ERIC ED452030: Environmental Education in Germany: Concepts, History, Projects, Visions.

34 Pages·2000·2.3 MB·English

by  ERIC

083101001895
DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 452 030 SE 064 483
AUTHOR Tapia, Ivan, Ed.; Blochmann, Georg, Ed.
TITLE Environmental Education in Germany: Concepts, History,
Projects, Visions.
INSTITUTION Inter Nationes, Bonn (Germany).
ISSN ISSN-0177-4212
PUB DATE 2000-00-00
NOTE 33p.; Theme issue. English edition of B&W titled "Education
and Science."
AVAILABLE FROM Inter Nationes e.V., Kennedyallee 91-103, D53175 Bonn,
Germany. e-mail: bw ©inter- nationes.de; Web site:
http://www.inter-nationes.de.
PUB TYPE Collected Works Serials (022)
JOURNAL CIT Bildung and Wissenshaft; n4 2000
EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS Conservation (Environment); Ecology; *Educational Change;
Educational History; Elementary Secondary Education;
*Environmental Education; Foreign Countries; Outdoor
Education; Vocational Education
IDENTIFIERS *Germany
ABSTRACT
This document presents the history of environmental
education in Germany and reports on the diversions and solutions in the
search for sustainable education. Five sections include: (1) "Environmental
Education: Learning with All One's Senses"; (2) "Sustainability as the New
Model: Knowledge of a New Quality"; (3) "Tomorrow's Education in Yesterday's
School: Scope and Limits of Environmental Education in Schools"; (4)
"Environmental Education Outside Schools When Nature Becomes a Teacher"; and
(5) A Silent Revolution? Visions for a Sustainable Education System". (YDS)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
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DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS
BEEN GRANTED BY
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
T 1
BILDUNG UND NMI 111/ _ WISSENSCHAFT 4-2000
EDUCATION AND
SCIENCE
3nviron-
men al
3th_caion in
Germany
Concepts
History
Projects
Visions
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
DUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
originating it.
Minor changes have been made to
improve reproduction quality.
Points of view or opinions stated in this
document do not necessarily represent
official OERI position or policy.
Introduction
CONTENTS
Environmental Education in
Germany
Introduction RETYING THE BROKEN THREAD
Retying the broken thread
between man and nature 2
BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE
Environmental Education
Learning with
all one's senses 4 Geseko It may appear to anyone looking at Germany from the out-
From the timid beginnings von Liipke side that this country is well ahead of the rest of the world
to an educational model 8 as far as the environment is concerned. Not only that hun-
dreds of thousands of people here are involved in environ-
Sustainability as the
new model mental initiatives, the majority of the population carefully
Knowledge of a new quality 15 separates its waste and Germany is the world's number one
with regard to low-resource environmental technology. No,
Tomorrow's education
Germany is also the first country in which a dedicated envi-
in yesterday's school
Scope and limits of environ- ronmental protection party has taken on responsibility in
mental education in schools 18
government. Is Germany an environmental paradise?
Environmental education
outside Schools
When nature becomes
a teacher 22
A silent revolution?
Visions for a sustainable
education system 28
Cover picture: Nature & Culture
(Institut fur okologische
Forschung and Bildung)
(P
illlllllllll lkI4
L
t
PHOTO: NATUR & KULTUR
3
c,, 4-2000 Page 2
Without a doubt, a lot has ic structures that have brought us cationalists are saying that the
happened in this country in to a situation where we are con- environmental crisis is probably
the last 25 years that bene- suming the treasures of our planet the greatest imaginable challenge
fits the environment and for which like the contents of a fridge that for our education system. This
future generations can be grateful. can be filled over and over again. magazine will describe the history,
But even German environmental Here, the main concern is to regain the approaches, the diversions and
protection is still very much in its control over the dynamics of an solutions in the search for sustain-
infancy. The forests are still dying, economic system that is well on able education. But the represen-
natural resources are still being
used up more quickly than they are
being replaced. The waste moun-
tains are growing, many thousands
of chemicals are polluting the
ground, air and water. We are still
producing poisonous radioactive
waste that will continue to cause
problems for our descendants
250,000 years from now. The major
change that is needed to convert
our industrial growth society into
an ecologically sustainable civilisa-
tion is far from complete. On the
contrary: we are just starting to
introduce it.
The major change that future
generations may speak of when
they look back to our age will
largely take effect on three levels:
there are the active environmental-
ists who repeatedly use imagina-
tion and civil disobedience to draw
attention to the problems; there
are the new laws and environmen-
tal guidelines, the energy savings the way to gaining victory in the tation can only have the character
that are made possible thanks to ruin instead of gradually develop- of an interim report. Because
new technologies and recycling. All ing sustainable alternatives. But German environmental education
of them together perform the func- not even this is enough. Because has not yet found the philosopher's
tion of putting the brakes on the the crux of the change that is stone. But practical experience in
worrying destruction of the natural needed in the 21st century to con- this field can help to prevent errors
foundations of life and winning serve the human species in the elsewhere and the experience can
time. But these measures are not long term lies in our consciousness: be used there.
enough for a fundamental change. in the way in which we see and use
Then, secondly, there are the the world, how we fit into natural
countless initiatives and efforts to cycles and understand ourselves as
understand the social and econom- an active part of that ecological
system that is in the middle of a
life-threatening crisis. All of the
challenges are calling out for
knowledge that has to be conveyed
step by step. Because as Albert
Einstein noted around 70 years ago
we cannot solve the problems of
the present with the same ideas
that gave us the problems, the
knowledge that is needed here
must be of a completely new quali-
ty. No wonder that ever more edu-
Environmental Education
LEARNING WITH ALL ONE'S
SENSES
Environmental education, eco-education, environmental
training, learning from nature even the plethora of terms
illustrates the complexity of the subject. This is not about
knowledge that can be handed on via textbooks and con-
veyed according to a familiar pattern. Environmental educa-
tion is a versatile experimentation field. It reflects the
search for educational responses to a crisis, the dimensions
of which have emerged only slowly. Environmental educa-
tion is made up like a puzzle comprising many independent
creative ideas.
AC IN Ku Ha He has already started a CD player and the
2 neon tube on the table in the classroom is
(-)
".1t36
already starting to flicker, but there are
' La 'VECe 13Pr "MNd 1; Pm11Sm 13Eu 11Gd 13Tb 13Dy 1fHo already pearls of sweat on the forehead of the
f,C7 pupil working the exercise bike that has been
'4(f&
Ac VOTh '4Pa V311 931\lp aPu VAm aCm 9,ek iiCf converted into an electricity generator. When he
is supposed to heat a pan of water by one degree
and comes to a halt with his tongue hanging out
he has learnt what energy is and why we should
not waste it. The work of teacher Wilhelm
Kirchensteiner, who is already famous in south-
CY'I (C,
ern Germany, and his "energycase", from which
(
Y:t he constantly conjures up new experience
NU. - games, is an example of what is possible in
-4
AN. German classrooms and what it means to "learn
with all of one's senses". Anyone who wants to
change the behaviour of people who have
become rather set in their ways or wants to
make the relationship between one's own con-
sumption patterns and the health of the planet
tangible needs a fair amount of imagination.
PHOTO: DAVID AUSSERHOFER
"Environmental protection" this term has long been part of our
everyday life. And "environmental awareness" is as highly regarded as
"good behaviour" used to be. But the consequences of the apparent
enthusiasm for nature and the environment are poor. We carry on driving
our cars happily, break new consumption records each year and continue
to head for unlimited growth. While all of this is going on, the hole in the
ozone layer continues to grow above our heads, glaciers and the polar ice
caps are melting and species of animals and plants are disappearing.
Whenever solutions for the urgent ecological problems were being sought
in recent years, environmental educa-
tion was always on the agenda. Whether For experts there is
new waste concepts, the economic use already no doubt that
the future generation
of energy, healthy eating or an ecologi-
will live in a seriously
cal change in values: schools accord-
damaged environment
if there are no funda-
mental changes.
5
ilt&W
4-2000 Page 4
ing to the simple formula as the
training location for future genera-
tions are best suited to weaning
people off those faults with which
we are destroying the foundations
of our lives. An education policy
that wants to prepare the pupils of
today for the problems of tomor-
row already has to create the foun-
dations for something that we
today can only imagine as a sce-
nario. Because for the experts even
now there is no doubt that future
generations will live in a seriously
601 1 abhulri;
damaged environment if nothing
rpriatil ytt
changes fundamentally.
The proof of the pudding will
then have to be eaten by the gen-
eration that is currently trying out
its interactions with the world in
crèches and nurseries. Ever more Because what was being taught in Ecological teachers are full of
teachers are demanding that we the schools did not meet any stories about children who are
can and must have to imagine the demand outside in the world of frightened of every frog when they
tasks that will face the children of work. Much rather, the educational are in the countryside or who seri-
today. "They will have to clean up system was called upon to contin- ously look for the purple cow
our polluted rivers and groundwa- ue to qualify young people for the called `Milka' from the TV commer-
ter, they will reafforest our wood- performance society. Ecology cial. The broken thread between
lands, they will reduce the misery remained in the scholarly ivory man and nature has to be retied.
of the Third World. They will, they tower, if it even reached that far. The environmental teachers and
will, they will..." says Gerold Because the teachers were mostly the educational planners have not
Becker, Director of the Hesse overtaxed, believes Munich teacher yet reached agreement on how this
Institute for Educational Research: Karl Horst Dyckhoff. "If you order can be done. Can you simply learn
"The question is whether what we schools to give environmental edu- environmental awareness like
organise for them in schools will cation, then society as a whole has vocabulary? Is it enough simply
really prepare them for the tasks to make it clear somewhere that it to bring together as much
that they will then have to be up recognises the unusual nature of knowledge as
to." And there are reasons for this order and that it will also give possible about The relationship
doubt. the educational system unusual how the earth, with nature can
No question: our educational support." But this was not there, air, water and only be recreated in
nature.
institutions whether primary complain all concerned. Almost living crea-
schools, general, intermediate or three decades after its first start tures are
grammar schools will be faced environmental education will have linked together? We are used to
with tasks whose extent has only to redefine itself. Look back criti- the fact that knowledge simply
become clear in recent times. In cally, draw conclusions, formulate takes effect when we have it. But if
view of the expected problems, the objectives. Because it has long anything has been learnt from 30
schools are facing new responsibili- been clear that it is no longer suffi- years of the environmental move-
ties. But so far the environmental cient to paint a few green splodges ment, it is this: we know more than
issue has conducted a shadowy on the conventional curriculum. enough about what is good for the
existence in the curricula with Environmental education has to environment and what harms it
just a few exceptions. But educa- convey experiences of nature to only our behaviour has not
tion politicians have been talking children in cities in particular and changed very much as a result.
about ecological education for give them ecological insights and it Environmental education has had
almost 30 years. As early as 1972 has to explain to them how the to learn from this that the conven-
the Conference of Education world works. "We talk a lot about tional ways of passing on knowl-
Ministers decided on a programme the fact that species have become edge are obviously not enough to
of action to promote environmental extinct, but we forget that relation- bring about fundamental changes
awareness. But the praiseworthy ships have also died out," says in behaviour. A relationship with
busyness of the educational Beate Seitz-Weinzierl from the nature can only be recreated in
bureaucracy hardly took root in educational section of the BUND nature itself.
everyday school life. nature conservation association: But how much nature is needed
Critics say that environmental "Many children from the second to anchor the knowledge that envi-
education was hardly more than a high-rise generation no longer have ronmental awareness results from
fig leaf of educational policy. a relationship with nature the
threads have been broken."
6
Pagel
B&W 4-2000
it? If a person's experience of
nature is limited to the football
field or the patch of green in front
of the house and ecosystems are
seen on TV at best, then his scale
of what is desirable is obviously
missing. Only so much is certain:
the beauty of nature and the plea-
sure of experiencing it education-
al science talks about primary
experience here achieves far
more than books, transparencies
and museums. "We need this sen-
sory experience of nature, which is
the actual prerequisite for becom-
ing sensitive to living things again,"
says Beate Seitz-
Man protects Weinzierl. It is only
what he through contact with
treastures.
nature, games for
experiencing nature, In the early days of environmen- passing on cultural knowledge, as
work in the open air, experiments, tal education the catastrophe sce- with reading, writing and arith-
water samples, keeping animals or narios dominated. Knowledge was metic, people will have to think in
growing things themselves that almost always conveyed in a lectur- new directions towards the
people can experience the environ- ing, moralistic tone. Modern eco- future. Instead of conveying
ment as something enriching and education has left those days long repeatedly
maybe as their shared world. A behind. But, at the same time, reviewed Environmental
education should
new motivation to acquire knowl- teachers and environmental educa- facts from a
lead to the learners
edge grows out of the feelings. tionalists must not simply push safe position, taking up sides and
Instead of dry genus and plant fear to one side. The essential here the taking action.
names, all the senses are used to requirement for ecological action teachers
experience what something smells to grow out of environmental edu- have to admit that they them-
like, what it tastes like and what it cation is for the concerns of the selves often do not know the
feels like. Educational science says young people about a destroyed final solutions for the problem con-
that knowledge that is experienced world to be recognised. "For exam- cerned. Instead of conveying
is deeper knowledge and: man pro- ple, if I feel too much fear, I simply knowledge shut off from the rest of
tects what he treasures. block the absorption of knowl- the world within the four walls of a
And there is something else: edge," says Ulrike Unterbrunner of classroom, environmental educa-
Knowledge about the environment the Institute for School Didactics tion only makes sense when it goes
is anything but free of values. at Salzburg University. If the fear is out into the environment that it is
Anyone who develops a feeling and too great, resignation and with- talking about. Environmental edu-
knowledge of what is right and drawal set in as a self-defence cation should lead to the learners
wrong with regard to the environ- mechanism. This task of giving taking up sides and taking action.
ment is also called upon to become space to fears without causing So, what is environmental edu-
involved: in class, at school, in his fears to promote suppression is cation? Do classical geography
own family, municipality or in the like squaring the circle. Parents lessons fit into this category? Can
region. Environmental knowledge and teachers are called upon here. we talk about environmental edu-
brings politics into the school and In view of increasing greenhouse cation when the chemistry teacher
makes the school the germ cell of effects and annual hurricanes, chil- is explaining water analysis, the
political action. This is more than dren would otherwise consider physics teacher is talking about
unusual for most teachers who nature as a threat from which they regenerative energies or German
have always set great store by have to be protected. Only concen- lessons concentrate on the roman-
strict neutrality. Furthermore, trating on the risks and bearing the ticism of nature? Or does environ-
knowledge about the environment entire extent of the ecological cri- mental education only start when
is also charged with "non-objec- sis in lessons is therefore anything trained nature teachers spend days
tive" emotions in a completely dif- but sensible. An isolated lesson in the woods with a class? What
ferent way. Nowadays, most chil- unit on the hole in the ozone layer about the countless adult educa-
dren know that a catastrophe is can do more damage than help. tion centres that are increasingly
threatening the modern world Because before the destruction is adopting ecological subjects, the
unless ecological problems are dealt with, healthy nature has to be local authorities who are extremely
brought under control. experienced. committed to implementing
It is already becoming clear that Agenda 21 locally? Is it not also
environmental education occupies environmental education when
a completely different position apprentices are taught about state-
from the rest of the curriculum.
Here, an acute social problem has
to be solved. Instead of simply
of-the-art environmental technolo- Data and Facts
gy, when students concentrate on
new ecological courses or employ- If we follow this definition by the "Forschungsgruppe
ees are sent on expensive courses Umweltbildung" (Research Group on Environmental Education) at
to learn that ecological issues now Berlin Free University, then there are 4,600 institutions in Germany
have an impact on all jobs? that offer events for environmental education outside schools. The
Because ecology researches how figure has risen steadily in the last 15 years and continues to have
all forms of life are interconnected high growth rates. Around 80,000 people work in these institu-
it is interdisciplinary, unlike other tions, of whom 10 to 12,000 are mainly involved in environmental
subjects. Precisely because envi- education. The researchers noted a clear difference between north
ronmentally sound conduct cannot and south here: in the northern Federal Lander there is on average
be limited just to schools, but one environmental education institution per 10,000 inhabitants, in
should increasingly go through the southern Lander, by contrast, only per 30,000 inhabitants. At
society as a whole, environmental least, they do exist, we could say.
education can scarcely be restrict- But this purely statistical value is soon put in context when we
ed. "How do I deal with a message remember that environmental education at the 32,000 schools
that says that 60 per cent of trees accounts for just 1 per cent of school lessons or just about 1.5 per
are sick? What does this do to me? cent of the subjects on offer at the countless adult education cen-
That, too, is environmental educa- tres. And of the 80,000 people employed in environmental educa-
tion!" says Saman Ansari, physicist tion institutions, only around 14 per cent are primarily involved in
and teacher at Odenwald-Schule, environmental education and almost three quarters of those sur-
Hesse. In order to keep tabs on the veyed said that at work they dealt with environmental education
sheer unlimited variety of subjects only some of the time. This broad range makes it clear that
and the range available, environ- depending on one's political preference we can equally draw an
mental education has been divided enthusiastic or a grim picture of the status of German environmen-
into two camps without further tal education.
ado: on the one hand there is The fact is that environmental and nature conservation centres,
school environmental education, mostly with free sponsorship, take on the lion's share of environ-
which can be dealt with in every mental education outside schools. They are most readily associated
village, every municipality and with the subject of the environment by the public. Adult education
town at varying intensities in centres, environmental initiatives, museums, authorities or private
32,000 primary, elementary, inter- companies that get involved in environmental education are almost
mediate, general and grammar unknown among the public. However, the offers of environmental
schools in all possible subjects and nature conservation centres mainly only reach people with high
geography, biology, physics, chem- levels of education and people who are already involved in environ-
istry, German, history, social stud- mental matters at work or interested people who tend to be
ies, art, ethics, RE, philosophy or "green" politically and have a much higher environmental aware-
modern languages or it can be ness than the average in the population. And, according to the
made into interdisciplinary pro- results of the surveys, even among this section of the population,
jects. And, on the other hand, the degree to which institutions offering environmental education
there is the broad field of environ- are known is low.
mental education outside Overall, Gerhard de Haan and his research group come to the
schools, which encompasses every- conclusion that although German environmental education has an
thing offered by environmental ini- impressive potential in terms of figures, in practice it is hardly per-
tiatives, youth organisations, adult ceived and reaches only a fraction of the population. In summary it
education centres, universities, can be said: a lot has happened, but still far too little. This result is
research institutes, museums, a clear contradiction to the importance attached to the subject in
authorities, churches and other politics.
free sponsors. Because completely
different standards apply here to
what is understood by "environ-
mental education", statistical sur-
veys on the status of German envi-
ronmental education are extremely
difficult. Research has reacted to
this situation by declaring without
further ado "Environmental educa-
tion is what the people asked think
it is".
-II
History of Environmental Education
were strategies and historical
experience, people were faced with
new territory here. Because the
required innovations were expen-
sive, a heated discussion about the
extent of the crisis started among
scientists and between
researchers, politics and industry.
State educational policy was very
slow to react to this debate. The
environmental programme of the
SPD-FDP coalition in 1971 noted
-C7 for the first time that conveying
0 111'1" knowledge related to the environ-
ment is necessary in all areas of
0 education and stated that every
0
citizen would have to "take part in
shaping and protecting our envi-
ronment by means of environmen-
tally friendly behaviour". But how
this was to happen was still in the
lap of the gods. This meant that
FROM THE TIMID BEGINNINGS teachers were given a responsibili-
ty that was bound to overtax them
TO AN EDUCATIONAL MODEL to start with: they did not know
how the subject should be didacti-
cally treated, what learning objec-
At the start of something new there is usually a crisis. For tives were to be pursued, how it
environmental education, it was the sudden finding in the should be integrated in the
timetable, nor were they any text-
early 1970s that the carrying capacity of ecological systems
books on the subject. Schools and
is limited. The report of the Club of Rome published by
universities were entering com-
Donella and Dennis Meadows under the title "The Limits of pletely new territory. And it was to
Growth" came as a real bombshell. take decades before research and
educational planners provided syl-
labuses and teaching material.
Never before had futurologists The environmental educational-
shown as clearly as in this ist Uli Nagel calls this phase in the
analysis that the natural early 1970s the "first generation of
foundations of life had been environmental education": all over
destroyed on a grand scale and Europe the first European Nature
warned that the ecological crisis Conservation Year in 1970s had
would threaten the existence of shifted the previously largely pri-
the entire modern world and the vate nature and homeland conser-
survival of the human race in the vation commitment of educated
foreseeable future. The report was citizens all over Europe into aware-
associated with many, fundamental ness as a government task. The
demands for the redesign of eco- first United Nations Environment
nomic activity, production and the Conference in Stockholm in 1972
recovery of raw materials. not only made the terms "environ-
Environmental protection suddenly ment" and "environmental protec-
went from being an incidental issue tion" into political buzzwords, but
and charged up to the top of politi- the delegates also recommended
cal agenda. But unlike most other an international programme on
political problems, for which there environmental education. These
signals were taken up by the
Conference of Education Ministers
in Germany and formulated into a
"Programme of Action to Promote
Environmental Awareness". But lit-
tle happened. The first generation
of environmental education built
upon the tradition of nature con-
servation education that had
9
4-2000 Page 8
1111h384W
already been developed by dedicat- At universities, too, it became 083440394011nowledge i.e. intense
ed natural history and biology more and more obvious that eco- knowledge about the processes in
teachers at the turn of the century. logy as the science of the networks nature has remained a key focus
In the new "environmental protec- in the structure of nature could of environmental education.
tion training" the emphasis was on hardly be understood with the During this time, the official
the classical natural science sub- usual reductionism. The neWsci- compilation of directives on envi-
jects: chemistry, physics and geog- ence could not be practised by ronmental education went its slow,
raphy. Although the first textbooks splitting the world up into many bureaucratic way. In 1980 the
that appeared on the subject of small pieces in order to recognise Conference of Education Ministers
environmental protection dealt them. It called for holistic views. had issued a decision to confirm
with the multi-layered structure of System theory was discovered first that environmental education
nature with its countless mutual of all in natural sciences and then should be introduced as an inter-
dependencies, they hardly took also in educational science; it dealt disciplinary principle into both nat-
account of the role of man. with the hidden rules and relation-
Individual teachers started out- ship patterns in nature and consid-
side the classical school "hiking ered and studied the entire bio-
days" and viewed sceptically by sphere rather as a living organism.
their head teachers and colleagues In order to do justice to these sys-
to take their pupils out into tems and to calculate the many
nature for field studies. But envi- interlinked global effects of local
ronmental knowledge and its scien- environmental sins, people started
tific methodology was at the heart to work with computer simulations.
of environmental education; this Frederic Vester's books on "inter-
was mostly conveyed in a warning linked thinking" sold like hot cakes
tone and stressed the responsibili- among the first environmental
ty of each individual for his own teachers who were looking for new
conduct. This trend was only nat- approaches. New words came into
PHOTO: DAVID AUSSERHOFER
ural: the people who were to teach environmental education with this ural sciences and the arts.
these demands brought into work. The buzzwords were: However, the practitioners on the
schools from outside were the "ecosystem", "life cycle and recy- spot were already ahead of the
teachers with scientific training. cling" or "ecological sustainability". educational bureaucracy. The "sec-
Environmental education therefore But it would be many years before ond generation of environmental
tried to disseminate the new mate- these terms because the central education" built upon the compre-
rial with conventional methods and buzzwords in environmental edu- hensive approaches of school
a good portion of morals. cation. But to date, conveying envi- reforms that had developed in the
second half of the 1970s. For the
first time, many state schools had
The "first generation" intensively dealt with the achieve-
ments of reforming educational sci-
The start of environmental education was dry and not very excit- ence. Whereas the new forms of
ing. Nature took place mostly within the school walls and mostly learning were only used in schools
comprised display cases in which stuffed animals or pinned butter- in exceptional cases, the under-
flies replaced the living world clean, unmoving and very, very standing of learning changed slow-
dead. The wonders of nature were demonstrated in a test tube in ly. Instead of seeing children as an
biology lessons, in physics lessons people started to get to grips empty vessel that were to be grad-
with the technical miracle that is a nuclear power station by first of ually brought up to be cultural
all only explaining how it worked. German lessons bored on about individuals through education,
the enthusiastic romanticism of nature. The risks of the chemical
pollution of drinking water became part of the dry and dusty drill
learning of formulae in chemistry lessons. And even when the glob-
al consequences of environmental destruction were discussed in
social studies or history, the world that can be experienced with the
senses remained outside.
For critical teachers, the material and what they had to convey
became ever more of a contradiction. The Hesse physics and chem-
istry teacher Henning Senske pointed out that the scientific reduc-
tionism with which environmental awareness was now to be taught
was actually part of the problem that had to be combated here:
"Recording measured results, defining terms exactly what we do
in physics lessons is the same in miniature as when we straighten
large streams, concrete over landscapes or makes the world calcula-
ble, constant and similar. The pupils really wanted to learn some-
thing that I haven't studied: artistic dealings with constantly unique
nature."
fl
Pagel
B&W 4-2000