Vol. I, No. 2, April 2002
DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN
The following is abstracted from a new article recently posted on our web
site. We decided to post the draft article, although it is still in a state
of development and doesn't yet have references cited, as we felt its message
is important. Over the next several months, the article will be completed.
Moving from Biophobia to Biophilia: Developmentally
Appropriate Environmental Education for Children
For children's natural inclination of biophilia to develop and for children to become stewards of the earth, they must be given developmentally appropriate opportunities to learn about the natural world based on sound principles of child development and learning. This includes developmentally appropriate contact with nature in their early years so they can bond with the natural world, learn to love it and feel comfortable in it.
The problem with most children's environmental education programs is that they approach education from an adult's, rather than a child's perspective. One of the main problems is premature abstraction, teaching children too abstractly. Children do not even begin to develop the ability for abstract reasoning until around age nine. One result of trying to teach to children at too early of an age about abstract concepts like rainforest destruction, acid rain, ozone holes and whale hunting can be dissociation. When we ask children to deal with problems beyond their cognitive abilities, understanding and control, they can become anxious, tune out and develop a phobia to the issues. In the case of environmental issues, biophobia - a fear of the natural world and ecological problems - a fear of just being outside - can develop. Studying about the loss of rainforests and endangered species may be perfectly appropriate starting in middle school, but is developmentally inappropriate for younger children.
During early childhood, the main objective of environmental education should be the development of empathy between the child and the natural world. One of the best ways to foster empathy with young children is to cultivate relationships to animals. This includes exposure to indigenous animals, both real and imagined.
Children's exposure to relationships with animals needs to be cultivated with live animal contact, and animal-based stories, songs and other experiences. Developing an emotional connectiveness - empathy - to the natural world is the essential foundation for the later stages of environmental education.
Read the entire article at:
www.whitehutchinson.com/children/articles/biophilia.shtml