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Does Environmental Education Work?

 

  • Why) do you think each behavior is necessary in your discipline (for the discipline to work)?
  • If you think the behavior is not necessary for your discipline to “work”, why do you think it’s there?
  • If you think the behavior is not necessary for your discipline to “work”, what do you think should/could be done?

Honestly, I’m getting a bit tired of my list of 7 disciplinary behaviours.  I’m not sure how accurate or helpful it is.

Even worse, I don’t know if EE works at all, with or without those or any other behaviours.  I think many environmental educators are still experimenting and flailing in the dark, trying to find the right way to communicate with the vast majority of people.  So perhaps I should suggest: don’t do any of the things on my list, they don’t work.

 

If environmental education were a person…

…it would be:

gender neutral. S/he would be androgynous-looking, with longish hair worn in a ponytail. S/he would wear birkenstocks or keens, even on special occasions.  S/he would hug people a lot, try to avoid conflict, and really want everyone to get along by finding areas of commonality.  However, EE is not a pushover; EE has strong principles regarding social justice, equality, and ethics, particularly where non-humans are concerned.  S/he will volunteer tirelessly for causes that are meaningful, such as protesting unsound logging practices and unsafe gas or oil pipelines.  EE can be a little overwhelming at times, but s/he has a good heart.  S/he is a really fun person at parties.