Germany’s Reich Nature Protection Law (Reichsnaturschutzgesetz) grew from a Volkisch movement born in the 19th Century, nourished by botanists and biologists at Jena University. Those who held a political bent, like Ernest Haeckel, integrated ‘ecology’ with social systems. Today ecology has been integrated with the Common Core State Standards.

“Haeckel held that civilization and the life of nations are governed by the same laws as prevail throughout nature and organic life” (Quoted in Gasman, The Scientific Origins of National Socialism, p. 34).

Later, naturalism was grafted into German National Socialism, mixed with ‘blut and boden’ (blood & soil). After WWII, an ‘ecology’ movement branched throughout the world. The UN’s Decade for Sustainable Development, as in Germany, is not merely content in actions for clean air and water. They strive toward raising new values and behavior toward greener politically correct bodies, minds and souls.

Most Americans would have no reasonable objection to incorporating conservation in schooling, nationally or globally. The confusion lies in the gap between ‘environmental education and ‘sustainable education’. Environmental education only changes wasteful habits and are comfortably fit in a science or health class. Sustainable education changes habits of mind; values, behavior, principles, loyalties, a child’s worldview. It can be measured objectively by an observer and is intended to be integrated across the disciplines. The Common Core Curriculum is ‘skilled based only’, content and culture-free’ ¹, a framework ripe for politically correctness. Content covering social justice, ecological economics and environmental literacy is found at the US Partnership, version 3 October Sustainability Standards for Grades K-12. Its successful development would be “the creation of a new people” (Rousseau: Social Contract)

A stamp of approval for Oregon’s sustainable solutions was printed on Oregon House Bill 2544 (2009), nicknamed The No Child Left Inside Act. Oregon’s Environmental Literacy Plan (OELP) was born. The stakeholders listed in the plan include the US Partnership’s Sustainable Standards for Grades K-12 and the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). The OELP specifically states:
ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY STRANDS AND GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS – To be effective, education for environmental literacy needs to be integrated throughout the curriculum in every classroom in Oregon with connected, sustained opportunities for students to participate in outdoor learning experiences. To facilitate this process, Environmental Literacy Strands were developed that articulate a comprehensive content and skills learning framework (see Chapter 3).

Both environmental and sustainability standards have been steered to Oregon via two avenues; The North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), supported by the EPA, and the US Partnership Standards, commissioned by the UN Decade for Sustainable Development. The No Child Left Behind Act controversy provided a perfect smoke screen for the No Child Left Inside Act, and if one reads all the indicators formulated by the Cloud Institute, one can understand why they were hidden- in Cloud 9.

Oregon has integrated (aligned) the global sustainability standards and the Cloud’s indicators into the common core standards for all grades and disciplines. http://www.ode.state.or.us/teachlearn/specialty/alt/eltf… The NAAEE’s mission is to align environmental standards with the Common Core, which is rarely mentioned in the social media’s Common Core culture war. Courtesy of the Zero Waste Alliance, Oregon’s role in shaping new minds is managed by the Sustainable Schools Collaborative. http://sustainableschools.org/topic-resources/education-for-sustainability (Quotes in italics from their site)
The United Nations: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
Agenda 21, the plan developed at the Rio Earth Summit, included an implementation section which delves into education for sustainability: Chapter 36, “Promoting Education, Public Awareness and Training”. Education was considered to be so important that it was the only means singled out in 2002 for a United Nations Decade. The U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is serving as the lead agency of this Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), and nations are being encouraged to establish their own Decade-oriented initiatives.
The international implementation plan for the Decade asserts that Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) should not be equated with environmental education, but rather encompass it and go beyond it, or that ESD cannot be taught as an independent subject, but should be infused throughout the curriculum and the disciplines.
The US initiative for the Decade, was founded in 2003. It is a grass roots movement working outside of federal government policy and priorities. It is managed by an executive team, and built on the work of action teams and sector teams (including higher education, K-12, faith community, youth, and living institutions).

Congressional actions on environmental education are on the books. Education for Sustainability maybe the devil in the details as the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) published Designs for the Future of Environmental Education, 1981. The first federal law on ‘environmental education’ was enacted in 1970, but sat hibernating in the Office of Health, Education and Welfare. In 1990, a re-enacted National Environmental Education Act was passed, providing for “training, field studies, programs and curriculum for dissemination” by the Office of Environmental Education within the EPA. The Office shall “manage Federal grant assistance provided to local education agencies, institutions of higher education, other not-for-profit organizations, and noncommercial education broadcasting entities”. [Sect: 4(b)(5): Public Law 101-619- Nov. 16, 101st Congress]

Non-profit growth bloomed and set out to pollinate the states. Executive team? Actions teams? Outside governing authorities? This is a democracy, isn’t it? The only way to stop global education is to start locally, in your school district, with action teams.


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1 ‘Fair to Middling’, by J. K. Milgram, S. Stotsky, Common Core Validation Committee members; Pioneer Institute.