Deschooling Environmental Education

Abstract

If "education" is problematic as such, as radical critics such as Illich and Holt argue, then environmental education is problematic too. Despite the seemingly uncontroversial character of the goal of "ecological literacy," for instance, I argue that this notion is deeply flawed: it replaces a living sense of connectedness with a mandated and technical set of skills - perfect for schools, but that is just the problem. In its place I suggest a broader understanding of what we are about as environmentally-concerned citizens and educators: reconstructing the larger lifeworld in a way more connected to and consistently engaged with the more-than-human world. Schools have a role to play within this reconstruction, but the essential process is much larger and must engage all of us.