[Coral-List] Post for input from coral-list members

RainbowWarriorsInternational southern_caribbean at yahoo.com
Fri Nov 28 17:05:17 EST 2008


I second the opinions of Virginie and Cheryl. But the issue at large is that the curriculum in most primary and secondary level educational institutes is hopelessly outdated.

Children are still taught biology, geography and in some cases social science and "science".

What is needed is a course which teaches all students in  a certain age group the interrelated issues of sustainable development, in the same way the new interdisciplinary field of human dimensions tries to achieve (www.hd.gov).

This is part of what we in Rainbow Warriors try to promote in our international work.

How about trying to put together an outline  curriculum for students ages 12-18 in which the sustainable development issues are treated in an integrated way?

Earthday Network already does an excellent job in the USA, but it needs to be taken global.

The (combined) efforts of Rainbow Warriors and Ekolibirum will emphasize on making available tools online to enable just that or serve as a directory for sites where to obtain these.

Milton Ponson, President
Rainbow Warriors Core Foundation
(Rainbow Warriors International) Tel. +297 568 5908
PO Box 1154, Oranjestad 
Aruba, Dutch Caribbean 
Email: southern_caribbean at yahoo.com Web Sites: http://www.southerncaribbean..org   http://www.rainbowwarriors.net (Global)
http://www.projectparadigm.info

To unite humanity in a global society dedicated to a sustainable way of life

--- On Fri, 11/28/08, Virginie Fruh <eko at ekolibrium.org> wrote:
From: Virginie Fruh <eko at ekolibrium.org>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Post for input from coral-list members
To: "Cheryl McGill" <cmcg11 at cox.net>
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Date: Friday, November 28, 2008, 6:24 AM

We are just as surprised as all of you. I believe Cheryl is right when she
says marine science should be a core course in all education systems, but
perhaps even a more general course such as how we are interacting and how we
should interact with our environment as a whole should be considered as a
core course: the kids of today would realize how everything is linked and
how small actions we make can make a difference..

Now.. how would we go on proposing a course like this to governments?!
(along with proposing a core course on how to take care of one's body and
mind but that's for another list I suppose!).

As co-founders of ekolibrium (I speak on behalf of the other two
co-founders, Didier Thomas and Ayi Ardisastra), which you have heard of on
this list before, we are very interested in how to communicate to and
educate the masses, so this topic is very hot for us and we believe that
education regarding the environment is lacking in many countries and that we
should start somewhere and hope to spread the course.  Perhaps start with a
conference on the subject?

So, we're very interested on how this can happen! Please, feel free to
contact us at eko at ekolibrium.org to talk about it with more details

Best wishes,
Virginie
ekolibrium

On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 7:35 PM, Cheryl McGill <cmcg11 at cox.net> wrote:

> Isn't it sad that our youth believes marine science to be a
"fairly new
> science."  The student raises a good question, why isn't the
public (ALL
> public in all states- not just Florida) more aware of its marine
> environment? We have many indicators on the beach (flags, signs, etc.) to
> protect us from the marine environment but nothing that reciprocates the
> same "protection" to the marine environment. I'm not
proposing we should
> put
> up signs to list the many ways we can protect  marine habitats but instead
> propose that marine science be a core course in all education systems, not
> just coastal states. I know Florida, as well as other coastal states,
> relies
> heavily on the tourism industry. The tourists visiting should be just as
> educated as locals as to what type of implications their actions may or
may
> not have on the environment.
>
> It is silly to me that marine biology is an elective course in our
> education
> system, and even non-existent in land locked states (at least this was the
> case when I was a high school student in Memphis).  Ask a high school
> student if they know the correlation between fertilizers and the fishing
> industry, they probably do not have a clue. What is sad is that it is not
> through lack of studying on their part, it is a lack of education on ours..
> I
> enjoy watching the Discovery Channel (Blue Planet being one of my
> favorites)
> and Animal Planet, but what kid in their spare time is going to watch an
> educational show? Marine science needs to be in our school curriculum.
>
> Scientists have known for years the impacts humans are having on the
marine
> environment. The problem is, I do not believe that our education system is
> evolving with societal knowledge of marine habitats. Maybe now is a good
> time use our democratic powers, "change can happen" but it will
not happen
> on its own.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Cheryl McGill
>
> Ex-teacher, current marine biologist
>
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> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
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>
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