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Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum

Stefanski has presented at faculty meetings, met with individual teachers, and offered himself as a resource for exploring integration of sustainability and ecological mindfulness into the curriculum and collaboration across disciplines.

Sustainability emphases have begun appearing in a variety of places throughout the curriculum. All students in required freshman biology classes now work in the school garden. "In high school," says Stefanski, "we tend to be compartmentalized in our approach to the curriculum. We're trying here to move in the opposite direction — toward greater integration. The garden affords a great place to do that, and we are encouraging the use of the garden in multiple subject areas. In biology classes, we teach about the cycles of carbon and nitrogen through ecosystems. What better way to study those cycles than in the garden composting system? Every student in the class literally gets their hands dirty doing composting. The beauty of it is not just that they learn how to compost, but that they understand in a broad way why to compost."

Stefanski describes an MA freshman who had attended a middle school with a garden where students practiced composting, but hadn't achieved an understanding while there of the ecological significance of composting. Stefanski speculates that perhaps the student, while in middle school, had not yet reached a stage of cognitive development for this abstract level of understanding, and so composting was just another task to perform. "But high school students generally have the cognitive capacity to make larger connections, and this student can now articulate these connections. His understanding and ability to articulate certain complex ecological relationships emerged as a direct result of his experience working in the garden." When students graduate from MA, he adds, "it's not so much that we want them to go on to their next school or next job and say, 'Oh, we had a really cool school. We put solar panels on the roof. We had a garden and we composted,' but rather we want them to be able to express why they did these things, and why they're important." Members of the Eco-Council are developing presentations on composting for students, now juniors and seniors, who passed through the biology program before the garden/composting component was part of it.

A solar fountain that had previously been imagined for the entry to the school will be constructed instead at the garden entrance, where it will welcome people to the garden, be usable as a teaching tool, and serve as another symbol of curricular integration. "When teaching science, the connection between the leaves as solar receptors and the fountain's panels as receptors is an easy connection to make," says Stefanski. "The fountain may not be as visible from the street, but it's going to be visible within our community as teachers take students to the garden."

Presenting ecological concepts on which sustainability is based goes beyond science classes. Stefanski and an art teacher, Katharine Boyd, are working on a lesson in which students are challenged to draw in nature. Instead of utilizing a textbook that portrays the parts of a honeybee in separate illustrations, they are trying to help students see more holistically. Wouldn't it be more interesting, he asks, if students went to the garden and drew the insects and the plants not as taken apart, but in their environment. "What's the context within which these insects are living? And what's the context in which the plants are growing and the relationship between them?"

A new elective offered by the English Department, "Golden Gate," takes an interdisciplinary approach to the natural and human history and literature of the San Francisco Bay Area. The course looks at the environment, on the model of David Orr and Aldo Leopold, by attending closely, as the Eco-Council statement of purpose says, to "this place where we live, learn, work, and play." Instructor Joe Harvey incorporates presentations by other faculty members on topics such as the geology, history, and ecology of the region. "Learning how to think like a historian, to read literature, or to manage the scientific process," he says, "are really useful, but the most interesting problems and situations are going to draw from more than one mode of thinking, and we have the potential here to start to engage kids on those very meaningful questions that draw from their abilities in these different disciplines."

Students spend time exploring local habitat and local history, and considering how the sustainability of the natural and social worlds is woven together. So they ask both "Where does our water come from and where does it go?" and "What do race and equity and justice have to do with sustainability?"

Before taking this course, says junior Booker Riley, "I would not have thought of myself as being part of the biotic community, and how much impact I have on the place where I live." For their class project, Booker and a fellow student compared what people knew about the sources of food and the distance traveled by food available in San Rafael at Whole Foods, the local farmers' market, a supermarket chain, and the vendor supplying the school cafeteria. The students presented their findings to the Eco-Council. "I had never heard of Michael Pollan when I did that project," Booker says. "Then I read his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, when he came to speak, and discovered that I had come to many of the same conclusions about the food system that he had. I was kind of proud of that."

Mark Stefanski is especially gratified when ecological concepts he's teaching, such as "emergent properties," turn up in unexpected places. "A graduating senior was presenting a project on musical composition along with a fellow student," he reports. "One had more jazz training, and the other had more classical training. He announced in front of the assembly, 'The two of us got together' — and he looked me right in the eye — 'and we tried to discover what properties would emerge.' I loved it."

Rethinking the Dining Facility

Many of the threads of this story — the importance of involving the whole community; the need for grassroots engagement combined with top-down endorsement; the place of strong and responsive leadership from administration, faculty, and board; the value of encouraging emergent structures as well as institutionalizing change by incorporating it into designed structures; the worth of a conceptual grounding that can be applied to changing circumstances; the catalyst role that can be played by third-party agents (called "mediating organizations" in educational literature) such as the Center for Ecoliteracy — manifest themselves in the process leading to the last-minute redesign of the dining facility.

The plans as first drawn up were based on research at comparable schools with similar numbers of students, space constraints, and open campuses, where students often go off-campus to eat. The most cost-effective plan appeared to be a kitchen that would heat and serve food prepared by an off-site vendor.

Mimi Buckley became aware of the plans, as a member of the design and construction committee, and saw an opportunity to further MA's commitment to sustainability. "We can actually shift the mentality of this school through the kitchen, in ways that will affect every other part of the curriculum," she said. "If we want to build towards the future identity of the school, the most significant alteration we can make is to have a true full-service kitchen where food, including vegetables we grow, is cooked, where local and organic food are offered, with guidelines based on sustainability."

The importance of board members' serving on the Eco-Council was underlined, as Mimi Buckley was able to share updates with both groups. Discussions also began within the faculty Ecoliteracy Group (many of whose members also served on the Eco-Council), with whom CEL food systems program officer Janet Brown had addressed sustainable food systems. "The awareness and understanding of the need for sustainable food program was growing within these groups," says Mark Stefanski, "and they were able to present their concerns to the board. I think this is probably the single most important accomplishment of the Eco-Council."

"We understood," says Bodie Brizendine, "as we got deeper and deeper into it, that it needed to be more than a symbol for the school, but actually a healthy working kitchen that is an educational tool." After many meetings and extended discussion, the board agreed to scrap the old plans and commission a redesign of the facility, even though that meant their needing to raise additional funding.

At the same time, a "Rethinking the Kitchen" subcommittee of the Eco-Council proposed guidelines, adopted by the administration, for an integrated and sustainable food service. They utilized several resources from the Center for Ecoliteracy website, including the Rethinking School Lunch Guide, the Model Wellness Policy Guide, and essays from the Center's Thinking outside the Lunchbox series. The statement of purpose for the new facility (renamed "the Café" to signify that it represents a new start) reads:

The purpose of Marin Academy's Café is to promote a healthy, sustainable relationship with food. Through the integration into the life of the school nutrition education, garden experiences, composting, and the purchase, preparation, and consumption of nutritious food, the MA Café, in partnership with the wider MA community, strives to help establish and sustain life-long healthy eating habits for every member of our community.

Along with specifications about nutritional quality, sourcing, eliminating harmful additives as much as possible, and policies ensuring that employees are paid a living wage and provided benefits, the guidelines mandate that "nutrition education, garden experiences, composting, and the purchase, preparation, and consumption of nutritious food are integrated into the curricular and co-curricular life of the school."

The Café, which will open in fall 2007, is a tangible symbol of the change in consciousness described by Bodie Brizendine. Were it not for the voices that were raised when they needed to be, she believes, "We probably would have made a substantial wrong turn. But I don't think that would happen any more now." She says that she "can't imagine" that future construction won't be according to green building standards.

In the fall of 2006, MA was one of 32 members of National Association of Independent Schools (out of a total membership of 1,300) cited for their environmental sustainability activity. Brizendine is leaving MA in the fall of 2007 to become head of Spence School in Manhattan. "I'm already finding little balconies that aren't being used, thinking, 'garden, garden,'" she says. Meanwhile, every candidate for the position of head at MA has been queried about his or her attitude toward sustainability. "We've really crossed a philosophical threshold," concludes Brizendine. "I just see us going deeper and deeper on these issues. It's not a side thing. Bit by bit, we're trying to really root it into existing structures, to integrate sustainability and systems thinking as a community of learners."

Mimi Buckley's Recipe
for White Dragon's Breath Tea

Fill a big pot with two gallons of water.

Add four heaping cups of rinsed, sliced ginger root (it doesn't have to be peeled!)

Bring to a boil, and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Turn heat off, and let cool in pot for one hour.

Add two cups of Meyer lemon juice (approx. 8 lemons), unstrained.

Add 2–4 cups (according to your taste) lightly flavored honey (produced locally if possible).

Stir all ingredients thoroughly.

Strain mixture into containers. Can be kept refrigerated for several weeks.

Serve warm or cold, garnished with a fresh mint leaf.

No part of this article may be reproduced without permission. Please contact the Center for Ecoliteracy to obtain permission. Read other essays on education for sustainability at www.ecoliteracy.org