Special Message from Dr Darleen Stoner
"A Wise Investment in Earth's Future"

What's wrong with being an environmentalist?

Absolutely nothing - except when you are in your role as an environmental educator in a teaching situation. As an educator, it is very important for you to understand the difference in your roles as both an environmentalist and an environmental educator.

You are an environmentalist when you advocate a position concerning an environmental issue. All of us who care about the Planet Earth are environmentalists. That's citizenship in action because you have educated yourself about environmental issues and have arrived at your own points of view.

On the other hand, when you enter the classroom, you must set aside your environmentalist role and become an environmental educator. In this way, you help your students develop critical thinking skills as they analyze all sides of an environmental issue before arriving at possible solutions and actions. In this role, you help your students review information, analyze different points of view, and examine how propaganda and persuasion are involved. That also means you must be "value-free" in the eyes of the students by not letting your own viewpoint be known. If you advocate a position to your students, you are no longer an environmental educator and are limiting your students in their efforts to explore an issue.

Here are a couple more points regarding having your students explore environmental issues. Firstly, your students must be about 10 years old or older so that they are developmentally ready to consider an issue from various viewpoints. It is okay to involve younger students in actions about environmental problems (such as littering and campus beautification) because these are not issues which people can disagree on the solution. Secondly, as an environmental educator, students must be allowed to come to their own conclusions about an issue. If students arrive at different conclusions than your own, you have to be accepting. That's what environmental education is all about.

Yours for environmental education
Dr. Darleen K. Stoner



Professor, Environmental Education
Coordinator, Environmental Education Master's Program
Founding Director, Environmental Education Resource Center, NEST and Environmental EXPO
Dr Stoner's Resume

Phone: (909) 537-5640 or email: Dr. Darleen Stoner