New Education to Save the Old World

Richard Kahn states: “Just as there is now a socio-ecological crisis of serious proportions, there is also a crisis in environmental education over what must be done about it”(Kahn 5). In his intense manifesto titled “Toward Ecopedagogy” Kahn argues for the reeducation of the world because of humanity’s current incompetence to the Earth that they live on. The fact that 45 million Americans are confused as to what a source of freshwater is should be a telling statistic if any. Obviously there is not enough being done in the area of environmental education or at least it is not being done effectively. So the question must be asked: How do we properly teach later generations respect for the environment?

                It would begin at the basic most encapsulating of levels. Families need to be behind this teaching their children a basic respect for nature as they go through this entire process of education in a more traditional sense. This means courses for adults teaching the basic tenants of an ideal that protects the environment. Without good examples back home these later generations won’t have a reason to hold on to this new education. When these children start going to school they need to be given information from the very beginning on how the world around them works. And they don’t just need mindless repetition of facts they need to experience nature itself, in its purest of forms. Frequent camping trips to local areas like a river or a mountain will help to establish a connection to an area. The camping or day trips need to be chiefly for enjoyment because if the children can’t enjoy nature they will never feel an affinity towards it. Children should be taught in-class how aspects of nature work and given a task to complete that incorporates this knowledge on these trips as an exercise on how nature can be helpful.

                The content of these lessons should lean more towards the natural environment and how different professional disciplines interact with the earth opposed to the education of the politics and policies on nature that just see children remain in a more secluded thought on how nature works. Besides, government hasn’t really provided a good example of how to deal with nature up to this point anyway. But overall this sort of educational overhaul is what is necessary to perhaps save our plant from turning into a wasteland.