George Monbiot’s latest blog (also in the Guardian on May 13th) is titled: The University of Life. It’s about his discovery of environmental education:
“… During the lockdown, I’ve been doing something I’ve long dreamt about: experimenting with an ecological education. I can’t claim to have found it easy, or to have got it all right. As millions of parents have discovered, there’s a reason why people undergo years of specialist education and training before qualifying as teachers. Persuading children to see you as a parent one moment and a teacher the next is especially challenging. But, working with an eight- and a nine-year-old (my youngest daughter and her best friend), I’ve begun to discover that my dream is not entirely ridiculous. I’m not talking about teaching ecology as an isolated subject, but about something more fundamental: placing ecology and Earth systems at the heart of learning, just as they are at the heart of life. …”
We feel you’ll want to read what comes before this passage and what comes after – if you’ve not already done so. When you have, why not let us know what you think.
Fundamental subjects such as chemistry, physics, mathematics are most important. Of course a good teacher will include their application to such important matters as the environment, climate change and health. As a chemistry student I learnt a lot about nutrition. Biology, which I studied at school was mostly descriptive, but an excellent teacher taught us about our bodies and even did a didecction of a cat and embroidery when a pupil and future vet brought a run over cat to the class.