Earth Education: A New Beginning [Paperback]

Steve Van Matre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1990 | ISBN-10: 0917011023 | ISBN-13: 978-0917011023

For over twenty years the public has been led to believe that there is a serious educational response underway regarding the environmental problems of the earth. It is not true. The environmental movement has been led astray: + trivialized by mainstream education + diluted by those with other agendas + co-opted by the very agencies and industries that have contributed so much to the problems

This book proposes another direction--an alternative that many environmental leaders and teachers around the world have already taken. It is called The Earth Education Path, and anyone can follow it in developing a genuine educational program made up of magical learning adventures.

Earth education aims to accomplish what environmental education set out to do, but didn't: to help people improve upon their cognitive and affective relationship with the earth's natural communities and life support systems, and begin crafting lifestyles that will lessen their impact upon those places and processes on behalf of all the earth's passengers.

If you care about the health of our troubled planet, then you should read what this internationally known educator has to say about how we lost a whole generation of teachers and leaders and what you can do to help them find their way again.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been working for an "environmental education" firm for a year now. I love the children. I love sharing the beauty and wonder of our planet with them... Still, I had this feeling of dissatisfaction. Why couldn't I get the message to go home with them? ...I didn't know where to begin. Until... I found your book on earth education. Hooray! At last someone not afraid to take a really critical look at what is going on in our environmental education centers. Thank you for explaining so clearly all of my frustrations and giving me some tools to work with." -- Andrea Voss, Sherman Oaks, California

"I am a research biologist by profession, a bit of a naturalist by avocation, and have been getting increasingly interested in non-university-level education about the eearth over the last several years. ...when I read your book I wanted to jump for joy. Someone else felt the way I did! The introduction and first chapter alone made it all worth while. By the way, I thought that your apologies in the first chapter about being too harsh were unnecessary; you were right on. --Lisa Ellis, Albuquerque, New Mexico -- Publisher Comments

About the Author

Steve Van Matre, chairman of The Institute for Earth Education, was a professor of environmental interpretation and education for fifteen years in the Chicago region before moving to West Virginia and founding the School for the Earth. Prior to his university work he was a camp director, school teacher, education consultant and youth leader. Professor Van Matre has conducted over 1000 sessions on earth education and completed over a dozen world speaking tours on its behalf.

Product Details

• Paperback: 317 pages
• Publisher: Inst for Earth Education (April 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0917011023
• ISBN-13: 978-0917011023
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #919,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Environmental education at its best...magic and clarity..., February 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Earth Education: A New Beginning (Paperback)

Everyone working in the field of environmental education should read this book as a foundation for methodology, philosophy and the true spirit of why we do what we do.

Steve Van Matre is a visionary, with a deeply rooted commitment to teaching children how to love nature and act responsibly in it's honor. His books create an understanding that EE is not just science education, nor is it just holding hands and singing the garden song. EE is about a relationship with and responsibility to the ecological systems and their magical life giving, spirit renewing mysteries.

This book provides insight into the author's sometimes abrasive, usually entertaining and sometimes painfully honest view of how EE should and should not occur. Van Matre gives simple descriptions of natural systems and the educational process called earth education.

Earth education is a series of carefully crafted outdoor learning experiences with lots of theatrics, teaching tools materials, and clearly defined outcomes. The author strongly protests "activity" based programs like Project Wild and Project Learning Tree, and the idea of integrating EE into classroom curriculum is without value or success in his view. Van Matre's program promotes immersion into nature, carefully designed learning experiences using hooks and experiential activities with goals and teasers that inspire children to return and learn more.

Van Matre's ecological concepts, teaching style and strong opinions are a foundation for many environmental programs world wide. I see his influence within programs that don't realize they are using his materials.

Not only is this book inspirational and timeless, but an important reminder to not give in to all the pressures that would cause us to integrate, white wash, compromise and otherwise lose track of our goals.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A few good points, but narcissistic, October 6, 2005

By 

"Dity" (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Earth Education: A New Beginning (Paperback)

I can't totally bash this book because Van Matre did have several ideas that should be incorporated into Environmental Ed (especially 'avoid twenty questions' and 'removing disguises'). But it was so tiring to slog through his ego trip. The first chapter does nothing but denigrate every existing EE program that Van Matre could think of. Nothing is good enough for him, and he doesn't even allow that many of these programs do have positive points as well as negative. The second chapter basically says, "thank goodness I have come along, for you were all wandering blind without me!" Finally, starting in about the third chapter, VM starts to expound on his ideas. Scattered throughout are distracting anecdotes that, taken together with the first 2 chapters, only make him appear more egotistical. He included several cute gnomish illustrations and fancy fonts, so the book does have some visual appeal. However, for an environmentalist, there was one thing about his book that puzzled me... Why did he leave a 2 1/2 inch margin along one side of the text? To make the book look longer? Many times there is just one illustration in this huge blank space. Shouldn't an environmentalist be trying to save paper by using as much of a page's surface as possible? If you are interested in EE, I think you should definitely read this book AFTER the first 2 chapters. But don't bother buying it if you don't have to. Look for it in a library first. Failing that, buy it used for as cheap as possible.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Earth Education is the answer, October 27, 2005

By 

Susan Bowers (Kingston, ON) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Earth Education: A New Beginning (Paperback)

I borrowed this book from a highschool teacher while I was teaching grade 5 in an international school, hoping to find some new ways to get across to students important aspects of environmental systems. What I came away with was a totally new and oh so comfortable way of looking at the world. More importantly, I was teaching it to children in a way that I hope will stay with them forever. Environmental education always seemed too clinical for me. Here was something that resonated and created a paradigm shift in me as a person sharing this planet with countless other forms of life. It is a view I now show my own children who happily express their wonder and reverence for nature. Thank you for this book!! I have recommended it to others and would love for it to be required reading by all educators.