Al Gore, Meet Heidi Hayes Jacobs...

This week's reading united two of my true loves - sustainability and education. As a high school science teacher, sustainability is one of my major emphases, no matter the content area I am working in. Life science, physical, earth, or chemistry - sustainability of our planet and of ecosystems is a critical, overarching idea that can be and should be incorporated as much as possible.

So, in reading this week's assignment I was thrilled to see it included in a discussion of education as well! I see many parallels between the world of education and the study of natural resources, and it is refreshing to know I am not the only one. They can be analogous to each other, and can also assist in understanding one or the other. Hopefully we can learn solutions about both soon...

So, in the spirit of David Letterman (or Johnny Carson, really) here are my top five reasons why the planet's peril is similar to education today:

1) We are relying on old technology, or using new technology to do old things. Al Gore said it in "Inconvenient Truth" - old technology + old methods = predictable consequences. New technology + old methods = unforseen consequences. We can't keep doing the same old thing in the same old way, and we also can't try to do the same old thing but just do it with new tools. To really move ahead, we need to have new methods that correlate with our new tools.

2) There are things that we KNOW will work (solar, geothermal, year-long school, changing the daily schedule to meet kids' developmental needs, the metric system) but they cost so much so switch over to, we haven't done so. Our decision needs to be less of a quick-fix situation (keep doing what we're doing, just tweak it to make it work) and more of a long-term solution (pay now for what we know will pay off later).

3) The kids know it. Students know that school doesn't work the way it should - we've all seen motivation flag, they know that old-fashioned teaching doesn't prepare them for the world they live in now, never mind tomorrow. They know that giving them the new tools but only allowing them to do old-fashioned types of work doesn't really teach them what they need to know. They also know the global sustainability piece - that we've done major damage, perhaps irreparable although I certainly hope not, and something major must be done to try to maintain a sustainable planet for the future.

4) The frog example from Al Gore is perfect for either scenario. In the frog example, he explains that if you put a frog in normal temperature water, and then slowly crank it to boil, the frog won't jump out - it will boil to death. However, if you put it in boiling water, it will immediately jump out. People are the same way - we recognize a bad situation if we are first confronted with it. However, if things start out fine and slowly degrade, we are slow to recognize the danger. We won't jump out - we'll just sit there and cook ourselves. As Al Gore states, it's "important to rescue the frog!"

5) If you've seen the movie, there is a small cartoon clip about global warming. In the clip, the government's solution is to drop a giant ice cube in the ocean every so often to cool things off temporarily. Don't we have the same sort of educational ice cubes? Whether you think NCLB, Common Core, State Assessment Systems, Title I... there are government-designed fixes for problems without true examination of solving the problem. Throwing more money at something, or holding a very large stick and a nice little carrot are temporary fixes for a situation that needs a true solution.

Analogies aside, I am a major proponent for sustainability in global resources, and feel guilt when I accidentally throw away a paperclip, or take the less gas-conserving vehicle all the way to Bangor from Ellsworth. Applying this to education, I think sustainability should also be a focus - how can we conserve resources? How can we preserve students? How can we use better technology, better methods, and better systems to re-design a sustainable educational system? After all, someone has to rescue the frog!