Environmental Justice

When you think of schools and teachers teaching students the thing that is most ignored is environmental justice. Now a days students are not getting a clear understanding about environmental issues and that is a problem. Good questions for teachers to ask themselves and their students are what can we do to help the environment? and do students even know that there are many environmental issues out there? Or if the students know what certain issues cause our environmental problems?

From researching environmental justice I have learned that it is is a meaningful involvement of people taking care of the environment. One way of involvement is in schools. I think teachers not only have the responsibility of teaching students math and English, but also on how to take care of our environment, long with learning more about nature.

After reading the Rethinking Schools online article called Obama, Schools, and the Environment I learned that teachers have to play a strong role in educating children about our "world as a whole." In "A Pedagogy for Ecology" an excerpt from Rethinking Early Childhood Education, by Ann Pelo she states that "Helping children develop what Pelo calls an ecological identity is a prerequisite to children developing a connection to the natural world, and later, a commitment to defend that world." If children learn about our world, nature, and the environment it will be easier for them to want to make a difference and have a better understanding about the problems our world can face.

Another point in the article is from "The Wonder of Nature" by Bob Peterson, which is a review from three books about education and the earth. He says "that all education is environmental education, as children inescapably acquire attitudes about nature in their schooling." Every subject students learn can have some relationship with the environment. For example science or social studies can deal with environmental issues and students can learn from these different subjects to better expand their knowledge on our world.

Yes I do think it is important for teachers to educate students on this subject. I know when I become a teacher I want my students learn about the problems nature can face, what they can do to fix it, and why it is important to our world.

I chose the picture at the beginning because I think it really represents our situation about environmental justice. We have the control to change out world and learn more about it. The world is in our hands and we can only make it a better one.

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