Then + Now: Educating for the Planet

We asked former GUS second grade teacher Susan Coolidge, parent of Kate Wolcott ’91, for her historical perspective on how our school has for decades prepared children to care for and about nature and the environment. Susan is also a former GUS trustee, the author of The Stories Trees Tell, and an educator at the Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center.

Susan Coolidge P’91

Then: From very early on, the students at GUS developed a love of Nature by spending time outside, both in free and guided exploration on the Nature Trail. The youngest students walk through the woods looking for things that amaze, puzzle, or delight them. After sharing their finds, the children look for connections between them: the dirt on one leaf could contain the sand from someone’s rock. The students’ observations and questions become the basis for further study.

As the students age, the Nature trail explorations become more focused. A study of trees and photosynthesis lead to a Nature Trail tree ID book. In the past, the sugar maples on the trail have been tapped and the sap boiled into syrup, and this may happen again. Invertebrates, amphibians, and birds are abundant and have all been the focus of student research. Water and carbon cycles are studied as well. As the students explore the different components of the Nature Trail, they become very familiar with every part of it. “That is my tree.” “I found a spotted salamander under that log.” “I wonder if the pH of the water in the stream has changed.” This sense of familiarity and ownership is the love of nature that the students develop at GUS. And this love is the foundation upon which stewardship grows.

Deborah Cramer P’95, ’98

We also asked Deborah Cramer, parent to Abby Greenbaum ’95 and Susannah Cramer-Greenbaum ’98, and a Visiting Scholar at MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative, what she believes is most essential that we teach our children today about environmentalism. Deborah is the author of Great Waters: An Atlantic Passage; Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water, Our World; and The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, An Ancient Crab, and an Epic Journey. The Narrow Edge was named Best Book by the National Academy of Sciences and the Rachel Carson Book Award by the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Now: The most essential things GUS can teach children about environmentalism are that we are each and all responsible to care for the earth into which we are born, and how to be stewards of its air, water and lands, and of the plants and animals that dwell here with us.

GUS can do this by: • inspiring children to love the earth • teaching children across the curriculum and in every grade the myriad, specific and glorious ways the earth enabled human evolution, the rise and fall of civilizations, and the many ways the planet continues to sustain us (ways many adults never knew or have forgotten) • teaching children that just as we need the earth’s natural resources, now those same resources need us to actively protect them • providing opportunities where children can help protect the natural world that sustains us • encouraging parents to model concrete actions of stewardship