Re: greening English in secondary schools?

["Clark Meyer" <ClarkMeyer@Westminster.Net>]

Thanks for the thoughts, Rick.  I guess it's a measure of the very different worlds we inhabit that it took me an afternoon to figure out what CFP stands for (much less how it works).  So I'm not sure I'm the person to send one out.  But I am going to look into whether BC could fit into my summer plans.

Your ecocomposition suggestion is much appreciated . . . just entering this new term into Google yielded a treasure trove.  I had the same thoughts about writing as an access point for environmental thinking in the secondary curriculum, and I am currently working on a course proposal to submit to our academic leadership team for a field-based summer writing class . . . a huge advantage of a summer course being that I'll need to have at least one other teacher on board to team teach/supervise, so I can begin to open my colleagues to the possibilities.




Clark Meyer
English Department
Head Coach, Varsity Girls Soccer
The Westminster Schools
404-609-6257
http://clarkbeast.wordpress.com/


>>> "Van Noy, Rick" <rvannoy@RADFORD.EDU> 9/10/2008 11:33 AM >>>
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. 


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