Mr. BRADEMAS. We will begin by calling to testify as a panel Bill Knowland, student at Antioch College; Karen Buxbaum, student at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School; and William H. Schlesinger, chairman of the environmental studies division at Dartmouth. Please come forward and identify yourselves. Perhaps you would like to proceed in the order in which I have called your names. STATEMENTS OF BILL KNOWLAND, COORDINATOR, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES INFORMATION CENTER, ANTIOCH COLLEGE, PRESIDENT, OHIO STUDENT ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL; KAREN BUXBAUM, STUDENT, BETHESDA-CHEVY CHASE HIGH SCHOOL; AND WILLIAM H. SCHLESINGER, CHAIRMAN, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES DIVISION, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE; DARTMOUTH OUTING CLUB Mr. KNOWLAND. If you wish to go in order, I guess you named me first. Mr. BRADEMAS. Whichever order you would like to proceed is perfectly all right. Mr. KNOWLAND. I am Bill Knowland, and I am a student at Antioch College. For the past 3 months I have served as coordinator for the Environmental Studies Information Center at Antioch. To clarify that a bit, I think we could simply say it-the Information Center-serves as the public relations arm of the Environmental Studies Center at Antioch. As such, I have been concerned with the field of environmental education both at Antioch and throughout the country. Before going into my oral testimony, I would like to note that the testimony copies which you should have, consist of my oral testimony plus some more or less related summaries of reports and proposals of things going on at Antioch which I think you might be interested in as specific suggestions. Each school, of course, is different, and I can only offer as suggestions what we are doing at Antioch for possible comments and inspiration to others. First of all, gentlemen, I sincerely hope you realize that you are. presently considering what may potentially be one of the most significant and farthest-reaching pieces of legislation you may ever be asked to act upon. There is little doubt but that we are faced today, in this country and in this world, with an unprecedented ecological crisis. It is a crisis which threatens the life of our Nation as we know it, and perhaps even the very survival of the human species. The irony is that we have caused this crisis ourselves. We have caused it in two simple ways: first, out of sheer ignorance-out of an amazing lack of factual information about the natural ramifications of what we were and are doing; and, second, even for those things for which we did and do have the facts, an amazing apathy and lack of the will to act properly in the light of those facts. The problems, then, are a result of lacks in our knowledge and our attitudes. Both are the solid domain of education. I would therefore submit to you that proper education, particularly proper environmentally related education, is the key to the solution of our environmental crisis. And therefore this bill, or at least the principle behind it, may well make a crucial difference in whether this country and this species will survive. It is high time that environmental education become a major consideration and emphasis in the curriculums of all levels of education in this country. The Environmental Quality Education Act, H.R. 14753, has been proposed to provide the encouragement and financial support for the development and implementation of some of the necessary programs. Good. I strongly endorse the bill-but with some cautious reservations. First, I would personally prefer that it was entitled and meant to be a bill "to authorize the U.S. Commissioner of Education to establish educational programs to encourage understanding of nature's policies or: natural law-and support of activities designed to enhance environmental quality and maintain ecological balance." By only changing one word in that title, I think we might change the whole significance of the bill and perhaps point up the problem that we are facing in this country. I am concerned that there is no provision for a permanent staff to supplement the advisory committee. If this bill becomes law and is used to any magnitude, I can well conceive of the advisory committee either working full time or at least needing a permanent staff to maintain continuity and to handle administrative details. I would also strongly urge that section 5, paragraph (b), of the bill be amended to insure that there is actual student representation on the advisory committee. Leading environmental educators have acknowledged that many students are already well ahead of their professors. I don't think it would be too difficult to find some capable college students already well grounded in the fields of environmental problems and education. I am sure that they would serve as valuable additions to the advisory committee. Most importantly, I am concerned that this bill's effectiveness will be reduced to nil unless it receives adequate funding. I am not in any position to give you an estimate of what adequate, or even minimal, funding should come to, but I am afraid that whatever the figure, it will be considerably greater than many will feel can be afforded. To that I can only ask that you gentlemen, if you are or become convinced that this act is vital and necessary, do everything within your power to see that it receives an adequate allocation. I can think of no finer emphasis that could be added to the goals and implications of this bill than if the $275 million already allocated to the SST and the million dollars, or should I say "billions," aready allocated to the ABM were to be reallocated to the programs of the Environmental Quality Education Act. I have found striking agreement that a major emphasis of the act's programs should be directed toward teacher and leader training. Anthropologist Margaret Mead has said that "the waters are rising, and we have no tools to build boats." To that I would hasten to add we have few skilled boatbuilders or sailors, either. Teachers at all levels need desperately not just new environmental knowledge but new teaching attitudes and methods as well. In closing my oral statement, I would like to suggest one specific program, perhaps to be placed first on the agenda, should the Environmental Quality Education Act be passed and funded. I propose that the Congress of the United States meet formally in a required joint session lasting a period of at least 1 full week, that session to be devoted solely to the education of the legislative representatives of the people of the United States by acknowledged experts as to the full nature, extent, and implications of our present environmental problems and the alternatives for their actual solution, such session to begin at the earliest possible date. On further thought, I think that may be worth proposing even if the Environmental Quality Education Act is not being considered. PREPARED STATEMENT OF BILL KNOWLAND, COORDINATOR, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES INFORMATION CENTER, ANTIOCH COLLEGE ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES CENTER The Environmental Studies Center at Antioch originated four years ago when concerned faculty and students began to consider their role in dealing with increasing environmental problems. Education, research, and action programs gradually developed. Today, the Center aims (1) to provide a solid background for those students interested in environment-related careers and (2) to develop an informed citizenry, responsive to the pleasures and necessities of their environment, and the problems of maintaining it. EDUCATION, RESEARCH, ACTION From the beginning, the program of the Center has included the development of new courses and seminars. The Center is designed to encourage integrated studies across many disciplines as part of a degree program in Environmental Studies. Students from virtually every academic field are represented, and there are faculty from biology, chemistry, physics, geology, engineering, geography, sociology, anthropology, history, economics, philosophy, education, drama, and the visual arts. Associated with them are members of the Antioch Outdoor Education Center, the Glen Helen office, the Extramural Department, and interested graduate students. In addition to regular classes, special evening seminars have been arranged, which the public is encouraged to attend. The development of an Information Center, as a clearinghouse for information about local, regional, and national, environmental activities, is becoming an important contribution of the Center. Research at the local level is focused on the campus and village, on Glen Helen, the College's thousand acre nature preserve, and the Little Miami River and its valley. Research further afield has included studies of the Green River in Utah, urban problems in Philadelphia, and foreign studies in Africa, Mexico, England, and Switzerland. Many opportunities for research are presented on co-op jobs, the work portion of Antioch's work-study program. Education, research, and direct real action are integral parts of the work program. Students get to learn by actually doing in off-campus work experience comprising approximately half of their Antioch education. Among the everincreasing diversity of co-operating employers are: U.S. Forest Service, Berea, Kentucky Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine National Park Service N.Y. City Parks, Recreation & Cultural Delaware Valley Regional Planning U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Ontioch College, Trailside Museum, Yel- Osborne & Stewart (architects & land scape architects), San Francisco, California Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila- University of Georgia Marine Institute, delphia, Pa. Baltimore Planning Commission California State Department of Public Cleveland Heights Outdoor School Camp Population Curriculum Study Project, Sapelo Island The Environmental Studies Center is constantly developing, innovating, and trying to respond to the needs of modern environmental education. For further information contact: Environmental Studies Information Center, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 45387 or Prof. Robert Bieri, Chairman, ESC, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 45387. ANTIOCH COLLEGE SCIENCE INSTITUTE At least partially because of the Environmental Studies Center's existence, originally as an informal group of concerned students and faculty, the entire science department as Antioch has begun a reorganization into the Antioch Science Institute. The traditional barriers of the science disciplines are being replaced by four interdisciplinary centers-centers for General Studies. Teacher Education, Training in Research Methods, and Environmental Studies. Such a move has been deemed necessary not merely as a gimmick for reversing the drain of students away from the physical sciences, but more importantly to open new avenues of problem-oriented education, research, and action as ways to make some real and immediate contributions to our world's pressing socio-scientific problems. Survival House: A Modest Proposal The proposed Survival House would be composed of approximately twenty students committed to understanding and, insofar as possible, acting upon the critical problems related to the phenomenal growth of the human population. The focus would be primarily environmental; it would center upon the manmade agricultural, industrial, and urban disruptions which endanger the stability of the biosphere and the survival of the human species. Survival House would be committed to the educational ideals of freedom, exploration, and relevance. Students would live together in a house which, besides having wonderous green things growing, would have a library of relevant books and periodicals. Students would be expected to devote two-thirds of their time to house activities. These activities would include reading, discussions, dinners, and the maintenance of the house as well as research projects and the presentation of vital information to the college community. The two "academic" requirements for the quarter would be an annotated bibliograph of all publications discovered (at the House, the college library, Fels and Kettering Labs, or elsewhere) and, most important, a list of all the questions which reading, thinking, talking, and living at Survival House provoke. Every few days a "central coordinator of questions" would assemble the students for a review of questions. Collectively they would attempt to answer them and to recommend sources of further information. The coordinator would then select questions which have not been fully answered by the group and which are of general interest and relevance. These questions would be taken to faculty liaisons and other resource people who would be asked to come to the house and there discuss the "answers" and/or the implications, processes, and factors which the questions suggest. From these questioning confrontations some understanding should come; certainly there will be more questions. In addition, everyone in the house will be expected to take some action. There are many possibilities, including preparing presentations and publications for the college and other communities, writing letters to organizations and schools to find out what they are doing and how they can be helped, writing letters to legislators, attending area pollution control conferences, experimenting with organic gardening, and working on the Environmental Studies Center library. Survival House will also search for co-op jobs with public health programs, conservation clubs, air and water pollution control laboratories, birth control programs, and agricultural institutes. During on and off-campus quarters, then, Survival House will search for ways in which the members of an academic community can serve as the catalyst and the work force for a changing society. REGIONAL EFFECTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS AT Report to the First Annual Biological Meeting of the Miami Valley Project, Kenneth W. Hunt, March 22, 1969: I note that one of the objectives of the Miami Valley Project is to identify any "trigger" factors which may be modifying the man-environment relationship here. One quite strategic factor is anything that changes the public attitude toward environmental education. Since 1946, Antioch College has been engaged in environmental education through the activities conducted in its Nature reserve, Glen Helen. I will report to you what these activities have been, and will suggest how these may have influenced environmental relationships in Southwest Ohio. Glen Helen is adjacent to Yellow Springs in the upper Little Miami Valley. It has 1000 acres, of which about one quarters are of old-growth forest, relatively undisturbed, where one can glimpse the biota as it originally existed in Southwest Ohio. Other parts of Glen Helen are former farm fields, and pastures where the process of biotic succession can be observed or manipulated. In some 170 acres we have prevented the process of succession by continuing farming operations, thus keeping some options open for the future. Recently 10 acres were subtracted from the farm and seeded to an experimental prairie, and another 15 acres are being converted to a wildlife study area by our Outdoor Education Center. Now I shall review the environmental education services of Glen Helen chronologically, with comments about possible regional effects. Nature trails Since 1946 we have maintained trails in Glen Helen, open to the public. A census we took over the two-month period of April and May in 1967 showed over 17,000 visits. Over two-thirds of our visitors come from outside of Antioch College and Yellow Springs. It is likely that many of these people would welcome more open space resources for their own communities. Yellow Springs school forest In 1947 we arranged for the Yellow Springs High School to have the use of 100 acres of former farm land in Glen Helen as a School Forest. The school began an annual program of Christmas tree plantings. This led to the popular Christmas Tree Festival, when families select and cut their own trees and pay the school. This was the first School Forest to be recognized and awarded a sign by the Ohio Forestry Association, in 1949. On several occasions workshops for teachers were sponsored here. Now there are about 110 School Forests and Land Laboratories developed in Ohio. Of course the School Forest in Glen Helen is not the whole reason for all this, but we know it has helped. Outdoor education conference In May, 1949, an enthusiastic group of our students organized a week-end Outdoor Education Conference, for teachers and youth leaders in Southwest Ohio. This has been an annual event ever since; altogether over 1000 persons have attended the 20 conferences to date. Perhaps some of you have been among them. These people have carried back to their communities the result of their discussions and experiences about nature interpretation, conservation and environmental problems. Trailside museum In 1951 we built our Trailside Museum, to serve as the Gateway to the Glen. The students who work here create seasonal exhibits to show visitors what to look for, and to make clear the responsibility of every visitor; that he must in no way deplete the biota or the beauty of a natural area; that the only way we can each hope to share these scarce remnants is to be scrupulous about this. Local children attend Junior Naturalists clubs there. School busses come daily during spring and fall for field trips guided by our students. A variety of activities are scheduled-from evening shows to a maple syrup breakfast. |