ENGAGEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
BY KIMBERLY MAICH W
e have all been edu- cated on the perils that lie before us, how our future is intrinsically tied to the environ-
ment and the health of the earth. Without trying to age myself too much, I remember being in Grade four and learning that we had no more than 30 years of oil and gas reserves left. This scared me. As a nine-year- old, I was very worried about what my future might look like. How would this all play out? Thirty years have passed and our oil and gas reserves remain – though they are harder to access. When I was a student, nobody talked about the devastating impacts of the extrac- tion and use of these resources on our en- vironment. Now, as an educator, I am no longer worried for myself, but for the future that is unfolding for my own children and my students. Like lambs following the herd, we are unaware when we will fall off the cliff, because all we see are the lambs ahead of us, who continue to follow the path. We are playing on the brink of environmental disas- ter that has indeed already begun, not believ- ing that it will happen while we are still here. At the end of the day, what matters is how
we can encourage our students to become more involved and motivated to advocate for their future. What can we do in our class-
8 ETFO VOICE | SPRING 2020
rooms to facilitate an engagement and com- mitment to the environment? As educators, how do we keep our students motivated and engaged so they are actively and meaning- fully invested in their future?
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Environmental education must include the understanding that everyone should have access to a healthy environment. While the term Environmental Racism (Environmen- tal Justice) has been around since the 1970s and 80s, it is an important topic that needs to be understood and addressed in today’s classroom. Globally, including in Canada, people living in racialized and low-income communities are much more likely to come in contact with hazardous materials. The global environmental movement implores us to acknowledge that environmental rac- ism is happening every day and that we are all at risk when we turn the other way. Inter- mediate and junior students can learn about this through WebQuests and researching a variety of past and present case studies both around the world and in their own back- yards. Some examples include:
• Africville in Nova Scotia – Africville is a historic predominately Black community in Halifax. Before being condemned and
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