Final

Dear Mr. Stevens,

After a recent reading of Dewey’s School and Society, I have come to see this particular work raises a number of questions most pertinent to the development and progress of our school community. The questions are as follows:

1. How can schools foster an atmosphere which is closer to that of an ideal home and neighborhood life?

2. How might we introduce subject matter that has a significant value in a child's life?

3. How can instruction be implemented in and through experiences so that it is deemed necessary?

4. How do we ensure our children have individual attention?

I think addressing these questions will help us achieve our aims to enrich students while pressing towards more sustainable community living.

With regard to the first question, we must not operate as a school disjoint from its surroundings, especially since we, as a boarding school, operate in loco parentis.  And, we have further obligations as an international school, with influence which clearly extends beyond our campus and immediate community.

Dewey maintains: “All waste is due to isolation. Organization is nothing but getting things into connection with one another, so that they work easily, flexibly, and fully.”

We, in our St. Tim’s community, are no doubt interconnected, but we may just as easily reach beyond our community to engage with the world around us.

One readily available source for connection could be in adopting the abandoned Irvine Center neighboring our school property. We could restore it and offer our services to the greater community. It could extend beyond simply a one time work project and become an integral part of our educational programing.

We could document all of the plant species, revive the native species, and remove the invasive species. We could educate the community about the use of fertilizers or about native plant gardening so as to invite and revive native insects and birds. We could eventually harvest our own seeds and distribute them in the community. We could submit our work and progress to our newspaper.

Ok, now I’m getting ahead of myself. But, the point is: We can do something great and wonderful and share it with those around us, foster relationships, and take positive, collective ownership of our public surroundings.

For the second question, Dewey has much to say:

The world in which most of us live is a world in which everyone has a calling and occupation, something to do. Some are managers and others are subordinates. But the great thing for one as for the other is that each shall have had the education which enables him to see within his daily work all there is in it of large and human significance.

Beuchner promotes a similar idea of meeting the world’s needs with one’s greatest joy or source of earthly gladness. And, while I think this has generally been achievable for those afforded the luxury of life choices and opportunities, my hope and agreement resides in the underpinnings in that such choices and opportunities are something for which all children deserve to strive. What we do must present our students with life choices and create an environment whereby developing a sense of passion and drive, regardless of ability allows one to achieve his/her highest sense of self wherever he or she may go. 

And, for the third question: If what we do as a school becomes an irreplaceable part of our community and the lives of its individuals, our instruction is then necessary. Dewey suggests: “It is through what we do in and with the world that we read its meaning and measure its value.” We must be a progressive part of our students’ narratives so that they might meet the needs of our local community with a better understanding of themselves and an understanding of the global benefit and consequence of actions.

Instruction might include a vast number of things but what I’m envisioning with the adoption of the Irvine plot seems to be inextricably interdisciplinary, far from isolated coursework, and—ideally—meaningful.

We could measure the health of the stream based on the presence of nitrogen and consequent eutrophication and begin our initiatives to teach the community about fertilizer use. We could consider the reactions which constantly occur in nature as while as the products of such reactions. Or, compost and create and measure for the quality control of soil and explore the power of decay and dead organic matter. This could come in tangent with reflecting on our food waste as well as healthy eating and portioning.   We could chart all our data, create a base line for further analysis, predict, and do so seasonally, then compare past results, or even isolate and test variables as well consider them systemically.  We could run testing models for the growth of plant species in differing plots with differing conditions.We could canvas for to create a historical account for the Greenspring Valley, interviewing the local sages and digging up news from the past relevant for today.   We could do meaningful written work, starting with fifteen minutes of natural solitude a day, which could serve as a platform for morning pages in attempts to greet ourselves, align ourselves, and maybe even stumble upon something greater. Our writing could, like everything else, span across the curriculum, easily providing argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive opportunities. Our students could synthesize information from texts and respond from first-hand experience, using the outdoors and our community as their laboratory.

Finally, we ensure our children have individual attention when we are fully aware of and in tune with the development of their interests, mind, and spirit. This only happens through meaningful interaction and mutual learning experiences.

Dewey maintains:

To do this means to make each one of our schools an embryonic community life, active with types of occupations that reflect the life of the larger society, and permeated throughout with the spirit of art, history, and science. When the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with the instruments of effective selfdirection, we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely, and harmonious. (School and Society, p. 44)

Furthermore, I think the work in which we are engaging is as spiritually stimulating as it is intellectually.

And, while pundits of an exploitative Biblical or Talmudic cultural mandate tend to refer to the Hebrew commands to "subdue" (kabash) and "rule" (radah). One could be just as easily consider reading from a conservatory perspective and interpret these scriptures with a mandate to "cultivate" (abad), and "keep" (shamar) the world in which we live. Kabash and radah suggest that people press down, subjugate, dominate, and bring into bondage their environment (Gen. 1:28; Ps. 8:6, 72:8; Num. 32:20-22. 24:19; Josh. 18:1; Neh. 5:5, 9:28; Isaiah 14:2).  Abad and Shamar, on the other hand, suggest the people are to work for one another, serve the earth, and take action for the well being of another (Gen. 2:15, 3:24, 4:9).  Like Clover (2000) provides, I believe that in many ways, “the most useful environmental education would challenge notions of human separation from and domination over the rest of nature by assisting to instill a stronger ethic of care, cooperation, and partnership building” (“Educating for a change.” Comparative Education Review).

Many faith traditions establish our roles as caretakers. The Quran suggests we "walk on the Earth in humility" (25:63). A Hindu prayer presses such humility to such an extent that it begs forgiveness for touching The Devi, the feminine divine or mother earth, with our feet:

O Mother Earth! Draped by the oceans, adorned with mountains and jungles
The consort of Lord Vishnu, I bow to you
Forgive me for stepping upon you with my feet

(Read more: Om Sweet Om_hinduism-mother-earth)

And so, as a school community comprised of believers of varying faith traditions, we will be able to seek and understand more closely the glory of nature, treading softly and learning much. And as such, I hope through our school we establish avenues for our students to become a mindful, soulful, and distinctive generation which poses and provides progress within sustainable frameworks

I also want to suggest that while what I have proposed might bring a great wave of changes, putting us in a rather daunting position. However, I wish to inform you that we are not alone in what we are trying to do. We can build on other successes, such as my former school City-High, which seeks to combine the IB Programme with its Center for Economicology; the folks from Dewey-Humboldt  and the University of Arizona, who have been who have been educating the public on how to take soil samples; Smith's Ecological education in action (1999), which documents the work being done in k-12 education throughout the US; as well as build on the successes of local organizations the Irvine Nature Center and The Samaritan Women, where friends of mine are already engaged in sustainable community efforts.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

I sincerely look forward to further dialogue about this and more in the fast approaching academic year.

Joel Berends

English Teacher

St. Timothy’s School