Dear MEEA Members,

 Over the last year or so, I’ve been inspired by Rethink Outside, which is championing the notion that access to nature is a basic human right and working hard to rectify the narrative about who cares about and enjoys nature. Powerful. Lately I’ve been thinking that perhaps we need to Rethink….well, Everything. We have so many simultaneous troubles that require us to look and think deeply. Open white supremacists attacking the U.S. Capitol. A pandemic that is so out of control here that it has killed more U.S. citizens than died in WWII. The terrorizing and murder of black Americans caught on video over and over and over, yet we still can’t seem to figure out how to make that stop. The unthinkable loss of biodiversity due to our out-of-whack relationship with nature. A global population that is surely approaching our carrying capacity. 

I believe that EE has so much to offer in developing our ability to Rethink. Part of the beauty of EE is that it espouses teaching people how to think, not what to think. It’s grounded in systems thinking and understanding the particularities of one’s “place”. It fosters basic social and scientific literacy so we can better evaluate information, and it provides a methodology for considering the responsibilities that come along with our rights. The urgency to rethink couldn’t be greater than it is right now, so let’s pause, but not look away. Let’s be bold and think systemically so we can multi-solve our interrelated crises. Thank you for all you do to make the world a better place by teaching kids to love the Earth, to love one another, and think critically about how to care for the planet and all her inhabitants. You’re more important than ever.

Lesli Moylan, Executive Director

Kudos to the Missouri Recycling Association for its PD offering “The Secret Lives of Stuff”. It is an in-depth online course about waster reduction covering Life Cycles, Sources of GHG emissions, Waste Management Hierarchy – Intent and Limitations, and What is Sustainable Materials Management? Nine Missouri educators are signed up to audit the first session, and I’m sure we’ll see more MO educators in the next session, especially as MORA works to gain approval for Missouri educators to obtain CEUs and graduate credit for course completion. Contact Jill Hollowell at jhollowell@meramecregion.org for more information.

Kudos to Sherita Love and Sharonica Hardin-Bartley for their beautiful Op-Ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. These educators deliver a powerful invitation to empathize with our children, especially those most burdened by inequity during COVID. They encourage us to Rethink our current education system in order to dream big and transform it into a system that is healthful and life-affirming for all.

Kudos to Jan Weaver for so many things! Jan is the former director of MEEA, and she’s truly an amazing educator. She has just launched a website called Curious Dust, because she wants to “keep on teaching and learning and poking around”. Jan created some Science Sight Word Booklets for early readers that we will soon be featuring on the MEEA website; you can find those now at Curious Dust. She’ll be adding more resources for educators in the coming months. Kudos, Jan, we are so glad you have found this way to continue sharing your passion for EE during retirement!

Kudos to Green Works in Kansas City for their unwavering commitment to serving KC kids during COVID. Green Works found in-person summer work experiences for their Excelerate high school students, provided summer and fall ECOS outdoor nature exploration for our younger students, and engaged our high schoolers in Green Ink outdoor service projects, and in-person classroom programming in the Green Works Lab. They have kept their programs going and all their staff employed. They have updated procedures, managed COVID supplies, doubled their classroom space, and launched a retail social enterprise for even more real-world learning. Way to go, Green Works, and thank you for inspiring us!

Kudos to the Green Schools Quest program for Rethinking their whole program in light of COVID. With so many schools going online, the program shifted to 6 theme-based monthly sustainability challenges (instead of one comprehensive six-month long project as participants have done in the past), with monthly online gatherings open to participants to brainstorm how to expand and connect current projects to each of the themes. Continue the Quest is another inspiring example of innovation!