Bioregional Education
The school
uses a framework of bioregional education around which knowledge and skill
in all subject areas is built. Components of bioregionalism are integrated
into a bioregional curriculum and the lifestyle of the Oak and Orca experience.
Study of the local bioregion, experiential learning, consensus decision
making, participatory democracy, ecological education, field work, nature
interpretation, nature awareness, and deep ecology are all bioregionally
related concepts integrated into student life at the school.
The focus of bioregional education involves encouraging participants
to:
- act together as a community,
- learn local history and natural heritage,
- discover the wisdom of diverse world views,
- distinguish their needs from their wants,
- develop environmental literacy,
- understand local ecosystems,
- explore their connections to the land, the sea and all living things,
- make ecologically sustainable choices, and
- understand their responsibility as inhabitants of a bioregion.
"The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our
mastery -- not over nature but of ourselves." Rachel Carson
"Truth is eternal. Knowledge is changeable. It is disastrous to confuse
them." Madeleine L'Engle
"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the
people who prepare for it today." Malcolm X
READINGS:
- Traina, F. and Darley-Hill, S. (1995). Perspectives in Bioregional Education, Troy: NAAEE
- Orr, D. (1992). Ecological Literacy, Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World, New York: State University of New York Press.
- Van Andruss, Christopher Plant, Judith Plant, and Eleanor Wright (eds.) 1990. Home! A Bioregional Reader,Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.
- A list of reader suggestions for "essential pieces of bioregional literature" from Sustainable-City.org.
- A bibliography on "The Bioregional Hypothesis and LifePlace" from The Putah-Cache Bioregion Project.