we can specu-
education and higher levels of academic achievement?
late that the critical thinking and problem solving that the proj-
4. How are early adopters of place-based education creating space and
ect requires will help my students on tests, but I have to be frank
support in their schools and districts for this work?
when I say that this is not my first concern. What worries me
more than low scores on some standardized test is low scores on
5. What evidence is being collected to demonstrate the beneficial impact
citizenship, on caring about other living things, and on feeling
that place-based education is having on local environmental and social
like one can actually make a difference in a modern world where
conditions?
so much seems out of our control. Will it matter in the long run
6. In an educational policy environment in which taking innovations to
if we have a society of people who score well on tests but don’t
scale is required to gain attention and funding, how can small and local-
know how to be a community? I know that students are com-
ized initiatives like place-based education gain traction?
mitted to this work, beyond the fact that they like to be outside.
They want to save something, to counter the negative things
7. What could be learned from other teacher-sponsored change efforts
they see every day. They have learned how to work together to
like the National Writing Project with regard to the dissemination of the
make that happen. They have found a voice within the borders
philosophy and practice of place-based education?
of a small forest, writing letters to government leaders to keep
8. What could be done to acquaint Latino, Native American, and Black
funding for the restoration program. They have found a voice
educators with place-based educational approaches and their potential
to speak through their grief at the loss of classmates to violence,
impact on local environmental, economic, cultural, and social condi-
by planting memorial trees. They return when they are older to
tions?
check on their plants, their forest. They themselves have rooted
here, in a place that I hope they will remember as fondly as I
9. What is the role of place-based education in suburban communities
remember the special places of my childhood, places that gave
where the experience of place and opportunities for service are often
me the desire to do this work in the first place.
perceived as more limited? The same could be said of urban communities
with highly mobile populations.
Kirsten Cook has been with EarthCorps since 2002, coordinating youth
10. How can the structure of schools be modified to make place-based
outreach programs and the organization’s internship program. When
educational experiences more possible?
not leading students or interns, she likes gardening, camping, and pok-
ing around looking for interesting things in nature.
Clearing - 2009 Compendium Edition http://www.clearingmagazine.org Page 19
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