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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.

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Titlesort icon Description Author
Bringing People Back into the Economy

The renewable energy of ecology, sharing, solidarity, and compassion must counter the destructive energy of greed creating scarcity at every level.

Vandana Shiva
But I Am a Child Who Does

The author’s children, growing up with locally grown food and without television, prefer fresh vegetables to junk food.

Sandra Steingraber
California Food for California Kids

An initiative with ideas, models, and resources focused on California that can be adapted anywhere.

Campuses and Buildings That Teach

As David W. Orr has said, "Buildings have their own hidden curriculum that teaches us as effectively as any course taught in them."

Michael K. Stone
Case Study: Implementing a Farm-to-School Lunch Program

Building relationships — with nutrition services staff members, local farmers, and the community — is key to developing a successful program.

Nancy May
Case Study: Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting provides a way for waste management and reduction to become part of the academic curriculum.

Binet Payne
Civic Engagement

Students become motivated when their work has meaning to the wider community.

Michael K. Stone
Collaborative Decision-Making

Collaborative decision-making teaches skills needed for living in communities.

Michael K. Stone
Connecting Health with Educational Goals

If one of our primary goals as educators is to help students prepare for healthy and productive lives, then nutrition and health education are central to that goal

Marilyn Briggs
Creating Communities of Caring

In a thriving school community, students feel cared for and learn to care for others.

Michael K. Stone
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