 If you’re a professor, "Greening the College Curriculum" by Jonathan Collett is an essential book for any current or aspiring professor. As the introduction states, it provides a rationale for including environmental material for any discipline. It also shows “how to construct a unit or a full course that is a basic course in the discipline yet makes use of environmental subjects.”
Finally, Collett promises relevant sources for materials in a wide variety of disciplines. This is not a book of information to be directly taught to students in a matter-of-fact sort of way. Rather, this book enables professors to use environmental knowledge to supplement their own disciplines so students can learn to think critically.
In using environmental knowledge in your curriculum, you are doing a great service to your students and their futures. Regardless of your field, environmental knowledge is essential. Global markets are demanding professionals who are environmentally aware. Collett’s book is not environmental propaganda burdened with agendas. It is a practical guide to give your students the best set of tools possible so that, when they enter the working world, they will be able to compete with cutting-edge knowledge and forward-thinking ideas.
“Greening the College Curriculum” poses many questions regarding higher education, including what students should ideally know upon commencement. As Collett states, it is important for students to know the difference between: “optimum and maximum, stocks and flows, design and planning, renewable and nonrenewable, dwelling and residing, sufficiency and efficiency, can do and should do, health and disease, development and growth, and intelligence and cleverness”. These dichotomies may seem simple and obvious, but recent studies have shown that almost half of recent college graduates are unaware of the real causes of global warming, and more than a third of the same group could not discern any substantial difference between development and growth.
This book is a valuable manual and guide on how to teach your students what is both relevant to their field and relevant to the world. Collett has done extensive work with several universities, trying and testing his methods. Each chapter, which covers one field of expertise, highlights the experiences of leading educators introducing environmental issues into their teaching. The disciplines covered are Anthropology, Biology, Economics, Geography, History, Literature, Media and Journalism, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion.
"Greening the College Curriculum" is a wonderful tool to improve your teaching, remain knowledgeable on current events, and stimulate your students to think critically about how their future careers can include environmentally friendly issues.
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