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Goal 2: "To share knowledge of our watershed, with education projects that effectively engage us in learning about our diverse bioregion."
"In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." Lao-Tzu “If our young people do not participate and learn from our leaders, it is just a matter of time before the work that our elders have done is forgotten." Luke Cordell, to United Nations, July 25,2000 Dakota/Lakota "We recognize our relationship to the past and to our future because they are the same thing.” Winona LaDuke, Anishinabe The Need: According to the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF) there is a "persistent and troubling lack of environmental knowledge among Americans," with two out of three of us failing a simple environmental quiz. At the same time that there is "widespread environmental illiteracy," the public expresses strong support for environmental education in schools and extending to adults. For example, few of us know where our water for drinking, cooking, and bathing come from? What happens to our waste water? What stream, river, or other body of water is closest to where we live? Where does its water come from? Where does it go? What is a watershed? Which drainage basin do we live in? How long can people live without fresh water? What percentage of Earth's fresh water is stored in ice? How has the total amount of ice been changing in the past few years? CHEARS Approach: We are organizing CHEARS to provide a vehicle for lifelong cross-generational learning to educate ourselves and reach out to others concerning the health of all creatures in our bioregion. We take inspiration from American Indian emphases on experiential learning in the community passed between young and old. We work in the traditions of Place Based Education and Partnership Education, with a focus on cultural and natural history, real world problem solving, learning by doing, critical thinking, and collaborative learning. In this approach teachers and students are co-learners, with teacher as facilitators. Students help create knowledge rather than simply being consumers of information. We seek transformational knowledge to foster a love of place leading to responsible communal stewardship of the environment. To achieve our education goal, we organize diverse teams that include participants of all ages, family groups, urban, suburban and rural, ethnic, and immigrants, and at-risk students. CHEARS Current Educational Activities: CHEARS is working to achieve its educational goals in two ways: 1) Organizing or co-sponsoring educational workshops to support learning in areas related to the health of the watershed; and 2) Co-sponsoring a pilot Earth Scouts/Tutoring program within a local area school serving an Hispanic immigrant neighborhood. How Can You Get Involved?
Contact: Maggie Cahalan
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