'A radical revisioning of education is required if young people are to develop the values, skills and knowledge needed to become environment decision-makers and help create a fairer more sustainable world.'
Mary Tasker, chair of Human Scale Education Thirty years ago we couldn't appreciate the damage that mankind could have created. We had no idea in the 1970s that climate change would become the issue that it has.
Severe warnings have now been issued for the future of our planet.
Biological diversity is declining at a rapid rate and we are losing thousands of species every year. The oceans are changing. Many of the large fish are now gone and we are moving down the fish chain. We are literally 'strip-mining the oceans'. There are many chemicals on this planet that do not belong here and that are causing untold damage to the environment and human health.
The time has come for a revolution in how we think about education. This was the message conveyed throughout Human Scale Education's (HSE) conference held in London earlier this month. HSE is an education reform movement that promotes ecological values and is committed to small learning communities.
Speaking at the conference, David Orr, writer and professor of environmental studies at Oberlin College in Ohio, USA, referred to the psychological forces of denial at play and said effects of climatic change are only just beginning to click in. He made the astounding statement that our planet as we know it only has a 50-50 chance of making it to the year 2100. Then, after a moment's pause, he corrected himself - and said that in actual fact, it is a great deal less than 50-50.
Believing that ecological education should be the lynchpin of all schooling and become the cutting edge to the new world, Mr Orr says we need to rethink the curriculum. 'We ought to re-wild the curriculum and allow children time for imagination to develop without curriculum pressures,' he said. 'Let a child be a child and let him fall in love with the world, and then he will fight for it!'
Mr Orr feels that as educators, we should try to get advertisers and designers to be more aware of environmental issues, because of the tremendous influence they have on young people. If capitalism is here to stay, what we need is a move towards more natural capitalism. If waste emissions are drastically reduced, and machinery becomes solar powered, this is achievable.
Education in schools and universities has, through parents, teachers, and the Government, developed to serve the economy and promote wealth, argues Satish Kumar, founder of HSE, editor of Resurgence magazine and programme director at Schumacher College in Dartington, Devon. He believes children are brainwashed into equating monetary possessions with success. But his definition of wealth is good relationships with family, friends and neighbours.
His passionate belief is that we should put ecology before economy. If we don't put ecology at the centre of the education process, the continuation of evolution will be damaged. We need a mental shift in education. It is no good just talking, we have to do something.
Mr Kumar founded The Small School in the village of Hartland, Devon, because he didn't want his daughter to make a daily one-hour bus journey to and from the nearest secondary school at the age of 11. Neither did he like the values promoted there. So he opened a small secondary school for up to 50 pupils in the village. Twenty-three years on, the school is thriving.
Mr Kumar believes that children should learn not about nature, but from it.
He says, 'Nature is a book, nature is a teacher. Hartland children learn in touch with nature. Children are not an empty bucket to be filled with information. Children are like acorns. They need to learn how to become an oak tree. They are a continuum of billions of years of evolution. Just let the potential come out.'
Overwhelmingly, feedback from the conference's discussion groups indicated that participants would like a re-examination of values in education and to question education's current role. They want to move toward a more ecological curriculum.
For the natural world to survive into the future, education and subsequently businesses and the media must relate more closely to issues of ecological sustainability. Otherwise, as David Orr asked, will the world, as we know it, still exist in 2100?
Rosalyn Spencer is a primary teacher in Lincolnshire
FURTHER INFORMATION
* Human Scale Education, Unit 8, Fairseat Farm, Chew Stoke, Bristol BS40 8XF. Telephone/fax: 01275 332516, www.hse.org.uk, e-mail info@hse.org.uk.
Recommended reading:
* Educating on a human scale: visions for a sustainable world, report of 1998 HSE conference, with lectures by Anita Roddick, Satish Kumar and Richard Pring. Published by HSE, 2.
* Environmental literacy: educating as if the world mattered by David Orr.
Published by HSE, 2.50, ISBN 898321-02-07.
* Guide to ecoliteracy: A new context to school restructuring by Fritjof Capra, Carole Cooper, Ed Clark and Ray Doughty. A whole school programme for ecological literacy. Published by Center for Ecoliteracy, available from HSE, 10.
* Sustainable education: re-visioning learning and change by Stephen Sterling. Published by Green Books on behalf of the Schumacher Society.
ISBN 1 - 870098-99-4. Available from HSE, 5.
CASE STUDY: THE POWER OF COMMUNICATION
Founded in 1986, Park School is a small independent primary school which fosters the learning philosophies promoted at the HSE conference. It is an innovative school providing a holistic and human-scale education for approximately 50 children aged three to 11 where environmental values underpin whole school policy. The school is fortunate to be situated in beautiful grounds on the historic Dartington Hall Estate.
The most distinctive aspect of the school's curriculum is its approach to environmental education and the creative arts. The school's natural surroundings are used to the full. The extensive school grounds include a paddock containing hens and two Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs that the children help look after. There is also an orchard, tree nursery, pond and wetland area, garden, composting bins and greenhouse. The school grows its own vegetables and provides organic, GM-free, vegetarian lunches.
Every child at the school has their own backpack and they use them for expeditions that regularly take place by the river and other areas of the estate.
Silence and 'just being' are encouraged. While on an expedition the children may lie down, close their eyes and listen to the sounds of nature for a period of time. They have time to touch and smell, and 'just be' - something there isn't time for in settings where each day is packed with learning objectives that must be covered whether appropriate to individual children's needs or not. The children also cycle together regularly.
The Early Years Unit within the school caters for children from three years old until they are ready to transfer to the next educational stage at around the age of five to six years, depending on each individual child's stage of development. The unit is run by teacher Alice Hoare, who says, 'I believe the education of the youngest children is the most important in the whole education spectrum. If we get the foundation right the child will flourish and later stages will be approached in a positive manner.'
Alice carefully produces long-term and medium-term plans for the children in her group, ensuring that over the year there will be opportunities provided for the children to learn creatively and in conjunction with the natural environment. She believes in the importance of ongoing formative assessment, and children and staff together maintain a record of achievements in the form of a creative storybook for each child.
Alice keeps daily planning to a minimum, believing that knowing each child well and being able to cater for their individual needs as and when the moment arises is far more important.
But what about Ofsted? They visited the school recently and loved what they saw.
To find out more about Park School and to read its recent OFSTED report, visit www.park-school.info/ofsted.htm. Alternatively, write to the school at Park Road, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EQ, or telephone 01803 864588.