The Value In What We Do

How do we know if the values we want to impart as environmental educators are reaching our students? How do we want to live and manifest our values in our daily lives? What are we actually doing everyday that is in line with our values, and why or how do we justify if they don’t line up? Heck, what are our values and how do we clearly articulate them? These are a few of the questions I thought about as guest speaker, Teton County Commissioner, Benn Ellis, joined the graduate class in an evening discussion about “Action” last night. Benn shared some of his amazing ideas and experiences, but predominately facilitated this fascinating discussion with our faculty and staff. It’s a pretty daunting subject area. Needless to say, we didn’t come to any final conclusions on values or how we measure the impact that our work has on our students. But, it was valuable to have that time to hear the varied responses of our classmates and to peronally reflect on our own ideas.

Throughout this program, I have been so enamored by all the skills and knowledge that I am learning that I have not taken as much time as I’d like to examine the bigger picture of why am I here and how doing Environmental Education/Natural History Interpretation fits into my value system. It’s easy for me to get caught up in the homework assignments, teaching practicums, weekend activities, and lose sight of the importance of examining my motivations, beliefs, values, etc. Sure, I love the environment, I find value in humans taking care of each other and our planet, but why? That’s the question that I’ve thought about for years when deciding to pursue this field of study. I have come up with many answers and the answers continue to change as my experiences change. I know that taking the time to articulate those ideas is important to my personal development and my development as an educator. It was nice to have that reflection and discussion time scheduled into our Planning and Seminar Week. From the infamous words of my instructor Kevin, “I invite you” to take a few minutes for yourself and think about some of the questions that I took away from last night’s discussion and how they apply to you.