Window Into Green (continued)
ing and the other in love with Broadway musicals. One class
went on an all-day birding trip; the other performed a play for
the issues are far more global, complex, and intertwined with the entire school. Both are equally interesting and important
politics. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels currently exceed 385 activities, but why didn’t the two cross-pollinate and give all 5th
parts per million, almost 40 percent higher than pre–Industrial graders equal access to both? My daughters caught the birding
Revolution levels, and they are rising every year. Consequently, bug, but one-half of the 5th grade never saw a nesting piping
the Arctic Ocean is changing dramatically as the Arctic warms plover.
more quickly than anyone expected, and our graduates may see And finally, the downside of the large nonprofit universe of
an ice-free polar cap in the summer in their lifetimes. environmental education facilities—zoos, museums, aquariums,
An International Union nature centers, parks, arboretums,
for the Conservation of Nature children’s gardens—is that schools
report (2008) noted that one in
The more studies are published, the more
approach environmental educa-
four of the world’s mammals are
they agree: Exposure to nature raises test
tion like a Chinese menu. They
at risk of extinction from habi-
scores; increases creativity, cooperation,
pick a field trip from column A
tat loss, poaching, and climate and a lesson plan from column B;
change. Many critically important and self-confidence; reduces stress; and toss in an occasional Earth Day
rivers—such as the Nile, the Yel-
enhances cognitive abilities.
assembly, litter pickup, and letter
low, and the Colorado—no longer to the president; and assume that
empty water into the sea. Moun- their charges are now environmen-
tains of discarded cell phones and tally literate. And the nonprofits,
computers make their way to destitute Chinese villages, where wanting students to return the following year, emphasize fun
they are picked apart for valuable metals, exposing the villagers over content, immersing the students in activity-based education
to high concentrations of incredibly toxic materials. that is designed to serve as an appetizer for environmental lit-
To address today’s geopolitically entangled world of large, eracy but ends up becoming the main course. They often retreat
complex eco-issues, students simply have to know more than from tough concepts like water shortages and stay with politi-
they did 40 years ago. cally lighter ones like the water cycle.
The upshot? Even though there are more centers for en-
What’s the Problem?
vironmental education and more college degree programs in
Four issues have become huge obstacles to environmental
environment-related fields than ever, and even though building
literacy. First, students are extraordinarily disconnected from the
green schools has suddenly emerged as an important idea (pre-
environment. Richard Louv’s revelatory 2005 book Last Child in
economic meltdown), we are perhaps even farther from environ-
the Woods called attention to a world of children rapidly retreat-
mental literacy than we were in 1969.
ing from outdoor play and time spent in nature. Instead, modern
Students are graduating from our schools thinking that
kids stay indoors, “’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets
green is good. But we haven’t given them the tools they need to
are,” as one 4th grader famously said (p. 10).
become environmentally literate citizens.
Viewing screens has become a child’s full-time job. Kids are
plugged in 24/7, watching an average of 25 hours of TV a week
New Research May Turn the Tide
(Gentile & Walsh, 2002) and then logging additional screen time Fortunately, several important research efforts are thread-
on the Internet, browsing the Web, playing video games, and en- ing their way through the education system. For example, the
gaging in whole new verbs, like IMing and Facebooking. Louv Children and Nature Network, a Web-based organization (www.
coined the phrase nature-deficit disorder to describe the “human childrenandnature.org) that reports a wide variety of data and
costs of alienation from nature” (p. 34), including diminished activities related to repairing the nature deficit disorder, show-
use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physi- cases data illuminating the educational benefits of immersing
cal and emotional illness. Just when students need contact with students in the outdoors and environmental education experi-
nature more than ever, they have abandoned it. ences. And there’s tons of data.
Second, ask any environmental educator and he or she will The American Institutes for Research (2005) studied the
bemoan No Child Left Behind, whose pressures have caused effects of weeklong residential outdoor education programs in
many schools to trade outdoor field trips for test prep. Science which most of the participants were at-risk youth. Comparing
teachers routinely eliminate such concepts as environmental students who experienced the outdoor education program with
education, which do not appear to relate directly to questions those in a control group who had not had the experience, the
on the tests. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Web site (2009) researchers found a 27 percent increase in measured mastery of
bluntly states, “No Child Left Behind is contributing to an in- science concepts, plus enhanced cooperation and conflict-reso-
creasing environmental literacy gap by reducing the amount of lution skills, higher self-esteem, and gains in problem solving,
environmental education taking place in K–12 classrooms.” motivation, and classroom behavior.
Third, students’ exposure to environmental education de- A Canadian study found that children whose school grounds
pends on the luck of the draw and the amalgam of the interests include diverse natural settings are more physically active, more
of whichever teachers they happen to have throughout their aware of nutrition, more civil to one another, and more creative
school career. In my daughters’ school, there were two 5th grade (Bell & Dyment, 2006). Another study discovered that children
teachers, one contagiously obsessed with birds and birdwatch-
(continued on page 55)
Page 6 http://www.clearingmagazine.org Clearing - 2009 Compendium Edition
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54