5. Engaging in Critical Environmental Concerns with Children

It is common knowledge that our world is in crisis because we are facing huge environmental concerns. A part of school curriculum is to discuss these issues with children. Knowledge about these concerns is out there in society and has been for years, but are people making the critical changes in their lifestyles to drastically reduce the negative environmental impact that we are causing? Is knowledge enough to create change? How can schools become places of ethical practice and change? What are we missing in our efforts to create change? Tronto writes, “ethics of care as ‘a practice rather then a set of rules or principles... She defines caring as ‘a species activity that includes everything that we do to maintain, continue and repair our “world” so we can live in it as well as possible’ ... broadening the concept to include our relationship with the environment as well as with other people. She outlines a number of elements, or values, of an ethics of care including: attentiveness (to the needs of others), responsibility, competence and responsiveness.” (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005, p.74) How can we respond to environmental issues in our classrooms in the ways of caring that Tronto suggests? 

How do we engage in environmental concerns with young children? The use of literature can invite these conversations with children. The author Dr. Seuss was one of the first authors to write stories for children that discussed very difficult world issues. One of his stories, The Lorax is a story line based on environmental issues and neoliberalism. Here are two images from the story. 

How do we take our engagements with difficult social issues and create change within our classrooms? Is knowledge enough to create sustaining change? Do these environmental conditions desensitize people when theory is not put into action?

The event that I attended called Bringing Children and Nature Back Together, Ken Finch talked about this issue. He said that “knowledge is not enough because people act with their heart first and then their brain. Knowledge without love will not stick”. So this change must be a felt meaning, action that comes from our caring for nature. If we hope to create our schools as places for ethical practice then we must provide children with opportunities to engage with the natural world and the species that co-exist with us so they can develop relationships with nature. Levinas views, “ethics as strongly relational, being about how people relate to each other... the recognition that we are all in more or lesser degrees dependent on the care, attention and respect of others.” (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005, p.82) If we look at this quote through the frame of the “Other” as also being nature then nature requires our response through the ethics of care. It is through the relationships built between children and nature that create Levinas’s “ethics of an encounter” (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005, p.92). Children then have the knowledge of environmental concerns and the relationship between themselves and the natural world. It is with both the relationship and knowledge that create spaces for social change. 

Literature is a great way to stimulate conversations of difficult issues but it shouldn’t end there. Making connections from our stories into conversations allows teachers and children to create meaning together. Taking our reciprocal thinking of these social issues and creating action through our response to this information, is where our responsibility to nature becomes a practice of ethics. 

It is crucial for educators to reflect on how we introduce the natural world to children? Are we providing the environment and time for children to discover the wonders of nature? Imagine the feeling a child has when they discover insect species living in logs. Do our outdoor environments invite these experiences? 

I leave you with this message from Dr. Seuss’s story The Lorax,

 

References:

Dahlberg, G. & Moss, P. (2005). Ethics and politics in early childhood education. Rouledge Farmer.

4. Bringing Children and Nature Back Together

“Ethics is a very practical matter. It is the ‘systematic and critical reflection on human action... [and this] is not limited to the domain of many academic texts), but takes place in all kinds of social practice’ (ibid.). Ethics can be - and, we would argue, should be - the basis for preschool (and school) practice.” (2005, p.65) How can we create our schools as places for ethical practice and face our social issue of the divide between nature and childhood? Thinking with Levinas and framing the “Other” as nature, “How can the encounter with otherness take place as responsibly as possible?” (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005, p.87)

In our changing city children are spending less time outdoors in natural play settings. Many children attend daycare, school, and/or after school daycare programs. That means that educators have a huge influence on the quality of engagement that children can have with the natural environment. Ken Finch states “American children spend 27% of their time with electronic media. How much time do they spend outdoors?” (greenheartsinc). Although these stats are for American children, I believe this is also an issue for children in Vancouver. As educators this is a critical question to think about. How much time in our programs provide time and space for children to play in nature? What kinds of outdoor spaces do we have for children to play in? and what do these natural spaces invite children to do? What is our ethical responsibility as teachers to provide opportunities for children to explore nature?

As our city changes natural spaces are becoming more urbanized, children are living in apartments with little or no access to nature, our play ground spaces are becoming more artificial with metal and plastic structures and asphalt or concrete on the ground. There are also so many fears that limit our access to the world outside of our schools and even to go to the creek across the street many centres require field trip notices and consent forms.    

Children are learning about the natural environment through books, TV and even video games. This provides children with opportunities to learn about and see pictures of many animal and plant species around the world, but how much are children engaging with animal and plant species in their own outdoor environments? This comic illustrates this division of children and their interactions with the natural world.

                                                           

In a changing society where technology is becoming a big source in our learning about the world, are we growing an ethical relationship of care and empathy for nature? How can we as teachers respond to these changes and create spaces in our classrooms and outdoor environments that invite children to connect with nature and species of insects and animals in an ethical way? How do we disrupt the division between children and nature?

I recently attended an event called, Bringing Children and Nature Back Together with Ken Finch as the host. He asked us, “what are the challenges that are keeping us from providing children with opportunities to engage with nature?”. Some of the answers where, “time and space”, “safety”,  “lack of money to create natural spaces in our playground”, “parent complaints about there children’s clothing getting dirty”, and “teachers lack of knowledge about nature restricts their comfort of teaching children about the natural environment”. Engaging in thinking together about these challenges as a group allowed for many perspectives to be heard and what we discovered was how easily these challenges could have solutions. These challenges require teachers to have discussions with their teaching team. If bringing children and nature back together is valued, then teachers need to think together about ways in which they can make space and time in their programs for nature exploration. Exploration of nature gets messy so a way to support our families and reduce or eliminate extra laundry for our families is to buy extra clothes from the thrift store or ask for donations of clothes for children to wear outside. Ken Finch responded to the issue of safety by stating, “ humans have the natural sense to recognize dangers and will respond accordingly. If children are playing with sticks than we need to teach them how to use them safely instead of restricting their interaction with this material”. The money restrictions for creating natural play spaces can be difficult, but often centres spend thousands of dollars to make their outdoor spaces more artificial. The natural materials are replaced by plastic, metal, concrete and asphalt. These values of nature play need to become apart of the planning for our outdoor spaces. Often our lack of knowledge about nature and the species that inhabit them cause us to resist teaching children about nature. This invites teachers to learn along side children. As interests emerge from the children teachers can seek out knowledge with children by using the internet, and books. This way our experiences of learning come from what emerges though our interactions with nature and then connects to books and technology. 

Ken Finch asked us before we left the event to think about three things that we can do to bring nature exploration into our programs. The first is what we can to today, the second is what you can do over the next few months, and the third is what you can do by the end of the year. I encourage you to think about this for yourself. I bring back the quote I mentioned in the beginning of this blog, “Ethics is a very practical matter. It is the ‘systematic and critical reflection on human action... [and this] is not limited to the domain of many academic texts), but takes place in all kinds of social practice’ (ibid.). Ethics can be - and, we would argue, should be - the basis for preschool (and school) practice.” (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005, p.65) How can we take our theorizing about the importance of nature exploration and create action towards bringing children and nature back together in our programs as ethically as possible? 

References:

Dahlberg, G. & Moss, P. (2005). Ethics and politics in early childhood education. Rouledge Farmer.

Finch, K. Retrieved from: www.greenheartsinc.org 

3. Where is ethics?

If we think further about how we as humans co-exist with nature we need to question our actions and the impact that they cause on the natural world. How much thought do we put into questioning our actions and the impact that they may cause when we bring the natural environment into our classrooms? I’m not saying whether it is wrong or right but it deserves critical thinking. For example: A part of the elementary school system’s curriculum is to bring salmon eggs into the classroom so that children can learn about the life cycle of salmon. This creates incredible opportunities to learn about ecology and to build a relationship with wildlife however, what about the impact we create when we remove a species from it’s natural environment? What rights do these fish have? and are their rights even thought of? Is this an act of respect for salmon or an action made through ignorance? Has this hierarchy become so naturalized that we don’t question are actions when we bring the natural environment and animals into our classrooms? It seems that ethics is lost in our desire to learn and teach about ecology when we bring it into our classrooms to make it easier and more assessable to us. We can take this even further to think about the messages it sends to children when we bring pinecones, rocks, sticks, leaves etc. into our classroom. Is this respecting nature? It certainly brings an aesthetic appeal to our classrooms. Just because we can move it does it give us ownership? This relates to the educational boarders that our school buildings create and how we allow these walls to maintain our teaching and learning within a classroom. Why can’t we engage more with the world around us? Living in North Vancouver we are close to many forests, rivers, and ecology centres that we can learn about nature through nature.

“For Levinas, in the face-to-face relation the Other is absolutely other. This is an Other which I cannot represent and classify into a category - and hence not totalise. The face-to-face encounter ruptures my ego, eludes thematisations and formalisations and dissolves the capacity to possess and master the Other. Instead of grasping, I have to take responsibility for the Other: and this relation is one of welcoming, a welcoming of the other as stranger” (2005, p. 80). If we think with Levinas, we can imagine our relationship with the natural world as being the Other and in this way we take responsibility for the wellbeing of the other. It is this ethical responsibility and respect for the other that can bring hope and possibilities to better care for our natural environment and the species that co-exist with us. Instead of a sense of ownership of natural materials perhaps we can engage in feelings of responsibility toward the rights of the natural world. Levinas ideas of ‘the face’ can also help us to think about ethics and our relationship with nature. “The demand of ‘the one who needs you, who is counting on you’. The face in the ethical sense invoked by Levinas is ‘a notion through which man comes to me via a human act different from knowing’...An act which is fundamentally and originally ethical: that for Levinas is the relation to the other” (2005, p.80). It is our ethical responsibility to the other (nature) to make ethical decisions in our engagement with the natural world. As Levinas suggests the ethical response is “different then knowing” (2005, p.80), as we know that nature needs our care and it becomes our response to that knowing.

Santos, “Connects responsibility with care, and extends responsibility to cover not only other humans but other species and the environment we share: Postmodern knowledge cannot build solidarity in the technological age except by developing a new ethics, an ethics not colonized by science and technology, like liberal ethics, but, rather, based on a new principle. In my view this new principle is the principle of responsibility... The new principle of responsibility resides in Sorge, the caring that puts us at the centre of all that happens, and renders us responsible for the other, whether human beings and social groups, or objects, animals, nature, and so on...” (2005, p.82) Ethics is crucial in our work as teachers if we hope to model a caring relationship with nature to our students. This requires us to question our work continuously as Santo suggests it is our responsibility to others.

References:

Dahlberg, G. & Moss, P. (2005). Ethics and politics in early childhood education. Rouledge Farmer.

2. The dichotomy in education:

I have been working at an elementary school in North Vancouver which has giving me insight into how the education system is teaching children about ecology and environmental issues. One of our school days we had a performance for the whole school to watch. It discussed environmental issues and how our natural world is in danger due to negative human impact such as: pollution, and garbage etc. One of the key messages from the performance was the little things that we could do differently that can help our environment such as using less throw away food containers, recycling, and walking/biking to school. Right after the performance was lunch time which on this day students were provided with a hot lunch. Ironically these hot lunches where served in all throw away containers. This caused me to think about the dichotomy between what we are teaching children and our actions modeling something that contradicts what we are teaching about. The schools recycling program only recycles certain types of paper and juice boxes because they can make 5 cents off of each one. Are we modeling that only if we make a profit that it’s worth our effort and time to recycle? We really need to think about this and take our actions seriously if we want to support and foster relationships of respect between ourselves/students and nature. If we don’t will be risking more negative impact on our natural world?

Severn Suzuki speech at UN Earth Summit 1992 Tell the World:

Severn Suzuki speaks to the environmental issues of our world and the impact of neoliberalism influence on a business consumerism society causing environmental conditions of crisis. What stands out to me is this recognition that there is a crisis but that people keep making choices that continue this negative cycle. This is a huge issue and can be overwhelming, but the question for me is, what can we do as teachers in the education system to help improve these conditions? Severn Suzuki quotes the great wisdom of her father “you are what you do, not what you say” (6:15). This statement can hold us all accountable if we begin to focus on our actions reflecting our teaching. Richard Louv writes, “ the way children understand and experience nature has changed radically. The polarity of the relationship has reversed. Today, kids are aware of the global threats to the environment-but their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading.” (2005, p.1). How can we act as teachers in a way to encourage and foster this connected relationship between our students and nature? How can we take seriously environmental issues but also provide spaces for children to make positive environmental changes? What if we increase our engagement with the natural environment by creating outside space on our school grounds for school and community gardens. This would teach children about the value of gardening and create engagement between schools and the communities as we begin to make a positive impact in our world. This would also provide schools with nutritious foods for lunch and cooking programs as well as provide much needed garden space for our communities in which garden space is so valuable in a growing and changing city. We can also begin recycle programs that teach children and their families about recycling.

References:

Louv, Richard. (2005). Last Child In The Woods Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. Algonquin Books.

Severn Suzuki speech at UN Earth Summit 1992 Tell the World [online video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaOJrJ_oqFU

1. Educational Boarders: How do we engage with the natural world in education?

As an early childhood educator one of the questions that has been provoking my thinking for a few years is, how do we represent and teach young children about ecology? This question was brought on by my increasing relationship with nature. Through my circle of friends influence I have overcome many of my fears around exploring the forests in North Vancouver. I became aware of the difference in how I felt and thought when I was hiking and exploring in the forest. There is a presence there unlike anything else and I feel a sense of balance when I’m there. This change in my life has caused we to wonder why my experiences of exploring nature has been so limited when I have grown up in a city with an incredible amount of nature literally all around me? Why have I grown up to feel so afraid of the forest when I have seen more bears on the street outside my house then in the forest? Why was my education about ecology so limited in school?

The teacher part of my identity has been provoked to think about education and how I have seen and taken part in representing and teaching children about our natural world. It isn’t a secret that our natural environment all over the world is in danger due to harmful human choices made everyday. This is the social justice issue that I will discussing in my continued blogs. I am interested in engaging further about the impact that is caused by the lack of engaging seriously in ecology education and environmental issues with children. What is the neoliberalism’s role in influencing the lack of ecology education in schools? How do we co-exist with our natural world as a society? How do we value our forests, animals, etc. and how does this impact the level of engagement with exploring and learning about ecology in schools? One of the main people I will be thinking about this issue with is Richard Louv. In Richard’s book: Last Child In The Woods Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, he speaks directly to the social justice issue of the lack of engagement that human’s today have with the natural environment. Richard Louv states, “healing the broken bond between our young and nature-is in our self-interest, not only because aesthetics or justice demands it, but also because our mental , physical, and spiritual health depends upon it. The health of the earth is at stake as well. How young respond to nature, and how they raise their own children, will shape the configurations and conditions of our cities, homes-our daily lives” (2005, p.3)

In the last few years there has been a great emphasis on bringing the natural environment into our classrooms. It creates an aesthetic appeal in our classrooms that opens a space for children to engage and explore with natural materials. I also value what the natural materials represent in our classrooms but I have began to question more in-depth what this representation of natural materials means to education? If we bring the natural environment into our classrooms is that enough to learn about nature and grow a deep and engaged relationship with it? Does this do justice for what the forest can teach us? In bringing the natural materials into the classroom it seems that we engage even less with the outdoors.

References:

Louv, Richard. (2005). Last Child In The Woods Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. Algonquin Books.