“Wise Lives Now!” Program Overview

Welcome to teachers throughout Australia.

We sincerely hope you will find this extremely worthwhile and helpful.  A genuine resource that is very user-friendly and a practical support to your environmental education program. 

Our aim in preparing this resource is to assist teachers and other educators working in schools to develop strategies creating effective education in helping children to better understand and respond to:

• Climate Change
  
  

• Sustainable life habits (ecological sustainability), or put more simply, living wisely now.

• Natural Resource Management

In NSW schools as with other schools throughout Australia it offers teachers a variety of activities to assist in satisfying their Schools Environmental Management Plan requirements as stipulated in the Environmental Education Policy for schools.

This Earthcarer “Wise Lives Now!” program is therefore a great resource for teachers to help kids to better understand and address pressing environmental problems, that our society at a local and government level is thankfully beginning to recognise as urgent and demanding our action collectively.

We are now realising that climate change, global warming and greenhouse are a result of our modern living and that continuing unsustainable use of natural resources will seriously impact on future generations for example our children and grandchildren.

“Wise Lives Now” is not about adding more content to an already overloaded curriculum and timetable.  It is another dimension to the teaching and learning of environmental education. It provides teachers with a range of ideas and activities that will inform and connect children in a practical and meaningful way to a range of issues outlined in the NSW Environmental Education Policy.
No extra work
Programs integrate readily into existing curricula and utilises existing resources that will be already present in school.

“Wise Lives Now!” aims to help young people to:

• better appreciate how our living now impacts and influences the quality of the environment and life for future generations
• increase their understanding of ecological sustainable management issues
• increase their understanding and appreciation of our planet's systems of life
• increase their understanding of, feeling for and harmony with the earth and its life
• enjoy its wonders and getting to know living things that share our world.
• understand their connectedness to all life
• understand their impact on these connections and results of broken connections
• explore sustainable management practices
• undertake personal lifestyle changes in order to begin living more in harmony with the natural world
• share insights with others
• experience the magic of solitude, silence and the peace in their natural surrounds

Wise Lives Now takes a unique approach in that children are reached in a fun way through their imagination with a rich blend of fantasy, stories and fables. Stories and imagery engage children at a deeper emotional level whereby they are able to more easily empathise and sympathise with the environment helping them to develop a deeper respect, even a love for their environment and importantly a will to preserving it for future generations.

• Children begin this journey when they are confronted with the greed and selfishness of the Onceler in the haunting tale of the Lorax (Dr. Seuss).
• Children question his actions as they are able to quickly empathise and sympathise with the sad plight of the Brown Babaloots and the Swomee Swans…..
• They are faced with the foolishness and terrible self-interest of the Sknuks in the story by Colin Thiele
• They have to speculate at white settlers motives and feel compassion for Chief Seattle and his people at their grievous loss.
• They express their sympathy for and marvel at the courage of She Who Sits Alone (fable anon) and her unselfish act to save her tribe.
• Children are challenged by Fern Gully's matriarch Magi Lune in her request for children to be heroes.
• Children question our treatment of Aboriginals and appreciate their efforts to live sustainably.
• Again in the Lorax children identify with the little boys given role and his responsibility for future generations.
Other stories and fables take up and reinforce this theme and also carry the message that small is indeed beautiful, that everyone is empowered and everyone can make a difference.
Through these stories children are therefore guided to recognise simply how all life is connected and why people are able to reverence the land and see it as sacred and a wonder and the need to treat it with respect. Children are able to connect empathetically themselves with the land and identify quite clearly their role and responsibility in the need to use natural resources more sustainably/wisely, not only for the present but future generations.

“Wise Lives Now!’ great appeal is that it uses existing resources that will be available already on shelves or in storerooms that will demand some searching or easily accessible from other schools.
It demands no extra work from the teacher, it relates to existing outcomes from HSIE, Science & Tech and even English curricula. There is a ready reference to the religious curriculum for religious schools.

Ideas, activities and experiences exploring spirituality have been drawn from religious and public schools alike. There may be some religious connection to some of the activities therefore teachers, religious or non- religious are invited to omit, adapt, change, add to in any way they feel that it is relevant to pursuing and exploring this important ideal.
The programs are therefore of great assistance to teachers or facilitators as it provides many activities that integrate, complement and supplement many elements of curricula in the areas of environment, personal development and health and religion.

Wise Lives Now acknowledges and thanks the contributions of other resources and their authors and recommend them to teachers for their valuable contributions in complementing and extending children's knowledge and understanding. Also for providing opportunities to raise student awareness of the issues of environmental and sustainable development in the context of acting locally, thinking globally. Valuable reference is made several times throughout the Wise Lives program to :

• Do Something! Environmental Education in Action for Primary Schools produced by Planet Ark

A great resource for empowering kids into reducing their day to day impact on the environment and has many practical hands on activities covering all aspects of the environment.

• NSW Environmental Education Policy.

Earthcare recommends the exploring, adopting, embracing, implementing and practicing of various elements of the NSW Environmental Education Policy. The school environmental management plan (SEMP) is a wonderful initiative that provides and invites children and school communities participation in a variety of practical activities, strategies and ideas, that actually empower children to reduce energy consumption, reduce waste, conserve water, all in ways that are importantly achievable, hands on, visual, measurable, simple and vital.

• The contributions of Maggie Dent author of Saving Our Children from a Chaotic World and Maureen Garth author of Meditations for Children . Maggie and Maureen have produced many ideas, activities and exercises for teachers and parents to assist children's long term emotional health.

Both books are a wonderful resource to teachers as they provide many ongoing sources of appropriate guided meditations and visualization exercises throughout the Wise Lives Now and Earthsharer Personal Development programs. They are a must buy for all teachers.

Next - Introduction