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| How a student teacher uses his experience and ideas to teach and learn about environmental issues |
 PRINTABLE VERSION |
At the start of the summer youth class, I polled my students to get an idea of their backgrounds, expectations and interests in taking the class. The last question on the introductory quiz this year was “How can you, as a student, contribute in solving the environmental problems my community is facing today? I asked this question for a couple of reasons.
First, I know that during the ensuing weeks, we will discuss the most dire and frightening environmental issues facing the world. Aside from the basic science, there exist many social, political, economical and historical implications and complications. The more I learn about these issues, the easier it is to get depressed. It can be depressing not just because of the depth and complexity of the problems, but because of the feeling that there is nothing an individual can do that will make any difference to “save the planet.” So I ask the students what they are doing in order to suggest that there are things they can do. I also hope that, just by asking the question, I cause them to pause and think of things that they could be doing to help.
The second reason I pose the question is to learn their actions in relation to the environment. Do they have any idea of the complexity of the issues? How far do they comprehend the depth of personal and communal responsibility involved in solving regional and global environmental problems? To what extent are they aware of the issues and their complexity?
The most pressing environmental issue facing the world today, as identified by the students, was global warming. The most frequently mentioned contribution to solving global environmental problems was recycling. Deforestation and water and air pollution were also mentioned as big problems, and water conservation and use of public transportation were mentioned as solutions. I asked this question of a class at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines BEZ Branch (where I studied my secondary education), and one the responses still stands out in my memory. One young man told me that his contribution to solving environmental problems was that he had decided to go to the bathroom outside all the time. Presumably this reduced water use and this being a drought period in Mariveles, perhaps he was just going overboard on conservation. I tried to explain the health benefits of indoor plumbing, but I was struck by how important it is that we all make our own peace with the conflicting pressures of modern life. What if we all eschewed indoor plumbing? What if we all decided never to own or drive a private automobile?
And so I think to myself walking home from school in the evening, turning over the lessons of a day at the university, “What do I do to contribute to the solution of environmental problems? How can I make a difference? How can I inspire and empower my students to make a difference, rather than succumb to the inertia of the overwhelming weight of the odds against it? In a practical sense, what I can do?”
When I was high school, and living hand to mouth as seems to be the rule for high school students the world over, I had an answer for all those environmental activists in the grocery store parking lot, soliciting donations for their favorite environmental cause of the week. “Give money, help save the world!” they pleaded. I thought to myself, “I’m devoting my life to the environment and I’m broke, so please don’t lay that guilt line on me!”
So my own contribution, however small and insignificant, is on the science side of environmental issues. The larger picture and political relevance of issues has always interested me as well, and that’s where teaching Summer Environmental Class comes in. I was asked to help out with teaching Summer Class when I arrived at Mariveles last summer, and it was a challenge that seemed worthwhile. If you want to make an impact on the future, what better way than teaching? What could be more worthwhile than providing the future thinkers, policy wonks and decision makers with the scientific background to understand and tackle environmental problems? That’s my goal on that summer class. I don’t want to make my students into scientists, or even necessarily to teach them to write and think as scientists. Some of them will become scientists and I cheer them on with all my heart. But most of them will take the science and do something more practical with it. Perhaps they will recognize the value of basic research as the foundation of future applications to solutions to environmental problems. They will appreciate the difficulty with which some of those numbers are generated along with the uncertainty that inevitably accompanies a number when it is applied on a national or global scale. They will comprehend the complexity of social and economic variables that make the science impossible to apply, no matter how straightforward the cause of the problem may appear. Most importantly, they will be able to assemble the tools they need to really make a difference and to contribute to a sustainable environmental policy on personal, local, national and global levels.
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Comments
Perfect!!! Mayra Rody Peixoto | Nov 16th, 2003
Hi , my name is Mayra i live in Brazil and i liked very much your text.. i am a president of a NGO Environment and i know how difficult is show environment important.. i and my teacher try to make people aware of the need to take care of the environment...
Congratulations of your initiative.
Let us share our experience Karen Fan | Feb 16th, 2006
I am just surprised at seeing your article about the environmental education among kids.What a coincidenc that we are doing the similar kind of work. I am now in Shanghai,China and work as an volunteer in an INGO. But I am just a collage student and lacks experience in teaching although I myself know much about environmental issues since I am a Bayer Young Environmental Envoy crowned by UNEP.I just would like to share with you my working experience in the kind of wok in the future.
Beautiful example!!! Eugenia Soledad Massone | Feb 9th, 2007
Hi, my name es Eugenia and I´m from Argentina. I have just read you article and I really enjoy it very much. I have worked in environmental education since I was 19 years old (now I´m 24). I have always work through a ONG, this year I will star giving classes in a school, for children of 9 to 10 years old. I agree with everything that you said and I like this phrase very much "all we, as a society, need to cultivate a consciousness about the environment that ultimately will translate into action at the corporate and national level". I hope you can share with me your experience in this field, I would like to learn different educational methods from which my students could get concious and responsable. Thanks and congratulations for your work.
Regards, Eugenia.
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