Civilization has excelled very much in technology for some people, countries and even for some domesticated animals, reaching the pinnacles of financial, educational and social success. But, what good has civilization done for the earth or may we ask, what good is man’s presence on the earth? Is man the number one destroyer of our environment?
The common efforts committed to integrating conservation and protection of the earth were not locally and globally matched or fairly distributed in investments towards environmental studies. For example, think about what we do with sports or music. It seems that we do not devote much time and attention to the well being of the earth. The truth of the matter is that most civilized people in our current population are lacking the basic informative education about our own surroundings and the “laws” that govern the earth. (Here, “laws” is the acronym for:Land, Air, Water, Sun.)
The “laws” is the ultimate driving force that runs this world. It is not the politicians, the rich or any other group of people; without land, air, water and the sun nobody will survive on Earth. Our environment, with all its sociological and geographical influences, greatly contributes to our food, health, love, politics, aspirations, emotions and the process of community development.
For us at the Global Institute Of Environmental Studies (GIES), education through SEMINAR has become the impetus to develop dialogue and forums aimed at teaching environmental studies. Seminars are the methods for implementing,
Learning, and may be the most effective procedure of pedagogy that stand in contrast to the fast growing rate of our global population. GIES is convinced that we can do better in conservation and protecting the earth. We would therefore suggest that world governments and private institutions invest heavily in Environmental Studies to encourage and promote the sustainability of natural resources. The above education must be done with serious focus on small discussion- groups in schools, churches, television and radio broadcasts as a primary support to the already existing local school programs. Over the years, GIES has discovered that established schools are not doing enough in teaching environmental studies. Most universities and community colleges do not offer environmental studies; as a result, the overall enrollment in this discipline is very minimal or close to zero. Besides Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, there is no other higher institution in the city that offers Environmental Studies in its curriculum. This may be translated as the importance of these studies has not yet sunk deeply into the minds of governments and school authorities. Everyone is talking about our environment but nothing serious is being taught about it.
In addition to the scanty enrollment in a few universities, environmental studies instructor salaries, and instructional materials in the universities are problematic. Instructors devote more time to the teaching of Geography than to Environmental Studies. The few study programs (courses) are remarkably good but the method, quality, and quantity vary, according to the taste, skill and extra-curricular activities of every instructor.
Having observed the above, the teaching of Environmental studies must be taken to a new creative level. GIES has chosen to concentrate on four goals:
- Good and adequate funding.
- Enhance the simple quality of seminars.
- Augment or attract a number of both instructors and students into the program.
- Promote Environmental Studies in all high schools and community colleges. Teach it as we teach religion or English language and make it compulsory.
The above goals are interrelated and when carried forward the right way, every one of us will help promote a fast and more efficient public awareness in the study of the environment.
Enhancing the Quality of Environmental Studies
Presently, no school or private institution has enough resources to tackle all the educational needs of a modern environmental studies school. A few of the needs include: Technology in audio-visual equipment, training of personnel/technicians, and development of a new curriculum to include:
- Ethical foundations of Urban/Rural Community Development
- Principles and Process of Community Development
- Urban Policy and Community Planning
- Community Analysis
- Conflict Resolution
- The Process of Democracy
- Hunger and Poverty
Also, institutions must find ways and means to provide grants for seminars and forum centers for debates and daily or weekly discourse in topics of environmental problems and solutions on radio and television.
Professional Training
The success and quality of environmental studies depends solely on the willingness to pay for it, the sacrifice and commitment of the instructors, and the ability to handle small groups. Regrettably, most schools do not have enough instructors to occupy the vacant positions. Consequently, institutions are compelled to employ weak or unqualified instructors. Knowing that modalities and schools systems are different in every country, GIES suggests the use of intensive seminars as a tool of training teachers and other adults for environmental studies students.
We ask all governments to develop a fast-track curriculum for training new geographers, geologists, and biologists to intervene and assist in teaching environmental studies in elementary, middle or secondary schools. The program of their formation must be structurally developed to cover every possible topic an environmentalist must know; and, substantively tailored to fit and reflect the local needs of a typical region where the education will be positively accepted. Both positive and negative feedback from the seminars must be shared globally with other schools and instructors through interactive computer games, internet and television/radio broadcasts, newsletters and many other means of dialogue.
Funding and training Environmental Studies instructors
From time immemorial, we have been aware of teacher shortage in all schools for environmental studies. This problem is even worst for developing countries because most students do not go to college to study environmental studies for fear that they would not find a job or they just do not know what to do with such a degree. Cumulative to our mission and purpose, GIES has future plans for recruiting and training qualified geographers and biologists to assume the leadership positions in teaching Environmental studies. The criteria of selection for the instructors will be based significantly on their personal passion and devotion towards “Mother Earth” and the sustainability of our natural resources. These instructors must be able to design and conduct seminars anywhere in the world if necessary. GIES’ responsibility will be to find and direct interested candidates to sponsors and schools. Nevertheless, applicants would have legally -binding-contracts to reimburse (refund) the tuition and stipend if the applicants fail to become an instructor in environmental studies. Many international models of motivation and initiatives will be put in place to attract, fund and train local new instructors.
Curriculum and Materials
With GIES, it is not unusual for a course of seminar to have formal curriculum and a modern set of comprehensive instruction materials. We have to seek funding by all means to enhance the teaching of environmental studies and the sustainability of natural resources of the earth. Either in the classrooms or anywhere, dialogue and teaching must be possible if we really want to save and protect our environment. To achieve the latter, GIES will help most institutions create a positive simple integrated global curriculum for a wide range of audiences: the public, primary, middle and high schools. This curriculum must seek to sort out the obsolete tools and bring in new structures. Then, consult geographers, geologists, psychologists and many other professionals in the educational field to come up with the best advice to teach environmental studies in the developing countries with hunger, draught and poverty in mind. Hunger and poverty are diseases that do not help with protecting the environment.
The goal of the new global curriculum must be to create a medium or a framework for Environmental Studies to supplement whatever is already provided by local school authorities for secular studies.
In addition to being scholastic, the framework would focus on values of sustainability in natural resources and general education. Contents and process of the above curriculum must be prototype to the norms of the requirements of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency, USA). Nonetheless, local and independent evaluation of the said EPA practice must be adopted to suit and serve indigenous societies worldwide.
If internationally coordinated, the framework may be translated into local languages or dialects. The purpose of a uniform framework is to eliminate many doubts and negative arguments and stereotypes in environmental protection issues, agreements and contracts. Another important aspect of this project is to organize a ” free book club” where publishers can donate to “poor countries” late editions of environmental education textbooks. Students, teachers and the public at large will use these books in local schools and public libraries. Presently, there are no books and instructional materials in poor schools to teach preservation or conservation of the environment. The educational benefit of the free book club is to gain, share, investigate and debate natural resources theories in the presence of trained and qualified academic leaders. With the books in their possession, students and everyone can articulate the
importance of reading and researching at home.
Developing Grants and Loans
The salvation of every nation or society is in its education. At GIES, the building blocks are not the bricks and mortar only; rather, they are the number of qualified instructors and good, healthy, respectful students. Comparing GIES to other learning centers, there is the need to attract people into the environmental studies program. To achieve our aim, we must make our seminar classrooms and computer laboratories appealing to everybody regardless of gender, race, religion and age.
The estimate or average building of a modern center campaign varies in every country. It ranges from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars depending on how small or large a town (location) is. If there are no donors and sponsors, money could be borrowed interest-free from local governments or international institutions to promote the seminar centers.
Library (Books, audio-visual equipment, computers, software, etc…)
A comprehensive library is feature number one of any modern learning center. The environmental studies program encompasses other disciplines as well. The size of our collection may vary greatly to cover many other subjects according to the local community where the center is situated.
Every center must encourage the use of community elders, teachers, government officials and religious leaders to select and purchase the needed library books, unless the books are freely donated to the center. The participation of everyone in selecting the books will help reduce any unforeseen and unnecessary cultural and ideological conflicts among the users of the library.
Besides books, we must remember that technology and industry have irreversibly changed the world; and, methods of teaching are no exception. In poor countries, education has not yet taken advantage of the new technological tools of learning. Our seminar centers and tools must stimulate groups or individuals to participate actively. It is time the poor countries catch up, as they have been lagging behind. To avoid duplication of facilities within a geographical area, community developers and financial experts will conduct surveys of the existing school “media rooms” to find out what is really needed in the community where the center is.
After School Programs (To help kids with their homework after school)
Supplementary to regular school work, all school-age children can use the GIES center for after school programs such as doing homework, playing games, sporting activities, music and ballet dancing, all set up to guide the children towards environmental studies. GIES has recognized the importance and the benefit the children will derive from the center if we can find volunteers to lead and teach the after school program. We therefore believe that the presence of the children at the center will considerably reduce the financial strain and the time-burden on the parents. These days, cities promote community centers and why not environmental studies centers?
Creating New Centers
To create and enhance the ability of new centers, GIES will consider marketing its ideas in seeking additional grants. Selected needy communities will be eligible for funds to build their own seminar centers when they have shown reasonable participatory practical work with the GIES. Representatives requesting a new center should be a member of GIES and would have completed at least six months of voluntary teaching or related duties in environmental issues at any level in a school or public place. Farmers’ Groups or cooperative templates will be made available to attract new adults. The templates will have printed tracks or messages with themes that will show benefits we are hoping to gain by using natural resources wisely. The suggested Farmers’ Groups or cooperatives will be designed to customize local interests. Finally, the cooperatives will be used as a marketing tool to promote the teachings of the GIES. The seminars will be repeated at different times and places so as to serve many of the communities.
Partnership in Environmental Education (PEE)
PEE is a collective effort of many philanthropists and donors who came together to provide funding for the promotion of Global Institute of Environmental Studies. Elias Quist who single-handedly invited ideas from professionals, experts, environmental advocates and educators to reach this far founded the partnership. Elias has committed a reasonable amount of his family capital to travel and establish seminar centers in Benin, Ghana and Liberia. In addition to funding seminars, PEE will also provide consultancy to schools and other institutions that are interested in developing Environmental Studies education models and the use of the tools GIES already has.
In 2005/06, PEE started the implementation of parts of its mission with regards to leadership and cooperatives. In Benin, negotiations have begun in Cotonou for the purchase and export of produce like Shea nuts (butter) for the debut of petty trading cooperatives with emphasis on the benefits of microeconomics to their local communities. Strategies are also in place to organize the indigenous farmers into profitable Farmers’ Groups to raise money for local communities to put in place public latrines, wells, class rooms for kids’ alphabetization in certain villages. It must be made clear to the participants that the development of their community is their responsibility and not a compulsory gift from any government or foreign donor. Farmers have to understand that besides their natural resources there is no other choice for them. It is imperative that the farmers take good care of whatever is available to them. Nevertheless, we have learned in the past that it is not always easy to persuade people to learn new habits and methods of good environmental practices, unless GIES is prepared to supply answers that are substantive, meaningful and relevant. To this end, for GIES’ seminar centers to flourish and attract numerous participants, our general study programs must be competitive with the best international secular alternatives. Our teachings must be equally simple and effective. So, GIES’ centers will require adequate funding for physical infrastructure, as we all know environmental studies is not cheap and GIES will need reasonable funding to reach its goals. This is to say that we have yet to identify and quantify the source and cost of the centers’ finite components.
The challenge of attracting donors:
GIES is willing to evolve into agreements and negotiations to prove our seriousness in promoting Global Environmental Studies. By 2005 GIES had assiduously begun campaign and writing proposals to advertise our message. By sending out this information, we believe the initial aim of GIES has been achieved. Reaching out to individuals, philanthropists and organizations to sup-port our course is not propaganda but a marketing strategy.
Soliciting (world) Grants:
Good education is expensive these days. Nonetheless, every family, somehow, sacrifices to bear or pay tuition for their children. Regardless of where they live, there must always be a school available for every child. But, to encourage students to join environmental studies classes, GIES will suggest a tuition subsidy. We are also willing to appeal for help from donors and governments to fund part of the costs of the environmental studies, curriculum development, teacher training and more. It is GIES’ responsibility to inform the world’s philanthropists about the need to educate the people, and we strongly believe that they would be kind to help us. At this point, GIES will invite all school authorities and their sponsors to take a hard look at the question of environmental education. The threshold question for governments is whether grants (money) is permissible to only a few schools. We are reminded that private, religious or public schools ultimately do not exist and operate in a vacuum but rather in a community where the tax-payers need good farm land, clean air, drinking water and some sort of energy to survive. So, our big idea is to encourage all schools to look for money, wherever possible, to promote environmental studies.
Environmental Activists (Advocates) Leadership and Training:
Historically, everyone knows that it is during school and college time periods that young men and women develop life-shaping decisions. GIES is focusing on models and patterns of intensive environmental knowledge and leadership training for schools and colleges in the developing countries, if not necessary in industrial nations. GIES would suggest the creation of an international fellowship of environmental advocates. This fraternity will seek to attract interested students, teachers and individuals to be marginally affiliated. Members of this association will periodically go on excursions, educational trips and seminars to learn and plan public awareness of environmental issues. As time goes on and with the availability of funds, GIES will advance its effective communication agenda that will be stimulated into news print, television, radio and internet organs, leading to a more positive portrayal of environmental studies in the media. Just as we see sports and weather reports on the local news every day, so also, there will be daily news and broadcast on the environment, providing us with topics for heated debates and constructive discussions and inspiring the public to share our concern and enthusiasm to conserve and protect our land, air, water and the solar energy; the “Laws”.
The logo of GIES depicts the globe with the sun at the top as the main source of energy. At the center is a man as the number one destroyer of other living things and the environment. Below the man is a shield with an opened book and an academic flame. Outside the bottom of the shield are industries and a vehicle as pollutants.