Bishop Hill Eco-schools
There was quite a lot of interest in the quote by a teacher that I posted up yesterday. On a similar theme, here is something I've been sitting on for a while.
The Eco-schools movement is, as the name suggests, an environmental programme for children. The idea appears to be to have a green spin to as much of the curriculum as possible, but also getting children to raise money for green charities and to involve their families in green campaigning.
As schools develop their eco-programme, they rise through bronze and silver awards, arriving ultimately at the highest level of eco-school award, the Green Flag. To reach this level, greenery needs to be pervasive across the curriculum.
Green Flag
- The school has a named individual responsible for environmental education/sustainable development education.
- The school has a curriculum plan integrating a range of environmental issues into the curriculum across some year groups or classes in a range of subjects.
- Aspects of Eco-Schools activities are integrated into a range of subjects across the curriculum for the majority of classes or year groups.
- Issues surrounding sustainable development are explored through curriculum activities in many year groups.
This looks rather scary, but in fact if you look at the checklist for the awards it looks even worse. Schools are expected to complete this checklist annually, and it lists steps varying from the unexceptionable - Are windows and doors properly insulated and draught-free?- to the eyebrow-raising- Are the school grounds free of herbicides and pesticides? - to the downright terrifying - Does the school have an ethos of 'respecting and caring for other living things'? Have pupils made the link between Fair Trade and Environmental Protection? Are pupils aware of the importance of the conservation worldwide of natural habitats, resources and cultures? Does the school deliver programmes supporting 'sustainable communities'? Is the school taking part in the UNICEF 'Rights Respecting Schools' initiative? Have pupils investigated the potential impact of Climate Change on the lives of people across the globe? Is the school a 'Fair Trade School'? Has the school supported any global environmental charities? Are Eco-Schools activities included in the School Improvement/Development Plan? Does the school invite the local community to participate in its Eco-Schools activities, such as Eco 'Days of Action'? Are Eco-Schools activities integrated into the school curriculum?
That last bit is quite interesting. As the notes on the Green Flag award make clear, eco-activities are intended to be widespread in the curriculum and the Eco-schools Scotland website has curriculum maps showing how this can be achieved. This again looks rather scary, with the objectives of the curriculum pushed aside in favour of delivering the rather Maoist-sounding "Seven Objectives" of the Eco-schools programme. Science lessons, for example, will look at issues such as biodiversity ("I can debate the moral and ethical issues associated with some controversial biological procedures"), with a suggested focus on GM crops and cloning. Geography is a thing of the past in Scotland, with the subject now subsumed into the rather nebulous area of "People, Place and Environment". Here, one suggestion is that the objective might be "Having evaluated the role of agriculture in the production of food and raw material, I can draw reasoned conclusions about the environmental impacts and sustainability."
You get the idea. Take a look at the curriculum maps. They are amazing. Level 1, 2, 3, 4.
Oh yes, in Scotland the vast majority of schools are eco-schools.
Reader Comments (55)
Primrose
I'm not sure why you think my example of Roundup doesn't contradict you. It does. It is not toxic. The Monsanto issue is nothing to do with it.
I'm glad to see that you actually agree with my broader point about indoctrination in schools. You take issue with commenters here linking this indoctrination to Marxists, saying that big business is giving orders to governments. This makes you sound like a conspiracy theorist. The world isn't so simple. There are lots of different people with lots of different interests involved. I agree that big business has a less than wholesome influence, but I see little connection between business and indoctrination in schools. My impression is that the momentum is coming from green activists in the teaching profession.
"Denmark where the wholesale massacre of dolphins is a rite of passage"
That would presumably refer to the grindadráp on the Faeroes. Now the Faeroes is danish territory, but not really part of Denmark (less so than e. g. the Falklands are part of England - the cultural and linguistic differences are much larger). Also it is pilot whales that are hunted, not dolphins.
I'm glad that here in the not-yet-socialist-everywhere US of A, my teenage son doesn't have to put up with this garbage.
Besides, unless they can integrate this type of though control into a video game like "Black Ops", most teenagers won't care to remember it.
geoffchambers @ 3:50
¨The Marxisms and Fascisms which so marked the 20th... {had a}...semblance of democratic legitimacy in being genuine mass movements. ¨
Maybe I mis-read. Please help me: I am unaware of any totalitarian regime commencing in a genuine mass movement. Citations, please.
Geoff,
My apologies if my last comment came across as snark. What I should have said was something along the lines "I suspect this is a rhetorical question, but will, nevertheless, elaborate a bit ..."
The program development and delivery process I described is the "free-enterprise" approach to ENGO business development I was familiar with in North America. From other comments above, it appears the education bureaucracy has a larger and more formal role in driving program development in Britain.