We seek to accent the importance of sustainability in our culture. Our culture has so much political clout around the world that such power could be used for the benefit of everyone. The best way to influence social cultures is through the social construct of school, since most habits and rituals are engrained early in a social context, where children are most receptive to imitating behavior. Thus, it is the responsibility and the political charge of each citizen of this world to encourage a sustainable lifestyle. Our historical culture has not supported sustainability efforts. In fact, our economic culture has ultimately made large amounts of money a symbol of success and connected it with power (without counting life-cycle costs). Historically we have come to depend on money to solve our problems, but this perception of money has proven deceptive to some degree. Our social culture deems us successful if we drive a Lincoln Towncar, wear a suit everyday, and have 13 years of education. Kathleen and I propose that such ideas of success be reexamined.

Now, that actions toward sustainability are imperative, the leading economic and political culture has to take responsible. Our social construct is one that requires much resources and lots of energy; thus, the struggle to shift our social, historical, economic and political cultures will take time. Our target should be to achieve environmental sustainability, sustaining life, including other life, than ourselves for generations to come. Environmental sustainability of the nation and the earth that we inhabit is perhaps one, if not the most important issue today. Consequently, educators are also responsible. Educators have to create learning environments where children can learn about the detrimental effects that our environmental abuse has on the world around them, while learning good world stewardship practices that could help to preserve and even restore resources. The best way to alter any social downward spiral is education of both the old and the young. The old may be convinced to make changes in their day-to-day behavior. While the young, in all the vitality and spirit that comes with youth, may not only learn about the problem, but also internalize it, and perhaps make enormous changes in their life. Since it is harder to reach older people, the focus will have to be on the young. They are the ones that will be enthusiastic about creating a better world for themselves. Schools will have to guide this enthusiasm in the direction of sustainability.

A definition of Sustainability

Sustainability is the ability to sustain something. In modern terms, this term is most directly related to our earth and its diminishing resources, which will increasingly relate to each individual. Most people in third world countries are experiencing the detriment of insufficient resources; nevertheless, their cultures work with what little they have and are more sustainable than most citizens of this country. Taking care of one’s own resources is not enough either. Often the term life-cycle costing appears in literature on sustainability. This term is defined as measuring the total cost of a product. For example, buying a more expensive fluorescent bulb that lasts five years, will be more sustainable than buying a cheaper light bulb that only last three months. Ideally, one goal of sustainability is to reduce waste products. The overarching goal of sustainability is to sustain resources for this and succeeding generations, which is a life-long commitment for the greater good of all citizens of this world. The life-long commitment aspect brings another aspect that sustainable literature addresses—sustainable communities. Thus far, even in communities in the United States, communities are not sustainable because basic needs are not met for all citizens.

Toward a Culture of Sustainability

Responding to the above definition, a culture of sustainability will be one that considers not only its own generation, but also succeeding generations regarding their resources. A culture of sustainability will do its utmost to preserve limited resources, to reuse a maximum amount of resources, and to find alternate resources that can sustain this and future generations. A culture of sustainability, ideally, will be socialized worldwide to demand sustainability efforts from each and every world citizen and country. In order for every citizen to reach their goal, the social and political cultures of a society are responsible to educate students on historical and economic facts of sustainability. Second, current economic policy has to be restructured to aid in sustainability efforts. Politically, education toward sustainability should be at the forefront of the agenda, because through politics most changes in culture take root. However, it is also imperative to accept individual responsibility for sustainability. From an historical context, all of us are social beings; thus, we perpetuate ideas and model actions that others will imitate. Socialization of a sustainable culture depends on all four culture types. Ultimately, social solidarity should be achieved worldwide for sustainability to work. To start this process, microcosms of society must be targeted—schools.

Policy makers have to consider decisions that foster a sustainable future. Socially, hard working citizens that work long hours and do not find time to devote to their families represent the majority of our culture. It is the responsibility of the remaining citizens and representatives to focus on sustainable initiatives and to find solutions to current problems such as overpopulation, overconsumption, etc. that are encouraged by current cultures across the world. Policy makers have to consider the dire situation that our society perpetuates in other societies by economic and political greed. Such social symbols as the television, cell phones, and e-mail have reached populations world-wide. Our culture of appliances consumes an unbelievable amount of electricity. Policy makers are responsible to pull society out of this nature-deprived rut and change society through various means including education. Undoubtedly, education is a large political and social force, especially in Western culture. Politics has to join Education at all levels to find solutions to these pressing problems. Universities can and have established programs that give research opportunities and awareness to many students. In the primary and secondary education sector, students should not only learn about sustainability but also learn good sustainable habits. Finally, community education programs and non-profits should receive grants to educate communities about sustainable living.

Economic culture will make sustainable communities a reality. These multifaceted relationship can be fostered through monetary incentives, like paid internships, regional collegiate connections with governments, and most importantly, more money for sustainable initiatives for schools. Ultimately, our society will establish a new context, a culture of sustainability that will make a mark in history.

Schools

Since the school is a microcosm of society, all schools should be leaders in sustainability if this social change is to take place. Historically, schools have influenced society to change. Conservative schools in Europe once urged the church and kings to establish the Inquisition, which was carried out in the 16th century. In the 20th century, we have seen schools segregate and desegregate society. The same process has to be used in a positive way to make society more sustainable. Schools should promote sustainable thinking through new symbols or previously used symbols associated with sustainability. Since social solidarity should be of utmost priority, teachers have to collaborate with as many colleagues, parents, and other agencies to support sustainability. This process is in line with New Teaching Standard 5, which seeks the collaboration of teachers with other individuals or groups outside the classroom. Teachers can promote recycling by having symbols on the wall that show the recycling process. Teachers can work in conjunction with waste management facilities to spread awareness by bringing in community experts and holding programs. Teachers can keep each other accountable for sustainable action. Best of all, teachers can carpool to school whenever possible. Administrators and staff should also be involved.

The presence of a school is often times an important part of a community. Its self-initiated assessment of sustainability as related to policy and daily function would hopefully cause a ripple effect throughout the community. The main idea is to instill good habits across the community.

Curriculum

The Curriculum should also focus more on sustainability issues. Renewed attention to Rainforest depletion and sustainable economics will spur critical thinking and will relate to students’ lives, since sustainability is a world-wide issue. Sustainable initiatives are directly related to multicultural awareness. Many times, third world countries have to be taken into account in order to understand the detrimental effects of our non-sustainable approach to living. Incorporating this real world problem solving into the classroom must be approached in various ways and in several if not all classrooms.

The great aspect about sustainability is that it reaches across disciplines. A literature teacher could use scientific journals that discuss sustainability by addressing core content RD-E-2.0.6. Scientific literature often makes great use of graphs, tables and charts; thus, sustainability and a core content goal would be met. A social studies teacher could discuss our social, historical, economic and political culture in relation to core content goal SS-H-3.1.1. Our society uses massive amounts of gas to power us to the next century, while, some people wonder if we will ever make it to the glories next century due to dwindling resources. A science teacher could discuss the adaptability of humans to more sustainable living and discuss implications of a more sustainable future, which could address core content goal SC-M-3.2.3.

Addressing sustainability in every classroom is a possibility that is only discouraged by laziness. Sustainable living is not a separate topic in the curriculum because sustainability can permeate through each subject and be a part of many of the learning goals.

Classroom

A sustainable society starts in the classroom. Nowhere do so many people come together to learn whether they like it or not. It is vitally important that the teacher reflects on his/her main goals as a teacher. One of those goals should be sustainability for the sake of future generations. Any person in their right mind thinks that sustainability issues are worthwhile discussion topics. Acting on them is a world apart. However, we are at a critical juncture where discussion and action have to be joint objectives. Students and teachers have to stand together on this issue, making every individual as important as the next.

Teachers should encourage students to practice rituals of recycling, reuse, and reduction of resources. Encouraging students to use paper in sustainable rituals is a start. Students can reuse papers that have the backside blank. Recycling bins should be made mandatory across in classrooms across the country. We know that teaching a child what is right while simultaneously doing the opposite has little or no behavior changing effects on the child. So one of the most important parts of teaching sustainability in a classroom would be having a sustainable classroom and school.

Sustainability in a class or school setting is much more than a recycling poster on the wall and a recycling bin in the corner. A teacher could perform (perhaps with the help of her class) an environmental audit of the class environment; the symbols around the classroom, (being mindful of what they represent to a diverse group of individuals), the outdoor maintenance, food preparation, and cafeteria practices, policies and habits of the school and all who interact with it, and much more. If this audit is part of a class project, the teacher could satisfy New Teacher Standard 4, 7 and multiple KERA Learning Goals including some goals from the “practical living” section and Goal 4 which strives to develop students’ abilities to be responsible and effective community members. After using some class time to discuss and learn about the topic of sustainability, the teacher can use the audit as a group project, assessing various communications and thinking skills. For the teacher, the audit could serve as an evaluation of how well he/she models sustainable behavior. Dealing with the goal of “practical living” and developing habits of responsible community members relates directly to sustainability. This audit would need to be specific and comprehensive. Figure 1 depicts a sustainability audit.

Figure 1. Sustainability audit

How do we get to and from school?

• Do students and teachers car pool when possible?
• Is there a car pool system in place to connect people who have rides and people who need rides?
• Are the school buses as environmentally friendly as possible?
• Do parents keep their car engines running when waiting for their children to be released from school?

• Are pesticides, or other chemicals used when taking care of the lawn? If they are, what would it take to switch the school over to environmentally safe products?
• Are cleaning supplies, and all other products bought in large quantities so that unnecessary packaging is limited, and transportation costs are minimized?
• How much water does outside maintenance of the property require?

• Are served fruits and vegetables grown without pesticides?
• Is any of the food that the cafeteria prepares bought locally?
• Would the cafeteria use food grown in an organic garden? -Does the cafeteria purchase items that are over packed or wasteful?
• Are all recyclables recycled?
• Is left over food used well?
• Is there/or could their be a compost pile available for disposable of food?
• Is tuna used dolphin friendly?

• Is all recyclable paper recycled?
• Is all the paper in the recycling bin used on both sides?
• How much paper is used during a class day? Could that amount be reduced?
• What type of electricity using appliances and lights are used? Could florescent lighting replace old light bulbs when they go bad?
• Are art supplies and other supplies made with non-toxic material?
• Is there asbestos in the school?
• Are toilets low water flow toilets? Are all leaks in them fixed immediately?

A sustainability audit may sound cumbersome, but is a start to establishing sustainable cultural rituals. Keeping the school sustainable would be far less difficult and would prove to be an educational experience for faculty and students alike. In an ideal scenario the results would be far reaching and positive effects would grow exponentially. The school itself would leave less of a negative footprint on the earth it inhabits, and the actual school environment would be more organic and healthy for the children who spend so much of their time there.

After the classroom and school audit had been run, to maintain equity in teaching and doing, the educator could begin bringing sustainability into her classroom in other ways. By relating New Teaching Standard 2 and KERA Learning Goal 3.6, the teacher could ask students to share their feelings about the environment in ways that would be meaningful to them. Students’ poems, paintings, dances, or plays would give the teacher opportunity to assess, also making a connection with New Teaching Standard 4 and KERA Learning Goal 2.22, what each student felt their responsibility to the earth was, if in fact they felt a responsibility to it at all. That could be the starting point from which the class discussion and action would grow. The class could help to brainstorm about the environmental subjects they would like to learn more about. Perhaps the class would like to evaluate the placement of certain symbols in their own classroom, followed by acting on their conclusion. For example, the question “Is the garbage can placed in a prominent position close the door of the classroom?” could be followed by placing the garbage can in the best possible position. The goal of performing sustainable ritual is partially met by this class process.

Many multiple intelligences can also be incorporated into a classroom focused on sustainability. Making a lesson plan that can cover several days could take a form shown in figure 2.

Figure 2. Practical lesson plan on sustainability using multiple intelligences

The project in this lesson will make use of mathematical/logical intelligence buy figuring the cost of the home. It will also demand some illustration ability by designing and mapping a rough outline of the house and its components; thus, targeting visual/spatial intelligence. Bodily Kinesthetic intelligence is also incorporated by encouraging a volunteer activity. Verbal/linguistic intelligence will also be used in the presentation and research. Interpersonal intelligence will be used during communication exercises. Finally, students will touch on their existential intelligence when they look at cost and sustainability and the importance of weighing each entity for its positive and negative aspects in affecting other people and other things.

The possibilities for sustainability in the classroom are endless and do not have to be as extensive as this proposed assessment and lesson. However, one must realize that sustainability is a life-long commitment and not just a fact to be discussed in passing. The proposed lesson plan and project can be part of the process to create a ritual that will imbed itself in classroom culture. They alone will not create a ritual! Therefore, other lesson plans and projects have to contain sustainable objectives. Moreover, discussion has to be coupled with action as much as possible. Only then will sustainability become an understandable habit, a ritual that becomes part of culture.

Implications for culture and society

The sustainability of our planet implies that we, as the highest consuming nation, take a critical look at our own lives and examine what we really need. Suits and ties are not necessary. Neither are feasts that often include a massive consumption of alcohol and food. However, our social change has to begin somewhere small, and the place to start is in elementary school or earlier. Habits are hard to break! Thus, teaching our next generation about more sustainable means to living, ensures that these resources will not continue to be consumed in the way we have consumed them. Sustainable pedagogy should be maintained throughout an education career in every area. After all, every part of our lives uses resources. We have to learn to use all our resources more efficiently.

Initiating this process through social and political culture is the way to influence economic and historical culture. Calling for social solidarity on the issue of sustainability has as a consequence stronger communities and more health conscious citizens toward themselves and their environment. Education seeks to make students good citizens in the future. Thus sustainability should be one of the key components of education to ensure their and other citizens’ well being for generations to come.

In the following chart (Figure 3) one can see that the main implication for a culture of sustainability is to have an initiative to start this new trend. This initiative can begin anywhere. The classroom is a start because education can influence all culture types directly. The responsibility falls directly on Social and Political culture (thus including every individual). These cultures directly affect and are affected by economic culture and education. Education (as the messenger of Political culture), Economics, and Social culture give historical culture its context. Historical, Economic, and social culture will finally make a culture of sustainability a reality. The new culture focused on sustainability will in turn affect all culture types toward a new way of living and the process, ideally, will be a constant exchange of support and information amongst all culture types. It is important to understand that action (leading by example, communication, teaching) make these processes possible.

Toward a culture of sustainability

Figure 3. Sustainable initiative starts with any group or individual, who have to initially influence political and social culture. Those to cultures will affect other cultures. Once culture of sustainability is reached, that culture will start a reciprocal action to achieve improvement in all cultures. Conclusion

This call to a culture of sustainability can be easily incorporated into any subject or curriculum. The topic of sustainability directly relates to the Goals 2 and 4 in our KERA Learning Goals. Goal 2 sections on practical living and arts and humanities call for a greater understanding of communities and sustaining oneself. Goal 4 demands that students become responsible members of their family, work group, and community (which should include the world community as well). New Teacher Standards 2, 6, 9 are directly embedded in the sustainability effort. Educating students on sustainability issues, although focused and people, can also incorporate various media, communication and technology. Sustainable issues require attention across disciplines; thus, a culture of sustainability should encourage a multi-disciplinary approach—teaching sustainability in all subjects.

References

Cortese, Anthony. Second Nature: Education for Sustainability. 28 March, 2004 .

Olson, Richard. SENS: Sustainability and Environmental Studies. 28 March, 2004 .

Van Der Ryn. Van Der Ryn Architects: Eco-Logic in Design. 11 Apr. 2004 .

Eco-Portal. The Environmental Sustainability Info Source. 29 March,2004 .

Merkel, Jim. Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth. New Society Publisher September 2003.