Re: greening English in secondary schools?

["Van Noy, Rick" <rvannoy@RADFORD.EDU>]

Now that Richard mentions it, I think I caught a presentation by Sasha
(if this is the same person) in Wofford about teaching a fish poem
(can't remember the specific one--Bishop?) where she explained how
understanding the poem required an understanding of some of the tropes
and imagery but also some environmental knowing: where these kinds of
fish lived, how they fed, etc. 

I don't know of a movement on the secondary level, Clark, but at the
very least it sounds like you could have a panel in BC (another long
roadtrip in the Outback?). 

But I think you'd find many in ASLE that have similar concerns, or who
feel their careers pulled in a direction of environmental education.
I'll inevitably have students who don't know the lilacs or thrush in the
Whitman poem . . . 

I did teach at a private secondary school for a few years and remember a
bias on the part of my chair against nonfiction. "But that's not
literature." Perhaps I could have slipped in "A Fable for Tomorrow" or
"Thinking Like a Mountain" through the back door, disguised as "fiction"
or fables/parables.

Was thinking about Carson's statement in The Sense of Wonder that "it's
not so important to know as to feel" when I saw your message. I think
she meant something like, when it comes to environmental education
having lasting meaning, that some kind of emotive response is as (or
more) important than a cerebral one, and I think she saw that this could
be best be accomplished through experiences and narrative--not just
environmental literacy, knowing your shells, but also a response to
those tidepools. 

Maybe it's possible to nudge an environmental awareness along, in the
framework of a typical secondary English class and its "canon," through
the texts they produce as much as those they consume? Writing about
their environment (in which case, check out some of the ecocomposition
stuff too)? 

In any case, wanted to encourage you to send out a CFP. I'd bet you'd
get a good response.