Thursday, December 10, 2009

David Orr on education

From an old article by David W. Orr on education What Is Education For? (via Anil Kumar):
". No student should graduate from this or any other educational institution without a basic comprehension of: • the laws of thermodynamics • the basic principles of ecology • carrying capacity • energetics • least-cost, end-use analysis • how to live well in a place • limits of technology • appropriate scale • sustainable agriculture and forestry • steady-state economics • environmental ethics

Do graduates of this college, in Aldo Leopold's words, know that "they are only cogs in an ecological mechanism such that, if they will work with that mechanism, their mental wealth and material wealth can expand indefinitely (and) if they refuse to work with it, it will ultimately grind them to dust." Leopold asked: "If education does not teach us these things, then what is education for?""

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