ecoliteracy.org

Center for Ecoliteracy Essays

Through its newsletter and website, the Center for Ecoliteracy offers concise essays presenting the perspectives of leading thinkers, educators, and policy makers. Contributors probe the connections including links between school food and combating childhood obesity, environmental issues and public policy, the interdependence of human and ecological communities, and education for sustainability.

Many of these essays have been written specifically for the Center. New essays are added regularly.

Essay
Franics_Morre_Lappe_After Boston, Eyes-Wide-Open Hope?
Frances Moore Lappé

How do we know the difference between head-in-the-sand hope and eyes-wide-open hope? One is a killer; the other, a life-giver.

Essay
An Abiding Ocean of Love: A Conversation with Artist Chris Jordan
Chris Jordan
Lisa Bennett

Reconnecting with our reverent love for the incomprehensibly beautiful miracle of our world.

Essay
Not Your Ordinary First-grade Ocean Project
Lisa Bennett

First-grader students learn deep and lasting lessons about nature and themselves through this unusual ocean project.

Read More

Titlesort icon Description Author
The Nature and Purpose of Education

A Slow School would emphasize how ideas are conceptualized, just as Slow Food emphasizes the innate qualities of ingredients.

Maurice Holt
The Meaning of Food

Traditional Hawaiian farmers address problems of diet-related diseases by reconnecting food, farming, education, and health.

Claire Hope Cummings
The Many Wonders of Plants

To learn to eat well, children need to be reconnected with nature and with living food.

Joan Dye Gussow
The Importance of the Dining Environment

Alice Waters describes how the atmosphere and set-up of the dining room can encourage students to feel happy, healthy, and comfortable.

Janet Brown
The Great Turning

The Great Turning is a shift from the Industrial Growth Society to a life-sustaining civilization.

Joanna Macy
The Five New Pillars of Education

President Obama identifies the foundations of his vision for American education.

Barack Obama
The Five Ecoliterate Practices

Five vital practices that integrate emotional, social, and ecological intelligence.

The Edible Schoolyard

Awakening senses and celebrating nourishment, community, and stewardship in an environment that inspires personal and social responsibility.

Michael K. Stone
The Ecological Worldview: Hearing the Cries of the World

How comprehending the interrelatedness of all phenomena inspires empathy, compassionate action, and hopeful engagement.

Zenobia Barlow
The Designer's Challenge

Designers hold the keys to creating a better world, but only if they respond creatively, wisely, and quickly to four inescapable facts.

David W. Orr
© 2004-2013
Center for Ecoliteracy. All rights reserved.