tRAINING

When the IBM company decided to get into the personal computer field, they freely gave away the specifications for their hardware to any software firm that wanted them. As a result, when IBM introduced their first personal computer, there were lots of software packages available for it. In a sense, that is what we are doing with earth education. We are providing both the framework and the tools (plus this instruction manual) and urging people to begin creating their own earth education programs. Although we will continue to create "model" programs ourselves, we realize that we could never create enough of them (nor publish them fast enough) to match up with all the varied settings and situations in which they are desperately needed.

In addition, through The Institute for Earth Education, we are trying to provide both introductory training sessions and an organizational home for all those who want to become earth educators. We believe that such a support system and its ongoing provision for continued training and sharing will greatly enhance the chances that earth education programs will flourish in the future.

In short, we are convinced that environmental education is simply not the answer for our environmental crisis. If we are really serious about the mission of addressing those problems, we must bypass environmental education and get on with the urgent task of building a worldwide network of earth educators. We hope you will want to join that effort.

In case you are not aware of what has been happening, the environmental movement itself is splitting into two schools of thought. In general, "shallow environmentalist" thinking proposes that we can solve our problems by doing a better job of managing the earth's resources and using technology to clean up the resulting pollution. "Deep ecologist" thinking maintains that our environmental problems are symptoms of more fundamental flaws that will require not only major changes in our lifestyles, but in the very nature of how we view our relationship with the earth. In The Turning Point, Fritjof Capra explained the latter dimension this way:

Deep ecology is supported by modern science, and in particular by the new systems approach, but it is rooted in a perception of reality that goes beyond the scientific framework to an intuitive awareness of the oneness of all life, the interdependence of its multiple manifestations and its cycles of change and transformation. When the concept of the human spirit is understood in this sense, as the mode of consciousness in which the individual feels connected to the cosmos as a whole, it becomes clear that ecological awareness is truly spiritual.

Although I have already referred to the cornucopians as some identifiable group (just as I singled out the "supplementalists" earlier), in reality, each of us probably embodies both of these patterns of thinking -- the managing environmentalists and the restructuring ecologist -- operating within us. Perhaps they are the yin and yang of our field, and we will have to learn how to seek harmony between them. At any rate, I hope you will not let the forcefulness of my assault upon the field characterize someone unfairly. There are probably very few pure cornucopians out there (just as there are very few pure supplementalists). So it is not the people we have to watch out for, but the kind of thinking that influences all of our decisions from time to time.

In The Institute for Earth Education we see ourselves as an educational voice in the broad deep ecology movement. (Although we take no organizational stand on the merits of any particular approach within it.) And we sincerely believe that much of what is called environmental education today is now dominated by shallow environmentalist thinking. Consequently, one of the primary reasons for the existence of earth education is the need to rise above the miasma of environmental education that currently obscures perception in our field. The reality is, environmental education in its present form no longer holds the promise we had all hoped for in its beginnings.

Once again , I know this is strong stuff, but I think we know what we are talking about. In the institute, we monitor the journals, newsletters, bulletins, and proceedings from dozens of organizations in our field around the world, and it is quite clear from just a casual examination that many people still view environmental education as some sort of all-encompassing term, interchangeable with any number of other appellations for outdoor work or environmental concerns. For example, in a recent newsletter the environmental education program for one state was described as including "Map and Compass Orienteering, Journal Writing, Visits to National Historic Sites, canoeing and hiking, as well as a large concentration of science-related topics." And this was a description for the program of an entire state.

It is also clear that our field is now thoroughly over-run by representatives of various management perspectives (be they agency or industry or university based). Since there is probably no chance of rooting out this invasion, we believe the only hope for a significant educational response to our environmental crisis is to provide the training necessary to create a viable alternative movement, regardless of its size.

Continue... "Preparing A New Generation Of Leaders"

Earth Education... A New Beginning Copyright © 1990 The Institute for Earth Education. All Rights Reserved.