They establish criteria based upon fairness, accuracy, depth, skill building, instructional soundness and usability. The Guidelines for Excellence reflect a widely shared consensus that professionally conceived environmental education programs must fully describe environmental problems, reflect the diversity of perspectives on them and foster awareness of the natural and built environment. In building lifelong skills, educators are expected to promote civic responsibility and encourage individual thinking with respect to problem-solving. Environmental education materials need to be well-designed, easy to use and rely upon techniques proven to create effective learning environments. My first-hand experience as an environmental educator enables me to relate to you how students benefit from quality environmental education, as I have all too briefly summarized it.
Environmental teachers encourage student discovery because it leads to critical thinking.
Students absorbed in subject matter absorb information better and tend to stay enthusiastically on-task. Environmental learning is valuable to students because it teaches them how to think, not what to think. These critical thinking skills and the ability to work in teams are exactly what the business community tells us they critically need in the American workforce. Although we cannot fully predict what social, economic or global issues today s children will face in the year 2040 when they are adults, we do know that environmental education will build their personal assets, provide the necessary foundation of critical thinking skills and help prepare them effectively for the world of work. Thank you for your consideration of reauthorization of the National Environmental Education Act.