SCB - Conservation Education Workshop
This is what the flier of our workshop (organized as a post
conference event at the SCB Asia 2012 said.
Re-thinking Conservation Education
Beyond tree planting and painting competitions
We are at a threshold when nurturing and deepening
ecological literacy and sensitivity is of unparalleled urgency in all our
efforts to save the earth. Are we doing enough to spread and sustain this
literacy? Where have conservation education initiatives taken us thus far? Do
we have the right philosophical approach and necessary skills to translate good
intentions into action? What are the appropriate scales to focus on?
The questions continue. . . . .
I share below random thoughts from the pre-lunch session –
panel discussion.
Conservation Education: Have we made a difference.
(Deliberations, in preparation of this session, were held
over tele-conversations & chats over Google Talk and ranged from giving
more time for the audience to removing the table such that eye-contact is
established between the panel members and the audience)
Goutama (with his Keynote address) set the tone for the day with pertinent questions.
He asked whether education was-
Meant to open our eyes or heart?
Meant to empower, refresh, and
present hope & possibilities?
Why does education-
Tell us that more is better than
less?
Make us strive towards specificity?
(If I recall fine he also hinted at specificity destroying harmony
and that education also makes us look for the best which again does not help)
He shared of an interesting learning experience with his
daughter. One evening, during her childhood, she had made a lovely drawing and
shared it with him. His response was that she was very good at drawing and
should become a painter when she grew up. At this she asked him why she had to
become a become a painter when she grew up because she was good at drawing
today? She just wanted to grow big.
(We have created far too many boxes all around our thoughts and
need to get out of these at the earliest. We adults - need to learn a lot from children.
This reminded me of ‘Little Prince’ and the grace with which it dealt with the
topic)
She also spoke on why conservation education has not quite
worked:
We teach what is not applicable to our immediate
environment. As a corollary there is no direct contact with what is taught and
we also lose contact with the immediate environment.
(In one of the more remotely located village I have been to,
in Mizoram on our border with Myanmar, I have come across charts of mammals
depicting giraffes, zebras and mountain lion!)
It is focused on natural sciences while decisions are made
through politics and cultural practices. It also fails to bring out the
connect.
(As I write I feel this holds true for conservation on the
whole)
It needs to be experiential as opposed to theoretical and
espouse an interdisciplinary approach.
A very interesting point she made was that we have become
more environmentally conscious not because we have become wiser but because the
problem as become bigger.
(This line sure made a connect with me and I assume with
many others present)
She also shared of how when students at a school in
Maharashtra were asked what came to their mind when someone said environment;
they immediately said tree planning and recycling!
(This resonated very well with the title of our one day
workshop)
She focused on the curriculum.
Conservation education despite being included in the
curriculum was not accorded equity with other subjects. The proportion of marks
accorded to the subject discouraged teachers from putting in efforts.
Work needs to be done
on text-books and teacher-trainings.
(Teacher training : I have ever felt that we need to put in
time to share (if we know) with people who are the critical links – be it with
teachers or forest rangers / guards; this merits far more time and attention
then we currently bestow)
I was a part of a small team along with Naveen, Geetha,
Sunita and Mrinalini that worked on this workshop.
Many thanks for an invigorating experience.
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