Where to begin Educating for Sustainability

I used to lead a unit in Grade Nine social studies entitled "Utopia" and I asked the students to design their own Utopia. There were some pretty diverse visions of Utopia that were shared with the class, but in the end when I asked the students how they would go about "changing the world" they said it would have to happen in the schools. Apparently adults are too set in their ways, children can still learn. I remember them getting a little annoyed with me when I asked them what they thought I was trying to do as an educator in the system. While I have dreams of how the educational system we have could work differently, I don't believe that sustainability can be taught.

The other day in my Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable Future book, I read the chapter entitled Indian Pedagogy. In that chapter Malcolm Margolin writes that to teach someone something robs them of the experience of learning it for themselves. Sustainability must first be experienced, recognized and then celebrated. Pretty simple don't you think? All we have to do is find ways to experience the gifts of the earth in a way that will make us want to cherish them forever.