As a student, whether in elementary, secondary, post secondary, or post degree, I have always thrived with the old fashioned model of teaching. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t have thrived to a greater degree – and to a more meaningful degree – with a more personal and self-directed style of schooling. There is, however, one common thread to my success – the more interested I am in the subject matter, the more I am able to focus, process, and reflect on my learning (well, duh!). So, in getting to my point here, today’s lecture was difficult, wordy, and intellectual – but I was so interested and inspired by the subject matter, so I yet again furrowed my brow, scrunched up my eyes, clicked on my brain, and soaked in as much new knowledge as I could.

Lets start with the term autopoesis. Thank you Jenny for explaining it to us in a way that we could relate to as teachers. I did a little research online to further my understanding, but found my eyes glazing over. Instead, I reached both for my class notes and the posts that everyone madly wrote on the online forum during the discussion. Re-reading both of these, I was reinvigorated. Just as I did today in class, I found myself nodding my head over and over.

This notion of us being superior to the environment, anthropocentrism, is one of the major reasons for the destruction that we find ourselves in today. The man who introduced the opposing term, ecocentrism, is a legendary and important environmentalist – Aldo Leopold.

http://academia.edu/1476524/Environmental_Ethics_Between_Anthropocentrism_and_Ecocentrism

Believe it or not, I posted about him just yesterday for my other class blog – discussing the concept of autopoesis, (although I did not know at the time that it was autopoesis) and its’ relation to children’s literature. Talk about an awesome coincidence, proving that yes, we are all part of this cycle of life, this living organism that grows and moves together, and connects itself in the most mysterious and wonderful ways. Okay, maybe this isn’t exactly the best example of that, but there are so many things in nature that prove this time and time again. How about the Monarch Butterflies that migrate up and down the length of North and South America, taking seven generations to complete their journey.

While I have been playing a bit of a devil’s advocate during this class, it is with the best of intentions in mind. When I am discussing the importance of students getting out and connecting with nature, it is so that they may respect nature and all its’ fabulous parts, and out of this respect, come to a place where they will work hard to keep it safe and healthy. With a recent class, I asked them to think about a favourite possession. We talked about how much care they take with these possessions – keeping them clean, safe, out of harm’s way. I then related this to how we need to look at Mother Nature – plants, animals, ocean, sky, and everything in between. Again, Aldo Leopold has wise words to say about this: many years ago, he created a document about land ethics.

http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/landethic.shtml

The trees cannot speak for themselves, nor the whales in the oceans or the eagles in the sky. They are victim to our actions, carried out mostly from a place of anthropocentrism. I have, however, been reading a hopeful book about our environmental efforts (most are quite bleak). It is Jane Goodall’s Hope for Animals and Their World: How Animals are Being Rescued from the Brink.

And now, for the second time in two days (yes), I will quote Dr. Seuss’s character, the Lorax: “I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.”

Let us all take a page from the Lorax.