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Note to Teachers
Perhaps you are one of those teachers who now feels
compelled to question the efficacy of our Anglo-American education
system in fostering stewardship of Earth’s climate. You are perhaps
mindful that the people of our culture destroy vital materials at a rate
many times that which the planet can sustain and per capita we rank
among the worst polluters of our atmosphere. There may be a reason for
this perceived failure: there is a strong argument that current climate
education programmes have flawed frameworks that tend to work directly
against their objective of promoting active stewardship.
The framework of Celebrating our Climate
was generated using the Sustainability Principle of Energy and provides
a radical alternative to contemporary climate education programmes. The
prime symbols are chosen for their capacity to help us transcend our
grand capacity for self-deceit, especially our denial of
stewardship/change. It is vital we conserve the potential of the symbols
and some
sustaining associations with the symbols are suggested.
The framework is not prescriptive beyond this point
and acknowledges the wonderful ingenuity and passion that teachers can
bring to the communication of the fundamental ideas at all levels of our
schools the prime symbols.
 
 
Each footstep, gain of sand, leaf, star and bean is
a trace object amidst a thousand such objects.
For instance there are thousands of ways skilled teachers
of new-entrants can make the trace symbol a vital and
vibrant tool in the language of our children. I hope later on to be able
to offer links to lessons that truly conserve the potential of these
vital symbols and display that ingenuity and passion.
This programme is designed to promote the active
celebration of Earths atmosphere and enhance our capacity to embrace its
amazing dynamism. Some of you, depending on your lifestyle, may
initially encounter personal resistance and denial of your roles as
stewards within this flux. This may inhibit the science in your
communication of climate processes and care. Be kind to yourself,
persist with conserving these prime symbols and both you and our
children will be well rewarded.
Some may be wary of the proposal that we encourage
our children to meditate on our breath, skies, clouds, rain, the pull of a kite
string etc.
 
The meditative process suggested is not aligned to any religion and is
a universal one with the proven capacity to engage our beings in active
ways with a subject. Here are a few brief reflections on this meditative
process:
All children are born into the state of science to
some degree and enjoy its requisites of sharing and inclusiveness;
inquiry; honesty and trust; and generosity of time and reflection.
Without the experience of this state of being we are unable to develop
arts such as language and civics. It is a great gift that we share and
it is easy to lose it as we grow up, especially in our Anglo-American
education systems.
At school we become vulnerable to the distractions
of peer dynamics and it is helpful if teachers can foster the gift of
this state of being called science. In this state we become more at one
with the object of our inquiry and see it more truly. In order to remind
students of this wonderful state it is helpful if teachers also foster
this gift within. Thus they experience the compassion that enables them
to gently and humbly remind students in their focus.
For example, instruct students to gaze on a cloud
and
simply observe what happens to it for two minutes. Prepare them for the
exercise by discussing in a
tolerant way how our minds will constantly create distractions and that
when we become aware that something is distracting us from observing the
cloud the best response is one of kindness. Teach students how to
recognise the distraction, thank it for reminding they might no
longer be mindful of the cloud and calmly return the focus to the
subject.. They are simply observing the
cloud.
After they have meditated for two or three minutes on a cloud or small area of sky instruct the students to
record their experience or share it with a neighbour. Repeat the
meditation and reflection a couple of times. In those moments of
stillness the wonder of the cloud lives in our spirit. The universal
transformation becomes more manifest. We enjoy a greater state of
science.
Above
all, enjoy
Introduction
Level
1 Level 2 Level
3 Level 4
Page last updated:
Nov 2010
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