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Environmental education
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 Environmental
education needs to be incorporated from a very early onset. After
all, it is when we are young that we begin to form our world view
and start to form many of our habits. And everyone knows that bad
habits die hard!
Environmental education should be taught even to our youngest students.
Even young children can begin to understand how their individual
actions can affect the environment. Even young children can learn
to take personal responsibility for the preservation and restoration
of our environment.
This does not mean that you need to involve young children in an
in depth discussion about global warming and how the emissions of
our cars contribute to it. After all, these kids do not even know
how to drive these carbon dioxide-releasing vehicles!
But, even the youngest kids can learn how to turn off the water
while brushing their teeth. Even the youngest kids can learn to
pick up litter that they might have dropped, and even to pick up
other litter. Even the youngest kids can learn to appreciate and
protect the environment more fully, because of a little environmental
education.
Any teacher can incorporate environmental education into his or
her plan. If you teach at a school that does not have an environmental
education program, that does necessarily mean that you can not incorporate
some basic lessons.
In truth, environmental education can be incorporated into lessons
in every subject. Quite obviously, environmental education can be
incorporated into different sciences, like geology, biology, etc.
But it can also be incorporated into math, English, geography, history,
and other such subjects.
You can do math story problems about garbage, water, or land, etc.
In English, you can read stories about the environment, etc. In
geography, you can explain how polar ice caps are melting or how
cultures are changing because of the changing environment. In history,
you can talk about how much the environment has affected humans
over the years and how much we have affected it. Mention environmental
laws, etc.
Even if you do not incorporate environmental education into your
day to day learning, you can still have one or two special environmental
education days throughout the year. Invite a forest ranger or a
conservationalist, etc. to come speak to your class. Bring out coloring
books on the cycle of water and why we must conserve it. Watch the
animated film “Fern Gully!” Learn about extinct animals.
Learn about endangered animals.
If you are not happy with how the environment is right now, do
something about it! Incorporate environmental education into the
classroom at a very early age! You may feel like you are simply
passing on the problem to a younger generation, but this younger
generation can help solve the problem if they are given the tools
at an early age.
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