Last night I read a post from Chris Lehmann (principal in PA) about considering a new economic model that gets away from the “growth” based economy and tries to rework the great features about our present system but is based on “sustainability”. Chris concludes his post with:

“Because I am concerned that without a new model, the macro-level rapaciousness of a corporate capitalism as that legal organism is currently constructed will lead us into a need for more and more where we must hope that technological innovations stretch ever-dwindling resources and increase the efficiency with which humans interact with their environment outpace the need for the market to grow. And that is a frightening end-game that, to me, we are destined some day to lose.”

This morning I just finished reading Mr. Doyle’s (science teacher in NJ) reflection on the action on Wall Street and the placement or misplacement of value. Pointing out that his basil in the garden still has the same value that it had before the Dow dropped 500 points. (The frost got mine this weekend so there was some depreciation on the crop here in Appleton) He concludes with

“If children truly learned what’s worth anything, I fear expect our economy would collapse.”

These two readings point out some fairly clear limitations in the “value” system of our society. Can we plan on always getting more from the environment even if our technological progress makes our “environmental interaction more efficient”? And if as educators we educated on value and what is really worth something would it move us towards a “more sustainable” economy from the ground up? I would like to think that yes, the American system does need some reworking and that these students that we have are the ones who are going to have to get it! (We did not!) They need to be realizing that “Ultimately everything of value is connected to the ground, the sun, the air, the water.”

My 8th grade class just finished up harvesting corn from that garden that they planted last May. They had a choice of what they wanted to do with it and interestingly they did not choose the money route they did not give it away to a needy organization. The value for them in that corn was to cook it up and eat it as a class, sharing the experience with each other. Now there was some value! (and a good thing in their life)

The visit to the Fair was an annual pilgrimage that many Mainers make every year. Is it to be reminded of what is really valuable! I think it is. We go not to shop, not for entertainment, (not that it does not have either of these) but for that reminder of the important things of real value. We can see and hear about the connections to the ground, the sun, the air and the water. That is what it is about! On an individual basis we tend to get so caught up in the “Wall Street” value and marketing of things of little value that this annual gathering is a great way for us to educate ourselves and reflect about things of real value.

And remember that the good things in life are not always things!!

This looks like a great companion to all the technology workshops that I attend. It is nice that this is happening in Maine and that Gov. Baldacci is trying to to bring attention to this issue.

After reading Last Child in the Woods, which from a teaching point of view the first half was of interest, I have been dealing with how to get my students and laptops out of the building and into natural settings. When looking at technology be it laptops, Smartboards, web2.0, Wii, etc. nature is not always the first thing that comes to mind or to the workshop setting.

Here in Maine a few programs that I have been involved with where nature and tech meet are Maine Lakes Conservacy Institute and the new Maine Explorer software on the MLTI laptops. We need more of this sort of opportunity as education gets pulled towards technology and needs more nature in its delivery.

I hope that this event is as well attended as some of this falls technology gatherings.

His latest title is, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America”

And I thought that we were going to get away with just a flat world but it seems that there were a few things that Friedman needed to add to this second edition.  Bring on the “Green Revolution”. Better late than never. 

As we look at the environment in our education here at school I am reminded of the presentation that Paul Kando did about “The Inconvenient Truth” for us. It has left my 7th graders with many interests and questions about global warming and the environment in general. Some are into eco-tecture, green homes, testing water, and the decomposition of plastics.

I am interested top see what sort of results this experiment gives us.