The life of the school district is never wanting for urgent matters requiring immediate attention. Some days, there seems to be a near-endless flow of urgent matters requiring our full attention and focus: curriculum and instruction, labor negotiations and partnerships, closing achievement and opportunity gaps, not to mention the daily work of managing crises, community relations, and ensuring that children are well cared for. It raises the question: Where, in all of this, does environmental literacy and sustainability fit?
One doesn’t need to look far to be convinced of the importance of this work. The science around climate change, the pressing needs around providing environmental literacy to students, and the opportunity to operate districts in sustainable ways all create a compelling blueprint for this work. Ten Strands’ mission summarizes this work’s compelling urgency and opportunity to increase the interrelatedness of people and place and, importantly, create a system of schooling in which all students have access to high-quality, environment-based education.
But how does one begin? How does a school or school district, even one with the will and moral imperative, fit this into its critical and often all-consuming work? Is it relegated to content matter in an AP environmental literacy course in high school? A unit in science classes? Perhaps an after-school club?
Or is it something else—something that is woven into the fabric of teaching and learning? Something that spans content areas, creating a system in which environmental literacy and sustainability education are woven across literacy, writing, mathematics, science, arts, and other core content areas? Does it provide an opportunity to bring cross sections of students, staff, leaders, and community members together to gather and assess data and build systems while simultaneously implementing sustainability strategies and preparing our students to be environmental and climate leaders of tomorrow?
For me, that is the true promise of this work—and what excites me about it. It revolves around unlocking the infinite potential of our youth as writers, artists, scientists, mathematicians, and more to address environmental priorities.
The journey of Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) around this work exemplifies the power of partnerships and engaging students, teachers, administrators, facilities staff, and board members to craft and execute a vision of excellence for environmental literacy and sustainability. With the able facilitation of Ten Strands, SCUSD convened a team to begin to imagine what is possible, identify and collect necessary data sets, frame efforts around core guiding design principles, and begin the real work of spreading these priorities throughout the life of the district. We were fortunate to have passed a climate resolution by the board of trustees that guided and endorsed this critical initiative and provided some assets to build upon. We began to understand that there were isolated spots of brilliance around this work—vibrant gardens and garden programs at some schools, an incredible district nature center and farm, some truly expert staff who had their eyes on this work, and some sustainability efforts underway.
But that wasn’t the whole story. There were also schools where this work wasn’t yet a part of the daily life of the school. We were not unlike many districts in that we had examples of environmental literacy being addressed in isolated, siloed ways and had rich opportunities to create a more sustainable and environmentally conscious district regarding our operations. I would say that for this work to take flight, it requires leveraging several assets, frames of mind, and opportunities such as the following:
- A commitment to crafting a vision of what is possible through exploring models, thinking outside of the box, worrying first about “what” before addressing “how,” and being honest about missed opportunities and their potential for future planning
- Being willing to address the hard conversations around costs, shifting long-established systems, and systemic resistance to address sustainability
- Understanding and communicating the opportunities inherent in this work to provide content connections across the curriculum so that writers, artists, mathematicians, and scientists can each approach environmental literacy from their unique vantage points
- Employing a design mindset of empathy interviews, prototyping, and small-scale trials to build out impactful models
- A commitment to lean in on the power of student voice to inform district initiatives, provide new perspectives, and provide context for how to shift systems and reach students
- A belief in the long-term importance of this work and the power of engaging communities as thought partners around it
With the content leadership, thought partnership, and skilled facilitation of partners such as Ten Strands, it quickly became apparent that there are successful models. We must understand that every district has assets to leverage, and no district is truly starting from scratch.
I remember, early in our journey around this work, a high school student reached out because he had a proposal on reducing plastic waste in the district. After a visit to his high school to hear his proposal, he became part of our environmental literacy joint committee, the first of many students who would join the effort. Throughout this process, we found student voices to be a critical part of the equation.
The seed of the work exists, often in isolated pockets, but it exists. Nurturing that seed and creating the conditions for it to propagate and grow is not only good for the climate but also for schools and school districts—and for the students that they serve.
