Ensayo

Starting Early: Environmental Education during the
Early Childhood Years. ERIC Digest.
When should environmental education begin--in the third grade; first grade;
kindergarten? Even earlier. Environmental education based on life experiences should
begin during the very earliest years of life. Such experiences play a critical role in
shaping life-long attitudes, values, and patterns ofbehavior toward natural environments
(Tilbury, 1994; Wilson, 1994).
Because young children learn about the environment by interacting with it, educators and
other adults must attend to the frequency, nature, and quality of child-environment
interactions during the early years. Many young children have limited opportunities for
such experiences. Studies indicate that the average Americanspends more than 95% of
his or her time indoors (Cohen, 1984), and that by the year 2000, more than 90% of all
Americans will live in urban areas (Schicker, 1988). Studies also indicate that children
growing up in urban areas tend to develop unfounded fears and feelings of disgust in
relation to natural objects (Bixler, Carlisle, Hammitt, & Floyd, 1994).
Yet, it's not just childrenliving in urban areas who should be targeted for environmental
education during their preschool years. Many young children, regardless of where they
live, spend most of their time in settings and activities that keep them essentially isolated
from direct contact with the natural world. Recreation tends to be indoors (e.g., watching
TV); transportation tends to be by car or other motorvehicle versus walking; and daycare
programs--where many children spend most of their waking hours--tend to be much more
oriented toward the classroom than outdoors. The result is that many young children are
at risk of never developing positive attitudes and feelings toward the natural environment
or achieving a healthy degree of competency on the environmental literacy continuum (asoutlined by Disinger & Roth, 1992). Attention to environmental education at the early
childhood level is proposed as a partial antidote to this concern.
RATIONALE
The rationale for environmental education during the early childhood years is based on
two major premises. The first premise is that children must develop a sense of respect and
caring for the natural environment during theirfirst few years of life or be at risk for
never developing such attitudes (Stapp, 1978; Tilbury, 1994; Wilson, 1994).
The newly-emerging field of early childhood environmental education reflects an
increasing awareness that "environmental experience in the critical phase of the early learning years can determine subsequent development in environmental education"
(Tilbury, 1994, p. 11) andthat the preschool years may "prove to be critical for the
environmental education of the child" (Tilbury, 1994, p. 11).
The rationale for environmental education at the early childhood level is also based on
the premise that positive interactions with the natural environment is an important part of
healthy child development (Carson, 1956; Cobb, 1977; Crompton & Sellar, 1981; Miles,1986/87; Patridge, 1984; Sebba, 1991; Wilson, 1994) and that such interactions enhance
learning and quality of life over the span of one's lifetime (Wilson, 1994). Children who
are close to nature tend to relate to it as a source of wonder, joy, and awe. Their spirits are
nurtured by nature and they discover through it "sources of human sensibility" (Wilson,
1992, p. 348).Nature-related experiences tend to foster a child's emerging sense of wonder--referred to
by Plato as the source of knowledge and by Cobb (1977) as our source of imagination.
According to Cobb, it is through wonder that we come to know the world. It's wonder--
rather than books, words, or learning all the facts--that provides the direction and impetus
for environmental education in early childhood....