Sustainability Education Programs
Izaak Walton League

The Izaak Walton League, one of the nation's earliest conservation organizations, has conservation programs that guide their many publications and activist training. One of the program categories is sustainability education. IWL has three programs in this category.

*Population & Environment
*Sustainable Communities (including Smart Growth)
*Shallow Footprints

The second program listed is related to the publication reviewed below. But that is only one of the sustainability education publications available from the IWL.

* * *

Review of <i>Community Sustainability</i> By Ramona Mullahey (July 1999)

The Izaak Walton League of America has an environmental education mini-curriculum, Community Sustainability, written by Benedict J. Hren and Diane M. Hren for grades 9-12. It provides students with information about the emerging community sustainability movement and the environmental action skills that will facilitate their participation. Lessons are sequential and interdisciplinary providing students with skills in math, science, visual and language arts, social studies, business education, history, etc.

Environmental education, according to the National Consortium for Environmental Education and Training, "addresses inter-relationships between humans and the environment and is concerned with values and skills, as well as knowledge."

The curriculum is based on two emerging trends in education reform: service learning and environmental education for sustainability. Service learning links community service and volunteerism with classroom learning. Environmental education for sustainability, for the most part, addresses the long-term effects of contemporary decision-making. Combined service learning and education for sustainability nurtures the democratic skills and values vital in confronting issues of social justice and equity, environmental quality and economic development, poverty and resource consumption.

This timely curriculum is well-defined, easy to use, and is an excellent resource. A community sustainability directory of private organization and government initiatives that promote community sustainability is included, as well as, a teacher evaluation.