Give your time, and the outdoors

Funny how we always run out of time at this time of year. We're pretty pushed and pulled. But it doesn't have to be that way. Really.

I try to slow down. Sit for a minute. Think. About what is really important. Then I usually grab a warm cocoa or tea, and head outside if it's nice. Oh, and I usually try to take someone along with me too.

Remember, whatever occasion you celebrate at this time of year, the best thing you can give is yourself and your time. Be present for your kids and others who are important. I mean really listen to them, talk about what matters, and take them on a walk.

When we're out of doors on a gravel or dirt path, surrounded by nature, our battle instincts fade. We're calmer, more instinctually happy. You don't have to go far. But do go, and take someone with you.

And while you're walking and talking, think about what else you could change. Like presents. Sure, get the kids the video games they like. That high tech cell phone if you must. But throw in something active as well, something they have to use outdoors. A walking stick is great. What you say? A walking stick? Yes. Really.

They take it along, use it to probe the mud, examine leaves or what's under a rock, and enjoy where they are. At the end of the walk, they can fold it down, put it in a day pack.

Ok. Pretty low tech. But not old fashioned. Because sharing time with someone, giving them calmness and the best of yourself, is a gift that never goes out of style.

We're all deciders, but the Environment is a unifier

People are beginning to get it. We're all in this together.

That realization is sinking in for millions across the United States, and hundreds of millions more across the globe. Global climate change, and its impact on humans and lesser life forms, can't be hidden, run from, ignored or denied any longer.

It's a big problem. But, lucky for us, an even bigger opportunity.

Through a decade and a half of taking students and teachers on journeys to explore the larger world, we at Earth Explore have found that the environment can be a profoundly unifying theme for we humans. That's precisely why we center our field studies around it.

When you set about to consider how the human community interacts with the larger global assemblage of living, and non-living things, you need all of the tools at your disposal. You need to know something about science, history, cultures and art. And you need critical thinking skills. Study of the environment forces us to come to terms with a supremely complex, multi-dimensional world.

But there's more to it than that. The environment is something we all have in common. A thread that runs through all of our lives, whether or not we like math, get jazzed by science, or are students of culture. The earth's environment is part of us, and we part of it. It shapes us, and we shape it. For better or worse.

Now back to the unifying part. In the same way it pulls our field studies together around a theme, the environment is a truly non-partisan, not polarizing issue around which humans can, and should rally. Yes, we can build our homes on hills, or behind locked gates, but all of us are ultimately the victims, or benefactors of what happens to our shared environment. In this case you could say we breathe...and therefore we are. Linked together that is.

The next ten years will be an opportunity for we as a global community, and most especially the United States as the leading nation of that global community, to recognize the power of common environmental action. Power not only to lift our planet out of peril, but to pull us together as a profoundly, inescapably linked human community, acting in common cause.

Lets get outside

There are lots of good reasons for staying indoors. We follow (and write) blogs, keep informed and entertained via the internet, TV and radio (remember that?), and in our hectic daily rush, just hunger to take a break, and sit down. That's all fine. But for young people, the message we adults are sending is at best, a mixed one. We want our kids outside, but we don't go there much anymore ourselves.

If you're over 35 you probably remember spending a lot more time outside than your kids do. For lots of young people, organized sports is their only experience in the outdoors. And once that's done, the typical young person can be found fleeing for the world indoors to get wired, or wi-fied in. Even when found outside, kids today tend to be in transport...going from one indoor appointment to another. And most of the time, they're wired up with earbuds, and oblivious to the world around them.

Part of the problem is that young people are so heavily scheduled. Their lives are broken into 15 minute blocks from an early age. Go here, do that, fill that free time with activity.

But, clearly, the issue is more complex. We live in an age of technological riches; endless gadgets and unlimited access. There are so many virtual choices available that today's kids are the best entertained generation in history. But technology can be a trap. Our virtual riches have led to a poverty of experience. We spend fewer hours outside, visit fewer parks, take fewer walks and have less connection with nature than any generation in our history.

Today's young people will face decisions on climate change, conservaton, land use, and energy. They need to know about how the world works. And not just from a video screen.

Let's all get outside, and become the example. And take the kids with you.

Tools for Teachers

I'm a great believer in giving teachers innovative tools. Like those found so abundantly in the outdoor classroom. Can't beat a coral reef, an active volcano, an excavated village site, or a living glacier for providing teaching moments about the world and how it works. That's the idea behind Earth Explore. But for those who can't get out of the classroom just yet...how do you bring an awareness and excitement indoors?

Give teachers cool and usable tools for one thing. Again this fall, Earth Explore is supplying thousands of "Cool to Care" posters for classrooms all across the country. They carry a planet friendly message, and ideas for taking it forward into the community.

It all began last fall, and has taken off. To make it easy for teachers, our poster and companion classroom handout are now available online as pdf printouts. Just go to earthexplore.com/poster.html to get yours.

Teachers have told us that our "ten easy steps to protect the planet" have blossomed into classroom discussions with environmental education themes, and have served as a jumping off point for EE curriculum development.

All of which makes us happy, and will encourage us to develop more tools for our nation's great teachers in the coming months.

No Child Left Inside

We can't ignore it. If we believe in the value of outdoor education to unite and educate us, then this is a very important week indeed.

Amid the background noise of the revving up presidential contest, the fate of No Child Left Inside will likely be decided for the forseeable future. The US House of Representatives will vote on the 9th on whether to support environmental education in the schools...through teachers, curriculum support and funding. And in so doing, provide a nod or a nay to something virtually wiped out by the teach-for-the-test approach of NCLB.

Think of it. With glaciers melt rapidly in Alaska, polar bears swimming for their lives, high water lapping further up Pacific Island coastlines...we're having to battle to give kids the chance to learn about environmental education in US schools. Amazing right? Especially in that EE education provides many of the tools they will need to participate in and help solve one of the greatest planetary issues of the next century. Climate change anyone?

Environmental Education is a great unifier. Of ideas, disciplines and teaching. Its study draws in social science, physical and natural science, current events, geography and practically everything else.We support increased teaching of EE, and the goals of No Child Left Inside. Go to nclicoalition.org and send a message to your congressperson.