“Environmental education is the best weapon, strategy, option, and alternative against environmental problems”
This environmental concept is a training process that allows for awareness of the importance of the environment, promotes the development of values and new attitudes among citizens that contribute to the rational use of natural resources and the solution of environmental problems.
This education is considered as the process that allows individuals to understand the interdependent relationships with their environment, based on reflective and critical knowledge of their biophysical, social, political, economic, and cultural reality.
This process should generate in the learner and their community attitudes of appreciation and respect for the environment, thereby promoting an improvement in the quality of life, within a conception of human development that meets the needs of present generations, ensuring the welfare of future generations.
Environmental education as a tool for change
Beyond traditional education, the mere act of imparting knowledge, environmental education connects humans with their environment, with their surroundings, and seeks a change in attitude, an awareness of the importance of conservation for the future and for improving our quality of life.
The adoption of a conscious attitude towards the environment that surrounds us, and of which we are an inseparable part, largely depends on the teaching and education of children and youth. For this reason, pedagogy and schools must play a fundamental role in this process.
The daily practice in Argentina does not always involve significant aspects of what is called environmental education. This has its roots in various aspects, all linked to education, long before considering its content.
Within this rigid structure, and despite changes in legislation, we paradoxically continue to think about environmental issues from and for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The current structure of education in Argentina does not always facilitate the true dialogue that allows for the detection of the issues affecting that group of students, that particular community. Content is delivered without regard to who is being worked with or where one is located.
The content proposed in schools does not facilitate this dialogical relationship with children and youth, nor does it consider the needs, challenges, and difficulties faced by teachers. We find this same bias in the mantra of environmental education: “Think globally, act locally.” Often, this stance makes local and regional needs, not to mention urgencies, invisible. Let’s think locally… paint our village and thus paint the world.
For this reason, I support proposals like that of María de los Milagros Cisterna from School No. 1 “General José de San Martin” in Carmen de Areco – Province of Buenos Aires on RECYCLING, a grade teacher at an urban school, who believes that “Due to a deficient culture of preservation of the environment, which transcends our students, it is necessary to encourage creativity to produce by transforming waste with art and ingenuity into products that can be reused. The project seeks to encourage recycling and ecological awareness, the recycling of solid waste is considered an important strategy to contribute to strengthening an environmentalist culture and saving.”
Education is the foundation of change, and it must be pursued through various strategies, the main objective of this project is based on “Promoting an ecological awareness, with a creative and productive mindset, using waste,” explained the teacher.
This type of teaching is part of the educational programs of the schools, but it must also be promoted informally or unsystematically by government campaigns, civil organization projects, and business initiatives.
Given the state of affairs, what we cannot negotiate is hope. Let’s turn this moment into an opportunity to generate positive change. That change is still possible. The true challenge of environmental education in our country is to add perspectives, evaluate our resources, challenges, and difficulties.
By: Cristián Frers – Senior Technician in Environmental Management and Senior Technician in Social Communication (Journalist).
