I have this bad habit of watching nationally broadcast news programs, specifically NBC Nightly News.  What can I say; I just have a thing for Brian Williams.  While each program typically ends with a “Making a Difference” segment about good people on our planet doing small things that make a big difference, so much of the news program is dominated by doom and gloom, Armageddon like stories.  If it’s not the collapse of the world economy, it’s an utterly devastating natural disaster or the outbreak of civil war on some foreign coast. 

And what about the environment?  The icecaps are all going to melt, killing off the polar bears and drowning all our coastal cities.  Our global weather is going to go out of control and it will be like the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” that sends all of the world into a new ice age with no warning.  The rainforest is being destroyed and cuddly panda bears are going to become extinct because Chinese people love factories. This is where many students are coming from when they step out of that bus on the first day and step foot onto our territory, to our home.  A world of people shouting about depressing things. When you hear it all the time, you have to wonder; does anyone care?

Obviously we care.  We love the Earth and want to preserve it for ourselves and future generations. This is why we got into environmental education in the first place.  As teachers, our instinct is to fit in as much information and environmental facts believing, that if we say the right thing, we will get through to them.  We talk about how much trash we make and how we waste our resources.  We talk about recycling and forests being chopped down.  Our students, however, hear passionate opinions and stories all the time. While it’s important to be informed, remember this: nature speaks for itself. 

John Muir wrote: “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”  Why did John Muir work so hard to preserve natural places?  Because he loved watching the way wind made the trees dance.  In this way, he understood that in a lot of ways it is appreciation more than awareness that gives true strength to the conservation movement.

Our students come from a world of loud talkers and scary stories, all trying to get their  attention.  Do you want to really get through to them? Take a break from your soap box and have students poke sticks in the mud. Have them lay on their backs in the middle of a meadow before you talk about preserving it.  Sometimes all it takes is a few quiet moments of observation in the forest to turn your average 6th grader into a full blown nature lover.