Yes, they might feel that it's hopeless. But if kids are part of asking the questions and finding the solutions, it's a naturally empowering process. In really good environmental education, it's the environment that becomes the teacher and the traditional teacher becomes the facilitator in learning lessons about the environment. It's a less arrogant approach to environmental education, which I think is very healthy. The environment as a subject has some qualities and characteristics which are different from a lot of other topics that are taught more conventionally.
Kids have a very direct and concrete relationship with the environment.
They go out of the schoolroom and into the woods and have a whole different kind of education. That kind of excitement and wonder can be capitalized on with environmental education. I would argue that environmental education is, in many ways, the more primary mode of education. It's more central to who we are as humans, and more closely aligned to our evolutionary history, than traditional methods. It's becoming effective partly because we're rediscovering how we learn naturally.