Educating Teachers and Increasing Environmental Literacy

Abstract

Earth Partnership for Schools (EPS) emerges from the University of Wisconsin– Madison Arboretum’s long involvement with ecological restoration and from Aldo Leopold’s land ethic, which sees human beings as “plain members and citizens” of the ecological community. Along with its national outreach program, Restoration Education Science Training and Outreach for Regional Educators (RESTORE), EPS creates partnerships with teachers, schools, natural resource agencies, environmental organizations, nature centers, master gardeners, volunteers-in short, with anyone willing to collaborate in restoring the natural ecology of school grounds and nearby natural areas. In the process, respectful relationships are restored with other human beings and “the land.” In this new education paradigm, children and adults are not only learners but citizen-scientists actively investigating and restoring ecological functions. They are caring for nature and becoming stewards of their own communities. From a young person’s perspective, this kind of experience is essential, as an EPS teacher from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, noted: “Kids need to feel important, to care about something, to feel that they make a difference in this world. … Earth Partnership provides ways to give kids a sense of purpose and build competency.”