OBAMA WANTS MORE ENVIRONMENAL LITERACY
Progress Made on Nature Deficit Disorder, But Not Enough
Conservationists consider Obama's budget a "historic moment," but still need administration and congressional action on two more fronts.By Bill Schneider, 2-04-10
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| Wild Bill and grandson Alex. What could be more fascinating that a freshly caught trout from a wilderness lake? Photo by Greg Schneider | |
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Calling it a “historic moment” and a “terrific first step,” conservationists applauded President Obama’s budget request that included, for the first time, money for “environmental literacy” for the U.S. Department of Education.
Great news, but keep in mind that it’s only the first step.
“Advancing the environmental literacy of our students is key to addressing today’s increasingly complex environmental and related economic, social, natural resource, and energy issues,” Don Baugh, director of the No Child Left Inside Coalition, said in a press release. “It will not only better prepare students for college and the 21st Century workforce, but help to combat childhood obesity and related health problems by getting kids outside to learn about the natural world….I commend the President and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for recognizing the critical role that environmental education plays in preparing our students for the green economy.”
“The Department of Education took a historic step for the future economy by including environmental literacy…” Kevin Coyle, Vice President for Education and Training at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), a founding member of the NCLI Coalition, added.
The press release also included praise of the budget request from Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Congressman John Sabanes (D-MD), authors of the No Child Left Inside Act (S.866, HR 2054) currently being deliberated in the both the Senate and House.
Isn’t it refreshing, for a change, to be heading in the right direction? President Obama and Secretary Duncan have made innovation and student achievement a major goal of the administration, and what they call “environmental literacy” is part of it.
How much money actually goes to environmental literacy is an elusive number, but it comes out of a proposed budget request of $1 billion for a program designed to improve instruction to support college- and career-readiness standards.
The NCLI Coalition, the nation’s leading voice for environmental education, includes 1,500 nonprofit groups and agencies and represents 50 million individuals, but even with that political punch, it still faces an uphill battle to beat Nature Deficit Disorder. The fight continues on these two frontlines:
Surgeon General Priorities. The NCLI Coalition and the NWF are pushing hard to convince our new Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, “to promote the health benefits of children who engage in regular unstructured outdoor play in their backyards, at local parks, or any green space that offers the opportunity to connect with nature.”
This shouldn’t be a big stretch for Dr. Benjamin. First Lady Michelle Obama and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius have already announced plans for “a healthier America” through regular physical activity and better nutrition. The NCLI Coalition and NWF simply want that concept expanded to include “time unplugged” and making independent play outdoors and connecting with nature an integral part of that new vision.
“The medical, education, and environmental communities ask the Surgeon General to recommend that all American children and their families take time everyday to ‘Be Out There’ and interact with the natural world,” NWF spokesperson Rebecca Garland, said while supporting the expanded vision.
Garland is executive director of NWF program called Be Out There, a national campaign “to help American families raise happier, healthier children with a life-long love of nature.”
No Child Left Inside Act. On Earth Day 2009, Senator Reed and Congressman Sarbanes, along with 101 co-sponsors, introduced the No Child Left Inside Act. The bill authorizes new funding ($500 million over five years) for states to provide higher-quality, environmental education and to support outdoor learning activities. This critical legislation has gotten blown off the radar screen by Wall Street bailout, economic stimulus, health care and jobs legislation, but now, hopefully, Congress can get back to it. Passing it on Earth Day 2010 would be a grand idea.
Just in case you think the above isn’t a high priority compared to other things you’d like to see the Obama Administration and Congress doing, consider this:
A new study released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that daily electronic media use by children “is up dramatically” and today’s children have less contact with nature than any generation in human history. The average American child, in fact, now spends 7 hours and 38 minutes per day (53 hours per week) “plugged in.”
In other words, and not meaning to rain on the good news in Obama’s budget, we’re still losing this all-important battle even faster than we imagined.
Hopefully, Congress and the administration can heed this shocking news and act quickly to pass the NCLI Act and make fighting Nature Deficit Disorder a high priority for the Surgeon General so our next generation can receive a more robust education about connecting with our natural world.
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Comments
was an unfit parent because he owned guns.
The purpose of schools is suposed to be education, not indoctrination.
This isn't about getting kids outside, it's about indoctrinating them in the ways of the sierra club and thier ilk.
There is a concept alien to most Americans today. It's called parenting. When my mother wanted us outside, she would shove us out the door and lock it. I never had to do that with mine, I had a hard time getting them to come in.
We have to get away from the concept that the gov't is better qualified to raise your kids than you are.
The NCLI program has nothing to do with gun control, wolves, or any other liberal plot, nor is it about teaching radical environmentalism in the classroom. It isn't even about teaching anything in classrooms. It's almost completely about getting children away from screens and giving them an opportunity to experience nature and develop a connection with the natural world that we have done, but that is more and more difficult for parents and teachers to achieve nowadays.
Please don't make controversy where there is none.
Bill
Went to the NCLI site and:
"Climate changes, depletion of natural resources, air and water problems, and other environmental challenges are pressing and complex issues that threaten human health, economic development, and national security. Finding wide-spread agreement about what specific steps we need to take to solve these problems is difficult. Environmental education will help ensure our nation’s children have the knowledge and skills necessary to address these complex issues."
I looked at the coalition lists, mostly nature parks and tour guides and whatnot...obviously looking for consistent business. Didn't see the "usual suspect" groups listed except maybe Audubon -- and increasingly, Montana FWP. And no "national" listing.
Still, gotta wonder who is lobbying, why this is hosted on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation website, who's bankrolling the effort. This ain't just spontaneous, ya know.
rolls right off the tongue, like cha ris mat ic mac ro fau na
Is that iambic pentameter?
Environmental degradation poses extreme consequences to all people in all cultures around the world. No matter if one believes that humans play any role in this degradation, or to the extent of that role, the environmental issues we face as a global community are here. I'm not talking about 'global warming' or 'endangered species' - it's basic supply and demand. We demand more from nature that can be produced/recycled, and this lifestyle is not sustainable. (Even if you're just speaking about diversion from landfills.)
I'm a concerned parent and citizen - not a lobbyist or a special-interest supporter. I care because I love my child and I respect our interconnected relationship with the natural world. (Not suggesting that no one else does...just stating my worldview.)
aLL the wild country has been ruined by the right wing crazies who can't even saand to see kids lean about nature.
"Radical environmentalism is directly responsible for a huge part of this nations economic woes"....such as????
blabbering right wing psychos can't accept responsibility for timber markets or economics in general.
The mills did'nt close becuase of r enviros it you look at all the private mills in ME they're closing also becuase the demand is down.
Stop scapegoating any conservationists and take some responsibility.
NDD will continue as long as kids are plugged in excessively and only know nature as llogging roads and logged to hell USFS lands.
Looking at the sponsor list in Congress, I doubt it. It's the usual list of urban usual Democrat suspects with a scattering of RINOs.
But the part that bothers me the most goes back to NLCB....the reason for NLCB is that schools have gotten so diverted from the basic skill set that EVERYONE needs to fully function as an adult citizen. One needs to be able to make change without a cash register. One needs to be able to read and conceptualize the material read. One needs to be able to express oneself in properly-structured-and-spelled sentences.
Until kids are able to read, write, figure and think -- for themselves, thanks -- all the rest is just clutter. Period.
Let's have literacy in the fundamentals first. THEN take them out, to go out and get their water samples and admire wattle-throated billabongs and whatnot.
Bill Schneider:"It isn't even about teaching anything in classrooms."
Please Bill, one or the other.
If we can't find time for our kids, maybe we need to sit down and seriously consider our priorities.
Parenting is not the job of the gov't or gov't paid teachers.
America was made great by taking responsibility for you and yours. If we do that we don't need gov't indoctrination programs.
Radical environmentalism is not science, far from it and propaganda at best and has no place in our classrooms. However true environmental science has a needed place in our kid's classrooms.
Nobel prize climatologist Al Gore?
"The NCLI focuses specifically on enhancing environmental literacy through “formal” public K-12 education."
That scares me.
From my experience (I'm 32), parents are disconnected from nature too, and the parents I know do not know enough about environmental science to 'teach' their children. I know countless children who are babysat by TVs and gaming systems. Where does all the ADD/ADHD come from? Hum...genetics, maybe?!
I agree, we need more responsible parenting, but I personally believe we need holistic teaching systems.
Doesn't do a heck of a lot of good to be connected to nature if you're not connected to reality, does it?
Teh next thing is to get the professional fund raisers out of the teaching business. They may be non profits, but they want to rule what and how.
My grandson (now in the USN) was in elementary school when the wolves were hauled in, he came to my house after school one day and was telling me how the ranchers were trying to take homes away from the wolves etc etc. Fortunately he had a 4-H lamb & they have always had horses, so I was able to relate how the ranchers feel about their animals being killed about wolves to how he would feel about is. Also teach him that the wolves were brought in, they didn't live here. A granddaughter a little younger was out scouting the sage grouse lek with me and was telling me how there should be no roads, and people were pushing wildlife out of their homes. So we discussed how her Daddy would get to work without roads, how we could check the lek without them, how they could get food, and where they would live if they did not have a house. Environmentalism is the only religion that can be taught in school and it is.
Make access easier for folks and save the money.
"Also teach him that the wolves were brought in, they didn't live here."
you have soo much to teach the youngsters toad.
They walk among us. And some of them are teachers and even college professors. The prospects are frightening.
Wolves were naturally migrating back to MT
So we should teach them that wolves never existed before the feds brought em back
you right wing crazies are too much.
You just assume anyone who supports wilderness/roadless wants all public land to be wilderness and is a radical.
You people are the radicals who can only rant and rave about anti-wilderness and anti-predator even on a thread that is dealing with NDD.
I think the kids are catching on that the old ways are'nt going to cut it anymore and it pisses off all these right wing crazy commentators here who resist change more than anything.
The goal of environmental literacy (EL) is to develop a citizenry that lives their lives based on a strong understanding of ecology and the human connection to those ecosystems. We can't survive without well functioning ecosystems and we can't chat on computers without using natural resources.
One important tool for developing EL is to provide kids with outdoor learning experiences. This does not detract from learning the basics. In fact, the research is very, very clear: well implemented EE significantly improves student achievement in reading, writing, and math.
That said, there is a real concern that EE is often promoted by those with a preservation agenda. Real EE does not include a bias towards any one value such as preservation or consumption, instead it shines a light on the diversity of values surrounding the environment, and promotes individual critical thinking rather than following the herd.
The theory is fine. But let's not forget the practice, for example the "Story of Stuff" or whatever that vid was.
Literacy would include the ability to punch numbers to determine the physical footprint of a solar farm, its watt hours, the materials used, in comparison to coal, gas, demand cycles. That's all basic functional LITERACY.
Here's something I find rather ILLiterate. City of WF is installing a solar heat thingie at the new cop and fire shop. Unclue (not a typo) Sam is paying for most out of STIMULUS funds. Quarter million.
Solar? In Whitefish, Cloud Central Montana? Since winter started, we've had perhaps two days of "solar" radiation. I cannot imagine in my wildest dreams that the solar capacity will pay for its own installation. No freaking way.
And that is freaking ILLITERATE. I don't want kids coming out of school predisposed to this sort of shyte.
Real education would be similar to what Todd did with his grand children. Get them outside, engage them in converation and get them to think for themselves about both sides of the issue.
unfortunately, hysterical liberals can't even stand to see that in a family unit. How do you think it would go over in the public school system?
by telling them that wolves never existed in the rockies before the feds brought em in, and indoctrinating them with all the typical right wing crazy myhts and lies.
Your a complete partisan "hysterical hack."
Public schools are not that biased Tom YOU are.
It seems to me that it is time to do a lot of this stuff by teleconferencing instead of meetings. The carbon footprint of Copenhagen was equal to more than an annual output of some countries. That is really dumb in my opinion. And that does not even deal with the cost.
As a matter of fact I think it is time for our lawmakers to stay home and be accessible to their constituents and have their meetings via teleconferencing. The money, hot air, and carbon footprint that would be saved would be tremendous.
As for solar, I thought it would be great, then I bought a little solar light for the back step of my camper so I could see. First snow that piled up on it took care of it's ability to charge.