Reading
Richard Kahn's article, Towards
Ecopedagogy: Weaving a Broad-based Pedagogy of Liberation for Animals, Nature,
and the Oppressed People of the Earth, the ignorance society has
about environmental issues is brought into perspective. "45 million
Americans believe that the ocean is a fresh source of water” (Kahn 6). It is ridiculous
how many people can even believe that. The Nation needs environmental education
to learn how to prevent further damage to the earth.
One
method would be to integrate mandatory, general environmental education courses
into schools, the simplest starting in elementary and growing progressively
more informative into high school. Once students enter colleges and
universities, required environmental classes should teach students how to care
for and aid the environment based off of the student’s intended major. For
example, if a student’s intended major was automotive engineering, the
environmental class would teach to student how an automotive engineer would
properly dispose of chemicals, fluids and parts, and to use the knowledge of
their major to create environmentally-friendly vehicles.
If
students graduate high school and directly enter the workforce, on-the-job
training must include a section on the environment that pertains to the work.
Each job, no matter what it happens to be, must include some sort of
environmental education requirement upon hire. If a student in high school has
been hired part-time at McDonalds, then the manager in charge of the restaurant
must see to it that the new employee learns how to properly dispose of trash,
recycling, and how to keep the building sanitary without causing environmental
harm. Every employee must also pass the environmental course before being
allowed to work.
By
keeping people properly educated on the environment, not only would prevent
further issues from occurring and aid the damage that has already been done,
but it would decrease ignorance and allow for people to spread the word of
environmental protection. This would allow for society to grow in a way that is
much friendlier to the earth than it currently is.
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