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