National Outdoor Leadership School - Index

National Outdoor Leadership School - brochure - Index

ISSUE ROOM
Some of life’s largest lessons come from the great outdoors.
No Child
Left Inside
Legislation Aims to Bring
Students Back to Nature
BY AARON BANNON, NOLS WILDERNESS
ADVOCACY COORDINATOR
ANOLS course often has a lasting effect on a student
that goes beyond the values attached to extended
time in the backcountry or to practiced
technical skills. Leadership learned in a wilderness setting
affects how we conduct ourselves in our daily
lives. This concept is well understood by NOLS instructors
and alumni but is by no means universal.
Surprisingly, though, a similar sensibility is beginning
to gain traction on Capitol Hill.
Introduced by Congressman John Sarbanes (D-
MD) and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), the No Child
Left Inside Act (NCLI) would provide specific stipulations
to address what is viewed as an unintentional
oversight of the No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB): a de-emphasis on environmental science
and outdoor education.
Many provisions within the proposed amendment
ensure that federal funds are tailored for environmental
and outdoor education. NCLI seeks to provide funds
to improve and advance environmental education
standards. The bill creates an environmental education
grant program for teacher training and ensures
that a sufficient number of qualified teachers are available
to teach the courses. Environmental education
would be included as an authorized program within
the Fund for the Improvement of Education. As
schools seek environmental education grant monies,
they would be expected to develop a K-12 plan ensuring
environmental literacy from their graduates.
According to the Children, Youth and Environments
Center for Research and Design at the University
of Colorado in Denver, the advantages of natural
experiences in childhood development include improved
concentration in children and teenagers. Exposure
to nature also improves a child’s resistance to
stress and adversity. Studies have demonstrated that
outdoor investigations of nature, as opposed to indoor
study, are most effective at increasing children’s knowledge
of biodiversity. Students diagnosed with Atten-
John Gookin
The broad-based coalition that
supports the No Child Left Inside
Act claims that it provides an
opportunity for students to have
a diverse education enriched by
close contact with the outdoors,
and that it repositions environmental
education as fundamental
alongside math and reading.
tion Deficit Disorder (ADD) function better after
playing outdoors with green surroundings. In many
aspects of childhood development, consistent interactions
with natural surroundings have a direct, beneficial,
and measurable impact on youth.
There are concerns, however, that the NCLI bill
may interfere with each state’s own science curriculum.
In a letter to NOLS, Senator Michael B. Enzi
(R-WY) elaborated on this sentiment:
“Science is an integral part of the K-12 curriculum.
States have the responsibility of determining the
components of their science curriculum in each grade.
While the NCLB Act does require states to assess students
in science once every three years, the law ensures
that states maintain control of the content of their science
standards, curriculum, and assessments. By
specifically providing federal funding for the inclusion
of environmental education, I am concerned that
states will lose focus on the other key components of
their science curriculum.”
Senator Enzi is the ranking minority member on
the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee,
which is currently evaluating education funding
issues and considering reauthorization of the No Child
Left Behind law. In a letter to Senator Enzi, NOLS
supported inclusion of the NCLI bill as an amendment
to the No Child Left Behind reauthorization:
“NOLS students learn the fundamentals of leadership,
group dynamics, environmental ethics, and
risk management as they learn to work with each other
and make responsible decisions with real consequences.
We take pride in our role of exposing students
to a remarkable learning environment and
experience at an early age, and graduates respond with
pride and newfound confidence.”
The broad-based coalition that supports the
NCLI Act claims that it provides an opportunity for
students to have a diverse education enriched by
close contact with the outdoors, and that it repositions
environmental education as fundamental
alongside math and reading. It claims that institutionalizing
the value of environmental science and
outdoor education sends a strong message to our nation’s
educators, encouraging them to seek opportunities
to teach in nature and to provide our children
with routine natural experiences.
Whether concerns about states’ rights will win
out in Congress over desires for more extensive outdoor
education remains to be seen. There is, in fact,
some doubt that the momentum exists to reauthorize
the No Child Left Behind Act itself. Regardless, a
growing awareness inside the beltway of the value inherent
in environmental education is exciting for outdoor
educators and students alike.
SPRING 2008
SUSTAINABILITY
INITIATIVE UPDATE
BY JEN LAMB, NOLS PUBLIC POLICY DIRECTOR
As winter winds down in Lander, we’re beginning to
review the draft report of our environmental sustainability
assessment from our audit firm Pure Strategies.
In mid-November, we completed the data
collection portion of the audit and shipped the last
piece of information to Pure Strategies. They
crunched our data, performed a carbon footprint assessment,
and drafted a report with their recommendations
for changes, which range from short- to
long-term, location-specific to schoolwide, and
lower- to high-priority.
With the final report in hand, we will use Pure
Strategies’ guidance and input from all levels within
the school to shape schoolwide sustainability goals
that will ultimately give birth to an implementation
plan. Because the process has coincided with the
creation of our new strategic plan, we have had the
opportunity to incorporate the initiative into our goals
for the next five years.
In the meantime, we have been building programs
around the globe that will reduce our footprint
and engage our local communities in conversations
about sustainability. In January, NOLS Rocky Mountain
flipped the switch on its new 86-panel solar array
(pictured above) that reduces that facility’s electricity
usage by roughly 30 percent. In Chile, we have
just completed a geothermal system to heat what will
eventually be our administrative office. This system
uses a ground source heat pump to transfer the relatively
warm ambient temperature of the earth to the
building. On January 31, we co-sponsored with Central
Wyoming College (CWC) an event called Focus
the Nation. This was a national climate change
awareness event designed to bring schools, communities,
elected officials, and businesses together
to teach and talk about climate change solutions.
In addition to NOLS and CWC, more than 1,700
schools, colleges, and universities around the country
participated in the Focus the Nation initiative. We
hosted an event in Lander and one in Jackson, which
were linked by videoconference. Our “Creating a Climate
for Change” bus, powered by used vegetable
oil and solar, visited Lander schools, and NOLS grad
Alison Gannett, world-champion skier and advocate
for climate change solutions, was our keynote
speaker. An evening speaker panel brought close to
100 people to the Noble Hotel who engaged in interesting
and thought-provoking conversation about
how, at a local level, we can all take part in addressing
the pressing issue of climate change.
We’ll have more to report this summer after we’ve
had a chance to complete our review of our audit report.
We are excited to be able to share the findings
with the greater NOLS community, so stay tuned!
WILDERNESS QUIZ
Question: What is a Zapovednik and where would
you find one or more?
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