Blog #5

Using the reading material today as well as previous reading on green values (and referring to specific aspects of that material), write a blog entry outlining the goals and specific characteristics of a green learning community. How would you know one if you saw one?

As said by David Orr,"Ecological literacy is driven by the sense of wonder, the sheer delight in being alive in a beautiful, mysterious, bountiful world". This is a main thing that a green learning community should and does promote in the classroom. Keeping alive our "inborn sense of wonder" and teaching students to enjoy the world seems to be what green thought is all about. If this was highlighted in all classes many of the "green values" would just fall into place. Students would get a full spectrum of ecological thought and principle just by appreciating the world around us.

In "Teaching as an Ethical Enterprise" written by William Ayers he states, "Teachers choose how to see the world, what to embrace or reject, whether to support or resist this or that directive." What Ayers says about the teaching world is exactly the opposite of what a green learning community looks like. A green learning community focus on hearing everyones opinion and not letting one person dominate what is learned and disscussed. Through this, thoughts are not monopolized and people can truly make their own thoughts about the world. This is how I would know a green community if I saw one.