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The American Adolescent’s Environmental Ethic. Educating leaders for an uncertain future on Planet Eaarth. A presentation by Eleanor Burke for Envr 120 / December 2010.
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The American Adolescent’s Environmental Ethic • Educating leaders for an uncertain future • on Planet Eaarth A presentation by Eleanor Burke for Envr 120 / December 2010
Today’s children will likely confront challenges we can hardly begin to imagine in a radically altered, unrecognizable world. Can we responsibly continue preparing them for business as usual? And if not, what can we do to make them ready for a survival game in which wild cards rule?--Dianne Dumanoski The End of the Long Summer
Are we creating a generation of young people with nature deficit disorderand no capacity to love or appreciate the environment?
What does the research tell us about teens and environmentalism?
Graph from Wray-Lake, L., Flanagan, C.A., Osgood, D. W. (2010) Examining Trends in Adolescent Environmental Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors Across Three Decades. Environment and Behavior (42:1) Retrieved October 2010 at http://eab.sagepub.com/content/42/1/61
To follow the nature deficit theory, and to learn about teens’ implicit theory of TIME, I asked: How much time in a day do you spend online, on Facebook, or with earphoneslistening to music?
To understand teens’ theory of agency in the world Wray-Lake analyzed: What sense of personal responsibility toward the environment do teens feel?
Graph from Wray-Lake, L., Flanagan, C.A., Osgood, D. W. (2010) Examining Trends in Adolescent Environmental Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors Across Three Decades. Environment and Behavior (42:1) Retrieved October 2010 at http://eab.sagepub.com/content/42/1/61
“When you don’t recycle a container at school, what is the main thing stopping you?” (n=105)
Teen Materialism • Belief in the technofix remains high throughout 30-yr study • Surpassed personal responsibility in the 1980’s 1976 1986 1996 2004 Data simplified from Wray-Lake, L., Flanagan, C.A., Osgood, D. W. (2010) Examining Trends in Adolescent Environmental Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors Across Three Decades. Environment and Behavior (42:1) Retrieved October 2010 at http://eab.sagepub.com/content/42/1/61
Teen environmental silhouette thus far Time: Gotta check my Facebook---where’s my cell & my i-Pod? Agency: It’s the government’s job...the recycling barrel’s too far away Change:I need a new pair of jeans & a new cell phone Community, Authority, and System: These are in tender developmental stage in teen years, And must be explicitly re-taught in the curriculum by using a New Environmental Paradigm
Bridging the gap: educating to win teens’ minds, hearts, behaviors • Guiding principles for a high school • environmental curriculum
To help teens develop an environmental ethic, the curriculum must • Appeal to youth’s sense of community, fairness, justice, and enlist teens as agents of change, as the new voices of authority in the world as they assume leadership • Provide real-world experiences, in and of the environment, a deep sense of system • Be realistic about costs of teen materialism, while using their electronic obsessions to advantage
Curriculum possibilities • 1. What is the story behind all those jeans • in your closet? Photo source: Diesel.com
2. Make a Facebook Friend • In a place that has already felt the effects of climate change and/or the tragedy of the commons
3. Experience your part in a greater system • Try for one week to disconnect yourself from the world community--see if it’s possible.