Since 1965, the far-reaching hand of the U.S. Department of Education ‘Elementary and Secondary Education Act’ [ESEA], better known today as ‘No Child Left Behind’ [NCLB], has pledged to provide “all children with a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education” in the United States (NCLB, 2001), with reauthorization scheduled for 2010. As lawmakers and educators unite to guarantee accountability through improved academic performance in the schools, a lesser-known group is working behind the scenes to guarantee opportunities for pre-K through grade 12 environmental and outdoor education as an added provision.

The ‘No Child Left Inside Act’ [NCLI], (H.R. 3036), is a little known piece of legislation originally approved through the House of Representatives in September of 2008. Designed to improve existing school environmental programs within the individual states, the legislation promises to provide teachers with training, develop research-based programs, and offer environmental literacy plans to aid and ensure student understanding for the environment, as a natural resource. Backed by Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD), the coalition message emphasizes environmental advocacy through quality outdoor education, health awareness, and teacher training, with about two and a half percent of funding expected for administrative costs. While the ‘No Child Left Inside  Coalition’ includes a diverse membership from environmental, educational, public health, private business, and civic organizations, the essential focus remains on science, social studies, and environmental education as a catalyst for educational reform.

Whereas the NCLI Coalition supports amending the Educational Secondary Education Act to include and expand environmental education within the schools, some individuals and organizations fear that mandatory study of the ‘outdoors’ in the schools will lead to certain failure. Peter Gray, Professor of Psychology at Boston College shares the Coalition’s basic concerns for increased opportunities for outdoor education. However, he dismisses any mandated legislation that would propose ‘dictated’ study. “Schools,” Gray writes, “suck the fun out of everything they teach. Do we want schools to suck the fun out of outdoor adventure?” [ ] and, don’t you see that the more we attempt to regulate school activities through government mandates, the more restrictive, and antithetical to the spirit of discovery school becomes?” Alternatively, Gray proposes that parents should speak out against increased school hours, homework, and testing through their local school board and community that, as anyone who has ever been to a school board meeting quickly finds out, is a potentially long and somewhat perplexing endeavor.

The physicist and systems theorist, Fritjof Capra (2005) suggests that to comprehend the concepts of sustainability, we must understand the way in which nature sustains the “web of life”, a process that develops literacy about the organization of ecosystems and how those connections are a part of our basic life processes (Capra, p. xiv). Capra firmly believes in the establishment of school gardens designed to teach about fresh food, watershed exploration, art, and poetry, lunch programs, and environmental justice; all taught through the study of the growing cycle:  planting, growing, harvesting, composting, and recycling (Capra, p. 14). Whether NCLI will endorse and fund this type of study is for now unknown, despite the number of school gardens that are cropping up across the country.     

Social transformation in the form of ecological activism is hardly a new phenomenon, nor is it confined to a narrow two-sided debate. Nevertheless, the stakes are much higher when discussions turn toward actual legislation for a particular approach to educating our children, with some questions yet unanswered. Is there only one way to teach children how to be caretakers for the earth? Is science the only subject that qualifies as ‘environmental’ study under this new legislation? Will all students have opportunity to participate? Will study be available across the curriculum? Organic growers and activists certainly have the knowledge and skill to contribute to this very important dialogue while the opportunity remains open for debate.

For more information:  

Gray, Peter. (2009). No child left inside: An example of the wrong way to solve a national problem. Retrieved December 28, 2009 from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200810/no-child-left-inside-example-the-wrong-way-solve-national-problem.    

New Environmental Literacy Study Ranks U.S. Students Below Most Other Countries Retrieved  December 28, 2009 from http://fundee.typepad.com/fundee/2009/04/new-environmental-literacy-study-ranks-us-students-below-most-other-countries.html.

Sarbanes to announce introduction of no child left inside bill. Retrieved from December 28, 2009  from http://www.house.gov/list/press/md03_sarbanes/ncli.shtml.

U.S. department of education. Retrieved December 28, 2009 from http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml.  

Ileen Linden is participating in OCA’s e-internship program. She currently lives and works in Ohio.