Guided Reflection #7

GR# 7
NAME: ____Christine Ritchie________
1. What is the name of your focus chapter?
Early Childhood Education to Transform Cultures for Sustainability     
                                 
2. Who are the authors?
Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson and Yoshie Kaga

3. Identify the chapter’s main point.
The chapter’s main point is that children learn the most during the ages in early education, so this is the ideal time to teach children about sustainability.

4. Select five quotes from this chapter that are significant to you. Write them down.
There is much in the world that is unknown to children.
Furthermore, modeling behavior is found to be more effective than direct teaching or preaching in helping young children internalize values and develop desirable attitudes and leanings.
Humans depend on the natural world to meet all their basic needs, including air, water, food, energy, and shelter.
Instead of the three R’s of reading, writing, and arithmetic, early childhood education can follow the 7R’s.
Although an individual’s capacity to learn is most receptive during the first few years of life , these are the years that traditionally receive the least support in the education world.

5. Reflect on these five ideas and synthesize them into one idea, one personal thesis.
I believe that children come into an unknown world and it is our job to be their role models and teach them, by actions not just words, that we need nature to live and that it is our job to keep the environment sustainable for everyone.

6. Reflect on and briefly explain why your thesis is of significance.
I think my thesis is important because it concentrates on what we can do as adults to help teach children about sustainability. Not just educators, but parents, family members, community members can all help children learn by being role models.

7. Consider your audience and their point of view. Further explain what you mean by stipulating with examples what your mean or what you do not mean, or by giving an example or two of how your thesis may be applied or misapplied in today’s culture.
What I mean by my thesis is that actions speak louder than words. We can not just teach children that they need to know the 7R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle, respect, reflect, repair, and responsibility. We have to show them how to do this. For example if you tell your child that they have to recycle, but then you throw your soda can in the garbage what do you think they learn? They learn that its ok to be wasteful because my mom or dad does it. We have to lead by example and always show children what is right by doing the right things ourselves. My thesis maybe misapplied in today’s culture by people who believe that it is only the people with children, or work with children that have to lead by example. But this is not true, not only do parents and educators have to be role models so do celebrities and the media, and community members, it will take everyone’s help to teach children sustainability which will mean a lot of changes for a lot of people.

8. Should your idea(s) be broadly applied in today’s culture, what are the implications? In other words, what may or may not occur?
I think my idea should begin to be applied in today’s culture, but I don’t think any changes will occur until the next generation. We are to stuck to the kind of lifestyle that we live. But if we present this to our children today then they can work harder to be better role models for there children and so on and so fourth.

9. Reflect on and respectfully address opposition. You may have to do some research or discussion to complete this point.
Some opposition to my thesis could be those that believe that children are born and made from nature not nurture and that no matter what we do they are going to learn what they want. Some people believe that children are born into who they become and who they become as adults has nothing to with their environment they are raised; it only has to do with their genetics. I would say that yes genetics does play a part in who a person becomes, but it is there environment that shapes a child into the adult they grow up to be. If their environment is full of individuals that respect the environment and the other people in the community then those attributes will become part of the child.

10. Bring it back to your main point by briefly discussing the consequences, intended or unintended, or either broadly accepting or ignoring this idea?
If these actions are not taken then I’m afraid we will continue to use our environment until there is nothing left. And we might not have to worry about that happening today or tomorrow, but what about in 50 years when our children are having children and they don’t have enough food to feed everyone. The people they will be blamed are us for not changing our consuming lifestyle and teaching our children the values they need.

11. Conclude
It is our job to teach our children the ways of sustainability. We will not be able to change over night, it will take years for us to change from consumers to environmentalist, and we might not make a huge change today. But by trying to become the right role models and by showing our children what’s right by our actions they will be able to do the same for their children and so on.