Dear Reader,

We thought we should introduce ourselves. The Institute for Earth Education was founded in 1974 to offer a different educational response to our environmental problems than the one that's been adopted by the educational establishment. Today we have educators involved with us around the world, and formal Branches underway in a dozen countries.

Essentially, we are the world's alternative to the pervasive agency- and industry-sponsored supplemental environmental education. We maintain that instructional programs aimed at helping people live more lightly on the earth are just as important as programs in math and science, or history and language. As we like to put it, we represent the fourth 'r' -- readin', ritin', 'rithmetic and relationship -- for it's our relationship with the earth and its natural systems and communities that must change if we are to enjoy a biotically rich and healthy planet in the future.

Of course, we hope people won't take our criticism of the field personally; there are a lot of good people out there doing good things for the earth that they call environmental education, but in general we feel the original mission of environmental education went astray. It was trivialized by mainstream education, diluted by those with other agendas, and co-opted by the very agencies and industries that have contributed so much to our environmental problems. Many well-meaning teachers and leaders out there don't know the real origins of the material they have been given or understand how insidious those materials are in conveying a consumer-oriented, exploitive world view (often in what they leave out of their explanations and examples). Nor does the public realize that the world's formal educational response to our environmental problems has been merely to encourage teachers to infuse environmental messages and perspectives into all of their subjects.

In reality, the teachers receive little or no training for how to do this, nor any time in which to carry it out, but that's the educational strategy that's being pursued. Why? Because it's easy on our leaders. Most coordinators and professors don't have to do the job themselves; they just tell the teachers to do it, and give them a collection of industry- and agency- sponsored supplemental activities to sprinkle over their subjects. We don't think this approach is going to get the educational job done that's so desperately needed.

Poke your head into the cockpit the next time you fly somewhere and ask the pilot where he learned how to fly. If he replies that he had a little piece of his instruction in math class, another in history, and yet a third in language arts, will you stay on board? Well, that's what the theory of environmental education asks us to do. Learning to live more lightly on the earth is the most important educational mission of our times. Bar none. Yet we are going about it in this supplemental, piecemeal, disconnected fashion called the infusion model.

In fact, the vast majority of educators still appear to think environmental education is about having the students pick up litter and recycle their soda cans, then sit around the classroom discussing rainforest destruction as an environmental issue. They don't suggest that we stop eating convenience food (the source of much school grounds litter) or avoid soda pop, and thus they end up externalizing the big issues instead of internalizing them.

. Environmental Or Environmentalized? Lots of people confuse environmental education with an environmental approach to education in general. These are two different ideas. Environmentalized education is a worthy goal, but as you will see, we believe it should be the supportive rather than the primary emphasis of our work. We think we need to begin changing environmental habits now, and we need carefully-crafted, focused programs for doing that job.

Frankly, once you have taken the issues approach, regardless of any attempt to internalize the issue at hand, you'll open up the door as well for every reactionary in the land. And the cornucopians will insist on a "balanced" presentation which will often end up with no "action" at all. That's a major advantage of our lifestyle approach instead. You don't get sucked into talking an issue to death. It's difficult to campaign for a "balanced" approach when all you're initially asking people to figure out are ways to use less energy and consume less material in their own lives. Make no mistake: earth education is about change; environmental education is now about balance. (See Environmental Education vs. Earth Education, excerpts from the Earth Education... A New Beginning section of this web site.)

And by jumping to the issues before your students understand the ecological processes and their personal role in them, many of them will end up knowing a lot about the rainforest, for example, and nothing about their forest, nor how their own lifestyle impacts upon both. People who jump to the issues often jump over the connections.

Please don't misunderstand: we think the issues are important too, but they need to be grounded in how this planet functions ecologically and examined in the context of one's own life. Once you begin making changes in your personal habits you will begin looking around for like-minded people and alternative systems to support your efforts. That's earth education. It's about relationships.

Earth education is programmatic and integral, not random and supplemental. It is natural-world based, not classroom-based. It is lifestyle oriented instead of issues-oriented, and infused with the messages of deep ecology as opposed to the subtle management messages that pervade much of the material available in environmental education. Take the short quiz that follows this letter, you may already be an earth educator and don't know it.

Why is our criticism necessary, especially when the field of environmental education is under increasing attack from various exploitive groups in the political spectrum? If you really accept that the earth is in serious ecological trouble, and if you really believe that the infusion model of environmental education does not represent a serious educational response to that trouble, then don't you have an obligation to take a stand and speak out?

However, even though we have produced several of our own model programs (described on other pages here), we are not just pushing our own materials. Earth education can be done anytime, anywhere, with or without us. We spent 10 years writing Earth Education... A New Beginning, which presents the template and tools that anyone can use in developing a carefully crafted alternative to the infusion approach. Please take a look at that overview.

The Institute for Earth Education represents the largest international group of educators in the environmental movement. It is an independent, member-supported voice with no government, foundation or industry sponsorship. We would be pleased to send you a copy of our catalog, The Earth Education Sourcebook.

Naturally, we hope you will take our points to heart and examine more closely the cornucopian materials and supplemental methods that are widely distributed in this field. Who paid for them? Who influenced them? Who reviewed them? And how are they actually used? These are crucial questions for the future biotic health and richness of our home in space. We have been pursuing our mission to educate the educators about this concern for a quarter of a century now, and we would welcome your support.

For the Earth,

Steve Van Matre
international chair

Quiz: Are You An Environmental Educator Or An Earth Educator?

Continue... The Principles Of Earth Education