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.
Bioregional Education in Action
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.
Others on Bioregional Education
What others say about bioregional education:
"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
LINKS:
- An interesting article: Bioregionalism and Community: A Call to Action by David Haenke
- What is a bioregion? from Columbiana Magazine
- What is a bioregion? from Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center
- A definition quoted from the North American Bioregional Congress
- The Planet Drum Foundation Web Site
- The Bioregional Congress Web Site
- An article on place-based education:Place-Based Curriculum and Instruction by Janice Woodhouse and Clifford Knapp
Bioregional Books
What others have written on bioregional education:
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.
