Unfortunately, most


children today have little, if any, experience in wild nature, with or without a significant adult. In his fifteen years of interviewing families across the United States, Louv found:


“With few exceptions, even


in rural areas, parents say the same thing: Most children aren’t playing outside anymore, not in the woods or fields or canyons. A fifth-grader in San Diego described his world succinctly: ‘I like to play indoors better ‘cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.’ “


As outdoor experience


becomes less common, environmental education gains importance. It is here that children can be reconnected with “the restorative, challenging, primal qualities of nature” and guided through hands-on, personally meaningful activities, that construct an empathetic knowledge of the natural world.


Effective Environmental Education— three considerations Experiences in wild nature shared with an important adult


are vital components of successful environmental education. Further studies insist, however, that they are not the only considerations when designing experiences aimed at forming an ethic of stewardship. Effective environmental education programs share


several common features: they are experiential and personally meaningful; they are developmentally appropriate; and they provide opportunity both for deeper understanding and for the application of new insights.


Experiential and personally meaningful John Dewey, in 1891, articulated the importance of building


connections between school and personal life: From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school


comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school in any complete and free way within the school itself; while, on the other hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning at school. That is the isolation of the school, its isolation from life. Duffin and Gostev and Weiss show that environmental


education programs that succeed in increasing environmentally responsible behavior provide students with hands-on learning and abundant opportunities to make personal connections.


Developmentally appropriate Developmentally appropriate research investigating


CLEARING 2010


children’s relationship with the natural world shows three clear stages of development. From age four to six a child connects with the immediate world through his empathy for living things, particularly animals. From age seven to eleven the child’s desire to explore becomes stronger-- exploration activities become appropriate. It is not until the age of twelve that students typically can begin to deal with tragedies, so at this age social action can become a focus. Environmental education


that is developmentally insensitive can do more harm than good. Sobel especially cautions against introducing ecological problems to a child who has not developed the power of abstract thinking. Such premature calls to action will distance the child from


the natural environment. Developmentally appropriate curriculum, on the other hand,


nurtures a strong connection to the natural environment in stages. First a child connects with her immediate environment, then to an expanding local landscape, and finally to the global environment. Formed in those experiences, she takes action when she is ready.


Opportunities for deeper understanding Environmental education explores situations where the


“correct” answer can be ambiguous. Students become equipped to respond to such complexity when, in the context of nature, they are coached through a process of assessment and judgment. Educators begin by teaching basic environmental knowledge, but the process does not stop there. Students learn to weigh the competing values that often make environmental decision- making difficult. Such experiences equip students to take action and allow them to assume increasing ownership of environmental problems. Students feel empowered and confident as they apply knowledge to action. Students who have been coached in this way—prepared to think critically when faced with complex problems--aremore likely to exhibit complex, environmentally responsible behavior.


Developing environmental empathy at Cayley School Armed with research and eager to realize Cayley School’s


vision to foster environmental stewardship, we designed a five- month environmental experience for the kindergarten class. From October ‘07 to March ’08 fourteen five and six year olds, eight boys and six girls of mixed socio-economic circumstances


www.clearingmagazine.org/online


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