Linking Place-Based and Sustainability Education at Al Kennedy High School

Abstract

Al Kennedy High School in Cottage Grove, Oregon, is experimenting with an educational approach aimed at engaging young people in efforts to enhance the health of local social and natural environments. By collaborating with private and public partners, the school provides its students with the chance to, among other things, develop long-term forestry plans, monitor the health of local streams and rivers, remove invasive species, construct school and community gardens, and educate children about local wetlands and watersheds. The approach seeks to embody “solutions-based” sustainability education capable of convincing young citizens that they have the capacity to address the challenging environmental, social, and economic dilemmas currently facing humanity by thinking through issues and taking action within the context of their own community. The school is in part allowed to experiment in this way because its students were not successful in conventional classroom settings. Modeling a more meaningful form of education, however, is affecting teaching practices in other district schools and demonstrating how it might be possible to reshape learning experiences to improve the academic performance of students and at the same time advance the well-being of the places that support them