Lakeside School Environmental Studies: An Overview

Supporting an education which leads students to an understanding of nature and their place in it is the purpose of Lakeside Environmental Studies.

Our specific focus is on

Graduating people who have the beginnings of a sound understanding of :

1) how the world works,

2) how their life and human lives depend on and influence the earth's communities of life, and

3) what it means and feels like to be a thoughtful, active citizen

If "environment" is defined as surroundings, then all education is to a large degree environmental education. If so, what is commonly refered to as environmental education might better be refered to as people/nature education. Without paralysising ourselves in discussions of language, our work challenges us to be as specific as possible in saying what we mean.*

To reach toward the purposes described above, we have decided to focus on:

Integrating into existing courses instead of adding on new courses

Supporting faculty and staff learning and change

Sharing responsibility and leadership for progress

Focusing most intensively on the commuities which are geographically closest to us

Working from a position of nonadvocacy - teach, don't preach

Where appropriate, reaching academic goals by doing real work

Agreeing on what we want graduates to be able to do and tracking our progress toward these goals

A Brief History:

The background of this work at the school might best be considered in three part. The central part is the work done during the 1993 - '93 school year when the school community completed a thorough exploration of what was the most appropriate and effective way to graduate students with the beginnings of a sound understanding of how the world works and how people fit into it. This work culminated in a one page set of recommendations, commonly called the Environmental statement. This work was proceeded throughout the school's history, by good teaching related to people/nature topics. As long as the school has existed, people/nature learning has been part of each student's experience.

Steps that have been taken to turn the words of the Environmental Statement into tangible student learning include:

General support of faculty and staff as they include people/nature topics into their teaching and work.

The development and continuing growth of two school-wide projects which can include students and teachers from all grade levels and disciplines in understanding and participating in two concentric rings of community. The Indicators Project is focused on the school campus and community, and the Thornton Creek Project is focused on the 12 square mile Thornton Creek watershed community.

Because the approach of integrating into existing curricula as opposed to adding new courses is completely dependent on helping teachers to successfully do this, a major emphasis has been put on supporting the work of teachers. The Changing World:Changing Schools program run in the 1994 - '95 and 1995 - '96 schools years helped to do this.

* For an essay which further explores what is gained and lost when we use the term "environment", click here