Upcoming Professional Development Workshop–Our last one this year!

Association of Missouri Interpreters (AMI)

2024 Invasive Species: on Trial! Pre-Conference Workshop, Sunday, Sept 8, 2024

Register here or use the above QR Code

NOTE from Jamin: Prepare for a brilliant history lesson about the cultural evolution of our work as Environmental Educators.  We are so grateful to have you on our Board, Freiman…thank you for sharing this knowledge with our readers.

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Nature Study and the Roots of Environmental Education

submitted by Ben Freiman. MEEA Board Member

Photo credits: libertyhydebailey.org; Anna Comstock kidsbookbuzz.com; George Washington Carver thespruceeats.com

Since the dawn of human civilization, people have taught each other about the outdoors. This has taken on innumerable lenses, from understanding our own role and place within natural environments, to the designation of edible plants, to the creation of some of our species’ earliest art depicting scenes of human/nature interactions. 

Within the realm of English-speaking education in what is understood as a “traditional” Western education, many of the origins of our modern Environmental Education come from the Nature Study movement, which has been largely neglected in modern retrospectives on the field. Following the 1864 publication of Man and Nature by George Perkins Marsh, European and American perspectives on resource use and man’s role in conservation began to shift and clarify.(https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295983165/man-and-nature/)  The half-century this book was nestled into from 1850 to 1900 represents one of the most significant periods of natural sciences and environmental research, as Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Pasteur’s germ theory, the discovery of the Greenhouse Effect, the invention of the periodic table, the discovery of viruses and radioactivity, and then the deadliest natural disaster in history, the 1887 Yellow River Flood, all forced humanity to take on new perspectives on the natural forces of this world. 

And somehow, humanity had to find a way to communicate all of this information. Amid a golden age of scientific research came also a golden age of pedagogy. It was in this golden age that Louis Agassiz first coined what would become the rallying cry of a new movement of education – “Study nature, not books.” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/447745) While Agassiz is perhaps best known for his research on fish and fossilization, his work in educational methods was foundational to the Nature Study movement. It is also key to remember Agassiz’s grotesque scientific racism, something he clung to so severely that it forms much of the basis of Stephen Jay Gould’s history, The Mismeasure of Man. Nature Study itself came out of Agassiz’s ideals, some progressive and some extraordinarily regressive. Failing to acknowledge this history dooms us to fall into the worship of a fictionalized, deified, and whitewashed ideal of the “western genius”. 

If Agassiz was the spark, though, it was Liberty Hyde Bailey, Anna Comstock, and George Washington Carver who truly stoked the flame. Bailey and Comstock formed the Department of Nature Study at Cornell, flanked by several other educators. (https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/bailey/naturestudy/) Notably, Anna Comstock was the first female professor in Cornell’s history(https://alumni.cornell.edu/cornellians/anna-comstock/), but the Nature Study Department would go on to include many early pioneers of women in academia, including Alice McCloskey, Julia Rogers, Mary Rogers Miller, and Ada Georgia. (https://www.proquest.com/openview/6c7634a59d664707aaeb3ad762888e01/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y) (https://academic.oup.com/cornell-scholarship-online/book/34199/chapter-abstract/289608478?redirectedFrom=fulltext) Much as the role of Agassiz’s racism is frequently ignored in the history of this movement, the key role that women played in Nature Study is equally important and under discussed. This was among the first major scientific movement within “academia”, that included the voices of women, and Comstock’s amplification of the voices of many women whose work would normally have been overlooked was key in understanding Nature Study as a movement for all. Further, Comstock and Bailey’s outreach to rural communities in New York was revolutionary in education. (https://academic.oup.com/cornell-scholarship-online/book/34199/chapter-abstract/289608478?redirectedFrom=fulltext) While one cannot pretend this movement was all inclusive, the post-Agassiz leaders represented a significant step forward for inclusion in education. 

Bailey’s later work would see him work to found a school of ecological and agrarian theology, led through his publication of The Holy Earth. (https://www.counterpointpress.com/books/the-holy-earth/) While Bailey would utilize these religious and spiritual perspectives to spread respect for nature, Comstock would center what she called “love of the beautiful”, and believed that by immersing youth into nature and focussing on a cultivation of true passion and joy for the natural world, students would become the conservation leaders that our world needs. Essayist Maria Popova has also highlighted Comstock’s work to ensure a love of nature for “sanity in later life” amid a changing and deeply dogmatic America at the turn of the century. (https://www.themarginalian.org/2021/10/18/anna-bostford-comstock-handbook-of-nature-study/)

In discussing the expansion and inclusive nature of Nature Study, it is key to discuss George Washington Carver’s role in early environmentalism. Carver is often remembered as “the peanut guy”, and much of the credit he gets past his inventions goes rightfully towards his understanding of regenerative agriculture. However, Carver’s legacy frequently ignores his work to reach rural students and ensure that all students had access to the natural world. Carver encouraged teachers to introduce agricultural education and natural exploration to “the wee tots” as early as possible. (https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/ipd/carver/exhibits/show/schools/nature-study) In total, Carter published at least 5 books on the integration of hands-on, outdoor education over two decades. (https://guides.loc.gov/School-Gardens/carver-and-nature-study) Rick Perillo, a Sustainability and Seed To Table Manager at MUSE Global School, has written about Carver’s work to spread Nature Study and the very access to natural spaces as Environmental Justice work. (https://rickperillo.medium.com/the-buried-environmental-justice-of-george-washington-carver-c194368c5daa) 

The legacy of Nature Study exists in many axes across many spaces. In the literal, direct sense, exposure to nature study as children was influential in inspiring and teaching the next generation of environmental thinkers, from Aldo Leopold to Rachel Carson. (https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700616732/) In a broader sense, Nature Study represents a pivotal moment in the structure, processes, and figures present in environmental education today. As Nature Study continued to evolve to hold nature as a figure to love, a figure to know intimately, and a force that we both influence and exist within, it caught gendered criticism as a form of feminized science. (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/423549?journalCode=isis) In some senses, this stigma persists, with most students in Environmental Health Sciences (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9309757/) and most professional Environmental Educators identifying as women. (https://www.zippia.com/environmental-educator-jobs/demographics/) In what as viewed as “harder” environmental sciences, we see an inverse ratio, and significant gender-related barriers to women’s success. (https://www.britishscienceassociation.org/blog/mind-the-gap-women-in-environmental-science) 

Even as the male-dominated, racist roots of academia taint its history, Nature Study represents a choice for hope and progress. At the turn of the century, a diverse collection of minds across the United States chose to work together to reach children and rural communities like never before. These pioneers encouraged not only a scholastic understanding of environmental sciences, but an intimate and at times spiritual relationship with the natural world. They encouraged schools to build gardens, to provide at-risk students not only with food but with knowledge to grow their own food. They believed no child was too young to start their journey in nature loving and learning. In all of these regards – the extraordinary progress and the lingering effects of extraordinarily regressive mindsets – there’s much to learn from the history of our profession, and many figures to push us to continue to reach all of our young learners.

Jefferson City, MO (June 27, 2024) – The Conservation Federation of Missouri has been named the National Wildlife Federation’s Affiliate of the Year. CFM received the award on Thursday evening in Washington D.C. in conjunction with the NWF annual meeting. This marks CFM’s third time winning this honor since the award was first given out in 1966.

CFM earned this award thanks to their unique programs such as Share the Harvest, Operation Game Thief, Conservation Leadership Corps, as well as their advocacy efforts.

“CFM’s recent track record has been truly spectacular,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “Thanks to relentless advocacy and coalition building, they’ve played a leading role in several major statewide successes. And they haven’t stopped there — by championing the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, CFM has gotten us closer to securing a generational victory for wildlife on a federal level.”

“Over the past year and beyond, our team has worked tremendously hard to deliver victories for wildlife and people across Missouri,” said Tyler Schwartze, executive director of the Conservation Federation of Missouri. “This honorable recognition is a testament to the incredible group of individuals working together in our Federation family. But our work is far from done, and we look forward to continuing and advancing these strong efforts even further in the coming years.”

CFM Would like to thank all of our staff, board members, affiliates, business partners, and volunteers that have helped make this possible.