Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education
Print Reference
pp. 2-3
Abstract
The need for environmental patriotism, the theme of this issue of Taproot, is suggested by a 2006 college student in his final quarter of college. Asked by professor Carmen Werder (See Resources on page 48) to describe himself via metaphor, the student finally settled on being like a stream. A stream, he said, “is always moving forward, forever changing…eventually becomes pure… We are all pieces of a larger system, and I appreciate my place in it. It’s the first time I’ve ever thought of myself as part of something bigger.” How is it, Werder asks, that research shows so many college-aged people are late in wanting to be “part of something bigger?” Isn’t having a sense of being part of something bigger a fundamental building block in the development of good character? Without that sense it seems selfishness, lack of compassion for other living things, and no concept of citizenship and the greater good may form a person’s attitude toward life. Such attitudes do not bode well for creating ecological and cultural sustainability.
Recommended Citation
Yaple, Charles
(2014)
"From the Editor,"
Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education: Vol. 23:
Iss.
2, Article 2.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.cortland.edu/taproot/vol23/iss2/2