Reasons for Greening Your Teaching

Presenting the Case
to Parents and Principals

If you want to green your teaching for the sake of the future
(and I'm hoping that's why you're here), you'll need a solid and salient rationale.

GreenHearted's green curriculum model was designed to be flexible, adjustable, and suitable for any curriculum. You simply teach your subject, course or grade, keeping the age-appropriate environmental / sustainability focus in mind as you're planning, teaching, evaluating and choosing learning resources.

If, however, you are one of the many teachers who now recognize the urgency of teaching for sustainability, you might be lamenting that there's just not enough time to do it if you're going to get through the curriculum.

This is where courage comes in! Perhaps you shouldn't say anything at all — and just do it? If you're doing good in the world, contributing to a better future for your students, why broadcast it to people who might stop you?

But if you want to get parents, colleagues, principals and other adminstrators on side and supporting you, you'll need a strong rationale.

Here are several reasons for greening your teaching. (Click on the links for more information.)

1. Our students will inherit a degraded planet
   Our students are living in (not "on" and separate from) a planet that is already degraded — global warming-induced climate catastrophes such as droughts, air and water pollution, ozone depletion, desertification of southern Europe and the Amazon rainforest, devastation of coral reefs. The list goes on. And as adults, our students will be living in a planet in severe decline. Today's curriculum must teach for this new reality.


2. We're stuck in an outdated "curriculum box"
   Because of global warming and climate change, we now live (and teach) in a world heading for the collapse of human civilization and possibly the mass extinction of species (including our own). We have to face it, much of what we teach is outdated and irrelevant. But curriculum hasn't been revised to reflect the urgency of this new — and scary — global situation. We're still teaching a 20th century (oftentimes a 19th century) curriculum that ignores 21st century realities.


3. We must mobilize if we're to save the future
   All of society mobilized — and fast! — when World War II became a threat. Our education system can and must mobilize quickly again, along with the rest of society, to move us from fossil-fuel dependence (and greenhouse gas emissions) to a safe and clean renewable energy economy. Our students will need new knowledge, skills and attitudes in order to become members of a green workforce.


4. It's the UN's Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
   What better time to green your teaching? Educators all over the world are learning how to teach for sustainability during this United Nations initiative.


5. Children need nature, like they need sleep and healthy food
   Recent research shows how vital it is for children to spend time in the natural world. And because many parents no longer let their children play freely outdoors, schools must give their students the opportunity to play and learn in nature.


6. Using the environment as an integrating context for learning boosts achievement
   Research conducted in the United States showed that integrating learning around the environment as the major theme or context improved achievement scores in language arts (reading and writing), math, science and social studies. And what a great way to implement constructivist learning.


7. Sustainability learning can lead to cost savings
   This rationale is a perennial favourite with administrators (parents, politicians and school board trustees like it, too). Getting students to perform environmental audits in school and at home can lead to savings through energy and water conservation. One school I've worked in (mind you, it was very large and very old) saved $250,000 in two years through energy and water conservation measures!


8. Time is of the essence!
   The world urgently needs transformative sustainability education. According to research even more recent than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 reports, we must drop greenhouse gas emissions to virtually zero and move to a renewable energy economy by phasing out fossil fuels before 2050 if we want to avoid climate catastrophe.

   The new Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, agrees: "The one thing we do not have is time." In order for today's students to be part of the solution when they graduate, they'll need to learn new things in school now. Because time is of the essence, we cannot wait for curriculum committees, curriculum review, and curriculum revision to change what we teach.

We are in the midst of a planetary emergency. Spending time teaching adverbs and the War of 1812 can now be deemed negligent. We must teach the children what they'll need in order to create the best possible future for themselves.

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