Learning in Interaction

Education and the Environment-Learning t by Learning in Interaction on NotaEducation and the Environment-Learning to Live with LimitsSome points from Gregory A. Smith:Changing Conditions----Changing SchoolsOur schools reflect us, our whole world view of competition and material growth, that is destroying our planet and ourselves. By changing what we teach and how we teach it, we can produce happy, wise childern, and sustainable society. (Mary E. Clark)A central premise of the modern era is that society is composed of isolated individuals whose central preoccupation is the pursuit of their own development and economic self-interest. Preconceiving education for an era of global environmental limits: The environmental, political, social, and economic crises we are beginning to encounter now and in coming decades----an era of restricted opportunities. How can we stop training our children to live in a world that caanot be sustained and will inevitably become somthing different?Society is a machine in which individuals are moving parts.Schooling for Interdependence:- physically separating children from communities - detaching children from adults/one another + enable children to grasp and live out their interdependence with others and the natural world+ break beyond the boundaries of the classroom; Root in the broader environmentExample: Learning activites took place within students' own neighborhoods could encourage them to bring their findings and observations back to their fellow-learners and to become the creators of knowledge rather than its comsumers or passive observers. + bring nonschool volunteers into the classroom: Parents, neighbors, bus drivers, political activists..+ help children begin to interpret the world from their perspective as well as that of teachers and principals+ developing social habits of cooperation and Clooevtive Responsibility + strengthen the ties between school and the social and natural worlds around it+ ground learning in personal experience rather than abstractions that have little to do with children's lives+ create opportunities for children to form mutually supportive relations with others within the schoolHelping children to master habits of care, social responsibility, and commitment to others.Dewey: communal membership----students transfer their understanding of interdependence to the broader society.Coleman and Hoffer: "The school is an instituion of the community, the family is part of the community, and the child attends the school as a part of this functional community."Noddings: Cooperative learning strategyGregory A. Smith, (1992), Education and the Environment--Learning to Live with Limits, State University of New York PressRobinson Community Learning CenterThey can learn how to evaluate the efforts of others by knowing the costs and demands of such effort themselves. Local history and social studies projects, environmental studies, occupational internships, involvement in political action groups, community service, regular camping trips, and the maintenance of school gardens all could provide opportunities for students to experience learning in sites beyongd the classroom.(Enable JavaScript in your browser, please.)