Environmental Education - Is There Any?

[Chris]

Yesterday I saw something that was just crazy... One of the camionetas with the speakers on the back was in front of me on the road driving along slowly and advertising something - I have no idea what. His passenger had handouts/brochures - like you would put into a mailbox or hand out somewhere... The method of distribution was something else. These paper handouts were simply slowly drizzled out of the camioneta's window by the passenger, drifting all over the road, for anyone, or no-one to pick up. Paper everywhere, collecting in corners, yards and storm drains. I was stunned. And then, I saw a 2nd one doing the same thing. I'm still stunned.

It is hard to talk about education after this sight :speechles

All I can say is that psychodrama is real fun - did a lot of it in the '80's when we were trying to prepare my countrymen for sharing power with the other 95% of the country. But after seeing all this paper being distributed out of the camioneta window, I'm more into something less subtle, like a hole in the head.

 

[Keith R]

Many years ago, I was asked to help a small community in Midwestern Venezuela. A seven year drought had destroyed the main livelihood of the inhabitants, agriculture and cattle raising. As a recourse for survival, the community turned to traditional craft as a source of income, hammock making. Practically all the men of the village had left, and over four hundred women, including young children, worked feverishly from dawn to dusk on rustic looms tied to the outside walls of their huts. With the timing of clockwork, one or two trucks would drive the fifty or so kilometers of dirt road to the village, and exchange the finished hammocks for foodstuff and colored thread, enough for a weeks production and to keep the women fed. The exploitative situation was obvious, the solution was not easy. I gathered a multi-institutional team to tackle the problem. After deciding that the women had to be organized in an association, we chose an appropriate legal form, an ?empresa campesina?, which is organized much like a corporation but with direct public supervision. In order to break the natural suspicion and distrust of the villagers, we used the popular local parish priest. In order to explain the workings of a corporation and the responsibilities of it?s shareholders we used something called a psychodrama, a series of staged dramatic skits, where the women would participate as actors and weave their own personal predicament with the characters of the play. It worked. The company obtained state financing, bought their own transportation, and directly marketed their hammocks for a profit.

Mirador, very interesting and pertinent story. Sounds like you're someone we could use helping out Chiri and others interested in taking this effort to the schools. Any way we can convince you to join in?

 

[Rick Snyder]

Chris the political campaign workers in my area get paid by how many flyers get handed out or should I say they get paid for handing them out and the more handed out the better. Fortunately I haven't seen what you saw but numerous times I am handed 3 or 4 copies of literature from political, religious and other organizations due to a system of payment based on the amount handed out. It is so disheartening to hear of liter stories as you mentioned.

Rick

 

[Chris]

Chris the political campaign workers in my area get paid by how many flyers get handed out or should I say they get paid for handing them out and the more handed out the better. Rick

I was astonished when I saw this slow stream of flyers flying out the window... for a few miles this went on - and then another one a few miles further along.

Don't tell anyone about the "Camioneta Distribution System".. We'll be knee deep in flyers.

 

[carina]

I, as being a mother myself, like the idea of giving practical information in schools. This is a hard work though.
Most schools do not have garbage bins for example.
The bathrooms give no opportunity to wash hands, they even rarely have toilet paper.

Even in private schools, there are no soap, no toiletpaper, and after a few hours every day, the bathrooms are nasty, to use a polite word.

In my sons school they have had a doctor ( a parent ) having met the kids, and giving general hygien information ( such as wash hands, germs etc ).
But then again, in a very "local" way, so I fear it does not sink in.
In this case all children of higher grades was gathered in the aula, and after he had spoken to them ( yes spoken, no dialogue ) he showed a video on a regular TV. Of course you see nothing if you are child 140 in the 10th row...

This is an issue, that has to be met in so many ends at the same time.
An enourmous work, and extremely hard, as it is connected to culture, to education plans, to human nature, to actual knowledge, to lack of using practical experiments in school, lack of dialogue, the different view of the words teach/learn here...

And the short hours of school is also an issue, alot has to be squeezed in.
Public schools are 2-3 hours per day, Afternoon school is 2 hours per day, and private schools are 5-7 hours per day.


A huge work.

 

[expatsooner]

An idea that might be worth pursuing is using the community service clubs of some of the bigger, more expensive private schools as a medium of teaching and/or supplies for other schools or areas where they do their volunteer work.

 

[Mirador]

Well, I'm just wondering if we can put together a group of interested DR1ers, and you could pull together the resources they could use and help train/advise them, maybe a volunteer corps of sorts could be introduced to this Martha P?rez, the Subsecretary for Environmental Education, and get her help in getting into the schools, getting into contact with interested teachers.....

Maybe it's about time to consider changing the name from 'Green Team' to 'Dreaming Team'. Don't waste your time, the DR government has absolutely no interest in education. Do you know that the current budget has allocated resources equivalent to 2% of GDP for education?, which is about half the minimum recommended by the UN, and about a third of what African nations invest on average in education? As a sampler, the Congo invests almost 5% of GDP in education. Environmental education won't work as a neighborhood project, if you can't get the government involved, then you are plowing the sea.

 

[RHM]

Maybe it's about time to consider changing the name from 'Green Team' to 'Dreaming Team'. Don't waste your time, the DR government has absolutely no interest in education. Do you know that the current budget has allocated resources equivalent to 2% of GDP for education?, which is about half the minimum recommended by the UN, and about a third of what African nations invest on average in education? As a sampler, the Congo invests almost 5% of GDP in education. Environmental education won't work as a neighborhood project, if you can't get the government involved, then you are plowing the sea.

Mirador is right that the government does not care. So I would not depend on them. But I would still encourage people to get involved with community projects. The government may not help but they will not stop you.

The more fundraisers, outreach programs etc. the better. Governments tend to screw things up when they get involved anyway.

It's interesting to see all the energy on these things. It will be even more interesting to see what ideas actually get executed.

Scandall

 

[Chris]

Maybe it's about time to consider changing the name from 'Green Team' to 'Dreaming Team'. Don't waste your time, the DR government has absolutely no interest in education. Do you know that the current budget has allocated resources equivalent to 2% of GDP for education?, which is about half the minimum recommended by the UN, and about a third of what African nations invest on average in education? As a sampler, the Congo invests almost 5% of GDP in education. Environmental education won't work as a neighborhood project, if you can't get the government involved, then you are plowing the sea.

I have to respond to this perhaps cynical tone... From the top of my head - dreams that became reality since I've been in the DR (and these are just the ones that I remember right now...)

Scott and Dawn are sponsoring a Dominican Girl for a private education. This is a good thing - a dream that became reality - This was not in anyone's head 4 years ago.

We are sponsoring a clever little deaf girl for schooling in a deaf school - where she is learning skills. This is a good thing - a dream that became reality - did not think about this 4 years ago.

Scott's auction - that became reality - no sign of this 4 years ago.

The Dream Project - I saw that grow - that became a reality - I did not even know about it 4 years ago.

Just a few days ago, on a trip to Samana, I counted at least 10 new 'eco type' establishments of various kinds and we're scheduling another trip to investigate these. These were not there 4 years ago - don't you think this may just attract attention?.

We're starting eco discussions at an orphanage nearby - I did not know about this orphanage 4 years ago - and they were not interested 4 years ago - this is education.

A sustainable tourist project on the South Coast has attracted funding for model building just a few months ago - Big Funding, not pennies. This was not there 4 years ago.

We're in the final planning of an eco village project based on sustainable agriculture and aquaculture - this was not there 4 years ago. And this will become reality.

4 Years ago we did not have an environmental forum on the DR1 and a blog dealing with real issues was not even a glint in anyone's eyes. This blog started with a meeting of three people over a cup of coffee!

As I said, off the top of my head! There are many more. None of these 'good things' needed governmental intervention. They just needed people who acted where they could, within their ability.

So, Dreaming is very much in our future - in fact, it is part of everyday life. But Greening is very much there as well! And it will become part of your everyday life.

 

[Keith R]

Thanks for the sarcasm about the Green Team, Mirador. Does this signify that your nickname merely means that you are one of those who prefers to sit on the sidelines carping, rather than trying to figure out how to improve things?

Well, Mirador, re-read what I wrote carefully. I was speaking of forming a group of volunteers. I mentioned contacting the government only inasmuch of improving access to the public school classrooms. I have no illusions about the government doing much of any significance. In fact, if you read again my OP, I started this thread asking exactly that -- is the reality matching their rhetoric?

And this perspective of mine is not new. If you had bothered to read my past DR1 threads on wastes and my post on the Green Team blog about data, you'd already know that when I was trying to form a group to work on waste issues while living in SD, we went to government officials not asking them to help out, but rather to stay out of our way.

Dreamer? Not in the sense you may mean. But if it means that I refuse to be apathetic, complacent, cynical and defeatist, then I am a "dreamer" and damn proud of it.

Keith

 

[Mirador]

It was not meant as cynicism. My point is that you cannot sweep one side of the road, or clean half a toilet bowl. It is useless to plant trees in your neighborhood, while others further down the road are cutting them to make charcoal. Your goals are quixotic. Environmental education has to be national policy and organized as a concerted effort, to have any longlasting, self-sustaining effect.

 

[Keith R]

Environmental education already is national policy. Read law 64-00.

The question is implemention. The prior Administration did zip, as far as I can tell. The current Administration claims to be starting, but I suspect it is only doing the minimum, and slowly at that. Hence the OP and the questions it posed.

I think that if a successful private effort can get results and press, maybe, just maybe, we can attract attention and funding and the government will wake up and do something more "concerted," as you put it. But absent any show of interest, absent any pressure from parents, teachers and other interested parties, they will opt to do the minimum.

So, the question remains. Are you one of those content to sit there and say, well, it's up to the government, but the government is not serious about it and won't do anything, so it's all useless anyway -- or are you one of the people who decide to make sure that the government does what it's supposed to do, what it committed to do, what it says it wants to do and must do?

Are you a passive complainer/armchair critic or a doer?

 

[Chris]

It's interesting to see all the energy on these things. It will be even more interesting to see what ideas actually get executed.

Scandall

Yes, I think it will be. Which ones are you involved in Scandall? So that I can see which ones are executed :angry: OK, I'm a little pointed here and you don't deserve to be at the end of it...

These initiatives, or outreach programs or dreams do not need governments. Yes, on the whole one does need a supportive governmental structure - and that would be a great thing. But if we had supportive governmental structure, we would not have a tenth of the problems that us here, and the world is dealing with.

There is so much that can be done while not even touching the governmental channels. Some of these suggestions simply need people that believe in what they are doing and set about to do it in a halfway intelligent manner!

I also grew up in a so-called '3rd world country' where we did not exactly get 'taught' not to litter, to use a simple example. In fact, some of my countrymen believed that one should make a mess, to create job opportunities for the cleaners. But the first campaign that came out was "Don't be a litterbug!" I was about 7 or 8 or thereabouts, I understood very little English at the time, but still remember it. So, if a volunteer group could be pulled together to do some kind of education (perhaps a theatre group with a funny skit), kids will remember, and things will change. And one does not need governmental intervention. In fact, they need to absorb the lessons without even knowing that they're absorbing...

 

[Chris]

It was not meant as cynicism. My point is that you cannot sweep one side of the road, or clean half a toilet bowl. It is useless to plant trees in your neighborhood, while others further down the road are cutting them to make charcoal. Your goals are quixotic. Environmental education has to be national policy and organized as a concerted effort, to have any longlasting, self-sustaining effect.

You're so wrong - man, I've seen wrong things, but this one takes the cake. This is the biggest excuse to *not* do something, and it is endemic everywhere.

Grassroots efforts and working from the bottom up are just so much more effective than governmental interventions.

Geez, we are where we are because of governments. We cannot depend on those fellows to do anything right. So, while we sit and wait for the government to make coherent policy, at least half of the trees are burning down into charcoal. Perhaps if we offer on a grassroots level a realizable and sustainable alternative, the government would not even know and neither would they care. And the trees will still be growing. To coin a phrase - Half a toiletbowl is better than no bowl at all !

 

[Mirador]

...I also grew up in a so-called '3rd world country' where we did not exactly get 'taught' not to litter, to use a simple example. In fact, some of my countrymen believed that one should make a mess, to create job opportunities for the cleaners. But the first campaign that came out was "Don't be a litterbug!" I was about 7 or 8 or thereabouts, I understood very little English at the time, but still remember it. So, if a volunteer group could be pulled together to do some kind of education (perhaps a theatre group with a funny skit), kids will remember, and things will change. And one does not need governmental intervention. In fact, they need to absorb the lessons without even knowing that they're absorbing...

Your description touched a nerve in me, it brought back the recollection of a long lost childhood memory. I was also about eight at the time, and my father had registered me in an experimental school in a '3rd world country', not the DR. As a third grader one of my first assignments was to learn a song by heart. It was called ?Hymn To The Tree?, and I still remember the first stanza: ?Al ?rbol debemos sol?cito amor, jam?s olvidemos que es obra de Dios..." (We owe the tree thoughtful love, we should never forget that it's the work of God). We were to sing the song on ?Tree Day? which was a special celebration in the school calendar. Tree Day was a watershed event in my life. Every single classroom had prepared their own skits, exhibits, and song praising and celebrating trees and nature in general. My own work was a very colorful painting of orchids. The school grounds was a fantastic backdrop for Tree Day. The inside courtyards and the area surrounding the school were covered by myriad common and exotic plant species, each with a sign describing its botanical name. There were animals in cages, birds, even a sloth that climbed up and down one of the trees. During the school year, students took turns tending the trees and the animals. During my three years in that school, I never saw or heard a student vandalizing a plant or littering the grounds.

 

[Chris]

What a great story Mirador!

 

[Keith R]

When I was a boy in the 1960s (yes, I'm that old), litter was a huge problem in the US. What changed things? Not a concerted government policy with lots of public money behind it -- the US did not have a national environment law or an EPA then, and even once they did, there has never been a significant national, "concerted" public effort against litter.

What changed things were a bunch of corporate and civic leaders getting together and deciding to do something about it. They formed Keep America Beautiful and the Advertising Council and made the moving and now famous public service anouncement (PSA) -- funded with PRIVATE money -- with Chief Iron Eyes Cody, the "Crying Indian" ad (you can view it at this link). That and the PSA and the public education efforts that followed, supported more often by private money than public, probably did more to change attitudes and behavior than all the local and state litter laws put together. Government may have acted and helped, but they had to be pushed.

It took a decade or more, but if it had never been started by those who, in their time, were likely called dreamers and quixotic, where would the US be now?

 

[NALs]

When I was a boy in the 1960s (yes, I'm that old), litter was a huge problem in the US. What changed things? Not a concerted government policy with lots of public money behind it -- the US did not have a national environment law or an EPA then, and even once they did, there has never been a significant national, "concerted" public effort against litter.

What changed things were a bunch of corporate and civic leaders getting together and deciding to do something about it. They formed Keep America Beautiful and the Advertising Council and made the moving and now famous public service anouncement (PSA) -- funded with PRIVATE money -- with Chief Iron Eyes Cody, the "Crying Indian" ad (you can view it at this link). That and the PSA and the public education efforts that followed, supported more often by private money than public, probably did more to change attitudes and behavior than all the local and state litter laws put together. Government may have acted and helped, but they had to be pushed.

It took a decade or more, but if it had never been started by those who, in their time, were likely called dreamers and quixotic, where would the US be now?

There are some companies here doing some work on trying to change the attitudes Dominicans have about everything, from work ethic to manners to garbage, the list goes on.

Have you seen the Leon Jimenes group commercials lately?

It's a sign of better things to come!

Also, there appears to be some effort from the part of the government (as hard as it is to believe this, but believe it) on garbage, wearing seat belts, not driving while drinking, etc.

Edited to add: If a teaching campaign on garbage and what's the proper way of handlign this would be needed, I suppose teaching the women this would make wonders with future generations.

In general, educating women has a higher rate of return on investment than it does for educating men, not to mention that educating women also enhances the quality of life of her offsprings as well, at least that is what some data I have been looking states.

-NAL

 

[Mirador]

When I was a boy in the 1960s (yes, I'm that old), litter was a huge problem in the US. ...
... What changed things were a bunch of corporate and civic leaders getting together and deciding to do something about it. They formed Keep America Beautiful and ?

I thought it was Lady Bird Johnson when she was First Lady who founded the organization Keep America Beautiful in the 1960's?

 

[RHM]

Yes, I think it will be. Which ones are you involved in Scandall? So that I can see which ones are executed :angry: OK, I'm a little pointed here and you don't deserve to be at the end of it..

You're right. I shouldn't be at the end of it. Especially since the comment was not directed to anyone in particular. It was a general statement how most ideas rarely get off the ground when it comes time to actually do something.

As for my resume of community projects...I don't do them so I can brag about them and say "Look how good I am." So I will just let my actions speak for themselves.

Scandall