Why High School Education is Important For Students to Tackle Global Environmental Challenges
Almost two decades ago in 2003, Glendale High School students planted 500 trees in the Douglas Complex Burn, the author of this blog post argues that environmental education for today’s high school students would benefit from more tree planting and hands on activity (Image from Oregon Department of Forestry is licensed under CC BY 2.0)
By Charlotte Moog
Introduction from Earth Law Center:
This week’s blog is a guest submission from an eighth-grade student in New York, Charlotte Moog. She writes about how to improve high school education so that students can better tackle global environmental challenges. At Earth Law Center, part of our mission is to train the next generation of environmental leaders with the tools they need to save the planet. Although much of our education focuses on training college students and legal professionals, we also work with younger age groups to educate them on basic Earth law concepts—Rights of Nature, legal guardianship of Nature, nonhuman rights, and so forth. As you read this week’s blog, consider the importance of educating and empowering students of all ages to serve as stewards for the planet.
Environmental Education in Nature
The best way to give students the education to be prepared for environmental challenges is to leave the classroom
High schools around the world are incorporating environmental education into the classroom, but not with enough urgency or impact.
Typically, schools invite a volunteer from a charity or organization to come and talk with students about what they do, how they do it, and how to get involved. Meetings might end with an emotional video showing upsetting photos and distressing statistics, aimed to inspire the students into action. The students then leave perhaps feeling motivated, but no doubt heavy-hearted, as they move onto their next class. By the time school is over, though, many students will have forgotten about the presentation and statistics. Once the next day arrives, their attention shifts to the upcoming test or the over-due essay, the dreadful statistics and video forgotten. (Of course, some schools and programs advance cutting-edge environmental education, but this not the norm.)
What if there was more action?
Students could get outside and pick up trash and recycle plastic as they forge a deeper connection with Nature. They could mail letters to the government or local town hall demanding the phase-out of fossil fuels, a ban on animal testing, or even the recognition of the Rights of Nature—a focus-area of Earth Law Center. Students could develop their own educational campaigns to inform local shops and stores, neighboring schools, community centers, family, and friends about important environmental issues and solutions. It could take as little as twenty minutes. Not even the whole afternoon. All it takes is a little walk, a little time, a little action to ensure a memory is remembered.
Even more than this afternoon, high schools (and other secondary schools) need to integrate environmental education into the curriculum in a permanent way. In order for students to take global challenges seriously, schools need to take the impending environmental calamity seriously. In order for schools to do so, legislation needs to change the curriculum to mandate that all high school students have to take environmental studies in order to graduate. It should be a requirement, much like history or math.
In turn, the environmental studies requirement would have to leave ripples of change outside the classroom walls. There needs to be an action component in environmental studies. It is not enough to talk about environmental issues, but students and schools need to do something about it.
Action Across The Globe
Across the globe, countries are beginning to find ways to include children and schools in environmental conservation. Schools and communities are working together to give their students the inspiration they need to change the worldwide problems.
In the Philippines, all it took was a shovel, dirt, and ten trees to get their students involved. On December 5, 2018, House Bill 8728 was passed in the Philippines, changing countless lives. The act requires all students graduating from elementary school, high school, and college to plant at least ten trees each in order to complete the academic year. The objective was to continue and strengthen environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, as well as adjustment for poverty reduction and food security.
This isn’t the only time where the Philippines had everyone engaged in biodiversity preservation. About forty years earlier, in 1977, Presidential Decree 1153 required every citizen to plant one tree every month for five consecutive years. Both requirements are a major step towards a greener future.
Tree Planting (Image by Alex Indigo licensed under CC BY 2.0)
In 1988, the Brazilian Constitution established that environmental education (EE) is a citizenship right and a duty of the state. By 2012, Brazil established the National Curriculum Guidelines for Environmental Education. The schools believe everyone in the community should know why environmental efforts are taking place. Schools have begun projects like building green roofs, electrical systems powered by solar energy, bamboo furnishings, botanical gardens ,and ecological streams. These projects include a variety of different opportunities for everyone to take part in and enjoy.
In 2004, Kwazulu Natal in South Africa become an Eco-School. The school’s green environment not only taught the children about sustainable education, but influenced other schools do to the same. Kwasulu Natal started with their focus on water. Students learned how to turn recycled materials into hand-washers. The school also turned their attention to the trash polluting the area. The solution was to fix both the unhealthy eating and the litter by handing out new snacks with little or no packaging, while the students reused the waste for art projects, and hand-made crafts
The Tangerang Selatan School in Indonesia generated a school compost to battle the important problem of food waste. Students took it upon themselves to ban styrofoam food packaging, while others planted trees and flowers and were responsible for caring for the plants. Not only did the Tangerine Selatan School create an eco-friendly environment, it’s something the students can be proud of.
Sustainable schools are catching on everywhere; one school located in the Shin-Shing village in Taiwan planted ethnobotanical gardens, installed solar energy technology, and built an ecological stream. Each of these sustainable features changed the students’ education for the better, as well as directly benefiting the local society. The stream treated sewage, the garden provided a hands-on learned experience, and the part-time jobs helped out local residents. Funding was granted from the Taiwan Sustainable Campus Program and had positive outcomes for both the school and the community.
Some schools, like Al-Kawthar Secondary School in Beirut, Lebanon, have begun to raise awareness of climate change within their school community. Projects that involve tree-planting, crafts made with recycled materials, helping national forests, and conserving water are a few examples. Al-Kawthar Secondary School’s environmental committee hosts events discussing ways to save the Earth, getting the adults involved, as well. The committee also develops action plans recapping what was learned and achieved the previous year, and in result the students have a well-structured, thorough, and clever environmental course to learn and work from.
Other countries are working closer to home, integrating lessons on sustainable development and environmental conservation into everyday life at school. Schools are teaming up with various programs to include environmental education in their curriculums. Global Environmental Education Program (GEEP), Environmental Education (EE), Green Flag Green Schools, Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), National Education for Sustainable Development Workgroup (NESDW) are only a handful of programs working to make environmental education mandatory. Many countries like Italy, Denmark, Malaysia, Finland, Panama, Canada, and more have already begun working with these programs and included environmental education in their mandatory school curriculum. The aim for environmental literacy in schools is slowly making its way, and though the progress is slow it is gradual.
Earth Law Center has been doing its part to strengthen environmental education. Several years ago, they began hosting high school mock trials on the Rights of Nature in New York. Students learn the nuts and bolts of legal systems that recognize and enforce basic rights for Nature. Then they take sides—some serving as Nature’s legal representation, others acting on behalf of government or industry—and present Rights of Nature arguments in a mock courtroom setting. This exercise teaches students about shortcomings of our current environmental laws and challenges them to think critically about how our legal system can work better for Nature.
This chart outlining the various elements of a “The Whole-School approach to Climate Change” is represented in many of the school systems that the author describes (Image from UNESCO licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0-IGO)
What The Adults Think
A recent Ipsos/NPR poll on how parents in the United States feel towards teaching their children about climate change in schools received very optimistic responses. 84% of parents of children under eighteen support schools teaching about climate change; 78% of Americans agree their children should start learning about climate change as a whole. A second Ipsos/NPR poll reports that teachers agree with parents. In Washington, DC, teachers were interviewed about their thoughts on climate change, and how it should be taught. 82% agreed that the climate was changing, and 86% believed it should be addressed in schools.
Stubborn Problems in Environmental Education
Despite these bright spots, environmental education as a whole still needs to come a long way.
Charles Saylan, a biology professor at the University of California-Los Angeles, a Marine conservationist, and co-author of ‘The failure of Environmental Education (and How We can Fix It)’, tells a Yale Environment 360 interviewer that the U.S. public educational system fails to make environmental values a major concern. Saylan emphasized that raising awareness was only half of the problem. Students, he says, should be able to take environmental problems in their communities as well as learning about the political processes, which is what the schools should adopt into their systems.
“Environmental Education has failed because it is not keeping pace with environmental degradation, with human impacts on the environment. I also think that it’s failed to provoke action.”
I agree with Saylan. The theme of ‘action’ isn’t being emphasized enough in schools. How else are millions of students across the world going to change anything?
“We don’t see a lot of motivation in these kids,” Saylan admits. “They knew the material and said what was expected of them, but we don’t see a change in behaviour or willingness to give up something for the benefit of the environment.”
Again, Saylan is spot on. Without motivation and outcome, environmental education becomes another class, where the message is quickly forgotten almost as quickly as it is learned, leaving few tangible results.
Charles Saylan tells Yale Environment 360 that though they might not have all of the answers required for the change, the biggest issue is the lack of relevance. “I don’t think that environmental education as it’s currently taught directly affects the lives of the students we’re teaching.” Schools may be teaching their students, but nothing can force them to take the initiative to start something themselves, which is where the engagement plays a large role. “We provided open access to other programs that offered hands-on experience — whale watching, marine-mammal rehabilitation — things that kids could get interested in and then take part in as much as they liked.” Saylan’s observations confirm that there are two parts in environmental education — the teaching in the classrooms, and the activity outside.
“We had kids coming back weekly, not only because we were giving them a good time, but also because they were pulling trash out of the water, and they couldn’t ignore the mountain of junk that was coming out. That was a real object lesson.”
Listening to the Students
Speaking from the point of view of a student, I think environmental education should start from a young age. It should be a mandatory class incorporated into the school’s curriculum, as it is essential to change our habits early in order to alter the climate’s trajectory. The classes should be woven into daily life; students should approach the subject as if it were history or math. Environmental education would be a credited class required in order to graduate high school. A successful class would take students out of the classroom and engaged in an environmental curriculum of action. Each pupil would graduate from high school with the knowledge to live a sustainable life and act in a sustainable way.
Earth Law Education
Along with environmental studies, curricula should also touch on Earth law, including the Rights of Nature and other ecocentric legal movements. These legal movements require action in order to ensure they succeed—writing letters to politicians, educating businesses about the benefits of operating in harmony with Nature, and so forth. by learning about Earth law and taking action within their communities, students will also gain a deeper understanding of how to represent the voice of Nature in law, politics, grassroots movements, and other areas. As students become professionals—business leaders, lawyers, politicians, educators, and so forth—this knowledge will permeate their work and lead to stronger protections for the planet.
Interested in learning more about Earth Law Center’s educational programs? Contact info@earthlaw.org
References
https://e360.yale.edu/features/green_failure_whats_wrong_with_environmental_education
https://thegeep.org/learn/countries/denmark
http://congress.gov.ph/legisdocs/first_17/CR01007.pdf
https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1977/06/06/presidential-decree-no-1153-s-1977/
https://www.wwfmy-esd.com/ecoschoolsprogramme
https://e360.yale.edu/features/green_failure_whats_wrong_with_environmental_education
http://www.nea.org/home/Green-Schools-Environmental-Education.html