Ecotopia vs. the United States: The Effects of Sustainable Education

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School is a fundamental location for the child’s mind to grow and prosper and the child is able to socialize and adhere to the environment that he or she learns about. In addition to education, simply being a component within the institution also formulates our beliefs. Schools are a prime institution to learn about green education in which it will prepare students to be sustainable in the future. In Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia, the protagonist, Will, travels to an ecological utopia where he learns how to live in a sustainable or an Ecotopian manner. Unlike the fictional story of Ecotopia, the United States’ way of living is vastly different. I am going compare and contrast the elementary educational systems and the role of teachers, students, and curriculum discussed in Ecotopia to the United States. Furthermore, I am going to argue that no educational system prepares the youth to be truly sustainable but there must be an ideal medium that addresses both Ecotopian and United States values to become “greener” citizen. The idea of being a “green” citizen conveys the idea of living a natural life and making minimal yet better ecological choices.

Teachers induce thinking and beliefs within their students, and elementary teachers within Ecotopia illustrate the importance of free agency in an ecological world. There are elementary teachers in Ecotopia who specialize in certain subjects in which they aspire their students to stimulate and indulge in their own goals and interests (Callenbach 128). Although Ecotopian teachers provide tutelage for instructing all subjects, they support the idea that their country has “crossed over into the age of biology” in which the majority of their focus is towards biology (Callenbach 126 - 129). Ec...

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...abling students to have core knowledge that is necessary to be a “greener” citizen in the future.

An ideal green citizen lives a normal life while making sustainable choices. However, Ecotopia and the United States’ educational systems do not contrive their students to achieve such ideals. In an Ecotopian school, students learn about the Earth but are not educated about other subjects. Vice versa, in American schools, students learn all subjects but none specific to sustainability. To ultimately prepare the youth for the future, there is a need of equilibrium of both systems in which students are educated in all subjects with knowledge of the eco-system. Having a well-rounded education with specificity of sustainability, students can adjudicate their own “green” ideals and act upon them in which they are able to establish new solution to unsustainable issues.

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