The Importance of Education in Regards to the Health of the Earth and Future Generations

           

          Through my journey over the years in gaining experience working with children educational setting, I ponder upon questions such as, are we failing children in general with the same old, by the book teachings? Do politics get in the way of teaching our children substantial information that could better our planet? How can I use my interdisciplinary degree to my a difference through childhood education, when the educational system vastly caters to a structure in which creative thinking is underrated?

              In the reading assigned in my environmental studies class this week entitled, "Training Transformative Leaders Through Critical Service-Learning" the authors questions the school systems and how one could reform the educational system as a whole. She states, " I wondered what strategies teachers of future administrators in education could employ to develop the skills needed for leaders to cultivate the capacity to transform ineffective schools" (Davis 12). I found this quote powerful because I am currently service learning at Sunnybrae Middle School at the after school program and I have done a lot of thinking about what types of activities I can do with these children that can encompass my passions as well as effectively affect the lives of the children in a positive manner. My passions include environmental education and music. I have racked my brain for weeks about how I can implement both of those things within the kids in such a small amount of time at an after school program. The biggest challenge has been the question being, what I can do that will actually keep these children interested? The age group (6th-8th grade) is such a tough age group to keep focused and interested educationally.

            I have talked with some of my music major peers and developed a few ideas based on some of the activist bands I aspire to. At the after school program, there are designated times set aside for different activities during the allocated time. I have already gotten to know the kids and have learned which kids might be interested in doing musical activities. For the first few activities, I plan on focusing on the environment, poetry and dialogue/monologues. I will ask the kids to team up with a partner or a group and to write down that they think the definition of "environment" is. Then I will ask a series of questions including, questions such as: What is your favorite part of nature and the environment? What harms are being inflicted on the environment? Who do you think is conflicting these harms? How can we change this? I will likely come up with some more kid-appropriate questions regarding the environment and nature.  

       Once that is completed, I will hold an open discussion about the questions. I will then ask them to either come up with poems regarding these thoughts or come up with dialogue in which the kids can have with one another on the topic. I anticipate this part of the activity will take a couple days of the program’s activity times. Next, I would like to introduce music to the activity and combine the poetry with music. I plan on bringing in various instruments such as my guitar, drum sticks, egg shakers and more. I have learned that there are some good singers in the program and one kid that can beat box. I would like to create songs with the poems and add the dialogue as well such as monologues between the kids. I will use my knowledge from my music minor to assign musical parts to all the kids.

          Although I appreciate what my peers are doing at the Sunnybrae Middle School after school program with activities such as ceramics, baking and basketball because those types of activities encourage teamwork and such, I really want to use my opportunity through this service learning project to change it up a bit. I want to encourage the kids to think in ways they maybe have not thought about the world and environment while including music. I hope that this activity will encourage positive thoughts and ambition for the kids to partake in positive activities for the world and their futures. Danielle Davis also states that, "Administrators should hold the disposition or belief that education serves as a key component to social mobility and opportunity, as well as understand the value of equity and diversity in a democratic society" (Davis 13). I agree with this statement because I wholeheartedly believe that education is possibly the most important key to shaping a healthy, and prosperous society.

              I am not anticipating that I will one day reform the entire educational system to be more progressive and that the next generation will magically all become environmental activists. I recognize that many people within the environmental spectrum of interdisciplinary studies come into this degree with the mindset that they will, "fix the world" but I just want to make a tiny dent. I am a firm believer that many tiny actions can collectively lead to a more just world. In the writing entitled, "The Affective Arc of Undergraduate Environmental Studies Curricula" the author, and also my professor, Dr. Sarah Jaquette Ray so beautifully states, "ES classes put students on an affective roller coaster as they learn about the complexity of the issues, intersections between social justice and the environment, and their complicity in damaging both. Course material challenges their cherished beliefs—in positivism, in objective truth, and in the nature of knowledge, "(4).  I recognize that I am not going to put an end to environmental degradation by myself. I am fully aware that many changed must occur in order for a shift in paradigms to occur.  At the moment, I just hope that I can be a positive influence in the lives of these kids through music and dialogue about the environment.