Environmental Education
Association of Oregon
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Portland, OR 97204
(503) 234-EEAO
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EEAO Home -> Advocacy 3
Why We Need No Child Left Inside
As a nation we are facing enormous environmental challenges, including climate change, habitat depletion and water and air pollution. Our children need a basic educational foundation to understand these issues, and they need the skills to become good stewards of their environment. As they are called upon throughout their lives to sort out various environmental claims and issues impacting their jobs, health, security, and transportation, they need to have the tools to be able to make wise decisions and choices.
A National Science Foundation panel noted in 2003 that, "...in the coming decades, the public will more frequently be called upon to understand complex environmental issues, assess risk, evaluate proposed environmental plans and understand how individual decisions affect the environment at local and global scales. Creating a scientifically informed citizenry requires a concerted, systemic approach to environmental education..."
In the private sector, business leaders also increasingly believe that an environmentally literate workforce is critical to their long-term success. They recognize that better, more efficient environmental practices improve the bottom line and help position their companies for the future. In other words, our children need to be environmentally literate for success in the workforce of a global economy, and to be responsible citizens of the 21st Century.
Environmental education is critical not only for scientific literacy. It has demonstrated its ability to spark substantial gains in school enrollment by choice, student achievement, and standardized test scores. National studies show that environmental education enhances student achievement, critical thinking and basic life skills.
Research makes clear that our children lack environmental literacy. One study found that children can identify over 1,000 corporate logos but less than 10 plants and animals native to their back yards. The No Child Left Inside Acts address critical environmental challenges by strengthening and expanding environmental education in America's classrooms.
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