A While in the Wild: Educating for Environmental Empathy


by Fay Mascher M.Ed. Cayley School Jonas Cox Ph.D. Gonzaga University Charles Salina Ph.D.Gonzaga University


On a visit to the coulee, a startled owl exploded off of a nest that we thought was empty. On the bus ride back to school, one boy reached for my hand, “Feel my heart,” he said. “It’s still going really fast.” --from the Cayley School action research project


S


ince the 1980’s, researchers in environmental education have explored this basic question: Why do some people care about the natural environment enough to protect it, while others do not? Current environmental education,


taught as a unit of instruction within the science curriculum, tends to assume that imparting information about the environment will inspire students to care for it. But a generation of young people educated in this way has not yielded a generation of adults committed to caring for the natural world. The people of Cayley School, situated in a rural hamlet


about one hour south Calgary, Alberta, struggled with a similar dynamic. In the spring of 2005, the teachers, parents, community members, and students of this small school (150 students in kindergarten through eighth grade) met with the Stewardship Centre of Canada to explore what their school could do to foster care of the natural environment. The Youth Environmental Stewardship Program (YES)


was born, sparking much activity at Cayley School. The school maintains ten photovoltaic units and a small wind turbine to provide three kilowatts of power to the grid. Students and staff participate in a thorough recycling program. An environment club meets weekly. Classroom instruction pursues cross-curricular inquiry into many environmental issues. Recognized in the media, and given multiple awards for environmental projects, Cayley School has laid strong ground work for meeting the goals of the YES project. However, in a meeting of YES stakeholders in the fall of 2007,


consensus emerged that the specific vision of the program— shaping students toward lifelong leadership in environmental


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CLEARING 2010


www.clearingmagazine.org/online


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