Outdoor Education & Community Service
Children are able to name the next fashion trend, but are unsuccessful in naming events and landmarks within their communities. They are members of a generation with cellular phones at hand at all times. Some even start at the young age of six. I would know because my nieces use their cellular phones to text their family members, including their own grandparents. These are the children that commute to the classroom without taking notice of the trash lining the streets, the graffiti in parks, grocery stores where their parents shop, and all other areas which make up their environment. All children should know the importance of the community and the impacts one could have on it because the preservation of mankind and the future lies within the youth. One of the first steps in creating personal awareness and power is creating an awareness of community. Becoming an active community member supports sustainable communities and inhibits problem-solving and social skills within students.
According to Piaget, children are like “little scientists” whom investigate and learn by “using the environment as their laboratory” (Oakes, p.73). Of course, they can use the environment as their expansive learning facility, but it would be killing two birds with one stone if the community could benefit from their education as well. “In diverse societies students can reach society’s highest standards for knowledge and skills only when schools allow them to use all the knowledge (from all the cultures) they have experienced and when standards are not so narrow as to exclude the value of that knowledge and experience” (Oakes, p.84). As students and scientists of their environment they will learn that their relationship with it is one of give and take.
David Sobel, an education writer, would agree that it is imperative for children to create meaning through place-based education as opposed to classrooms usually dominated by print and electronic media. Essential characteristics of place-based education (but may evolve in the future) are: 1) its unique emergence specific to its geography, ecology, sociology, politics, etc.; 2) it is multidisciplinary; 3) it is experiential; 4) it practices and reflects upon broader objectives; and 5) it connects place with community and self (Woodhouse & Knapp, 2000). Through place-based education students gain the ability to actively participate in a democratic society. Sobel illustrates this in his book, Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities:
Place-based education is the process of using the local community and environment as a starting point to teach concepts in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum. Emphasizing hands-on, real-world learning experiences, this approach to education increases academic achievement, helps students develop stronger ties to their community, enhances students' appreciation for the natural world, and creates a heightened commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens. Community vitality and environmental quality are improved through the active engagement of local citizens, community organizations, and environmental resources in the life of the school. (2004)
This form of alternative education allows students to learn and love their environment, which then develops and empowers students’ need and desire to save it. Outdoor education is geared towards empowering individuals to connect to the environment, using multiple subjects as tools to achieve sustainability.
Citations
Oakes, Jeannie. and Lipton, M. (2003). “Contemporary Learning Theories: Problem Solving, Understanding and Participation” in Teaching to Change the World. McGraw-Hill Companies.
Sobel, David. (2004). Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities. The Orion Society.
Woodhouse, Janice L. and Clifford E. Knapp. (2000). Place-Based Education and Instruction: Outdoor and Environmental Education Approaches. 20 August 2009.
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