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AEOE 2006 Statewide Spring Conference:Environmental
Education:
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AEOE is very pleased to announce:
If you lament a world where our outlets are electrical, rather than emotional, Richard Louv has put your thoughts to words in countless forums, which include NPR’s Talk of the Nation, The PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, the Today Show, the White House Domestic Policy Council, the United Nations, and in seven books, whose subjects range from the tenets of fatherhood to the symbiosis of nature and community.
A prolific and traveled journalist, Louv writes a regular column for the San Diego Union-Tribune. In his latest book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder," Louv challenges modern indoor education, and examines the irony of walls that purport to free minds while confining bodies. Children study forests thousands of miles away while ignoring their own neighborhoods, parents choose indoor vs. outdoor play for their kids, and people of all ages get heavier in body and soul. Louv contends that nature ignored damages us all, physically and mentally: “Forget nature,” he writes. “The real problem is human nature.”
What sets Louv apart from many stewards of the environment is that he soft-pedals his counsel with allegory and affection; many environmentalists tell children what’s wrong in the water and the air, to which Louv answers, “There is no practical alternative to hope.” In short, we can’t forget to teach what’s right, or our environment goes from being a haven to a burden.
Don’t miss keynote speaker Richard Louv this spring in Malibu. His message resonates in the environmental community: “Nature is more than a “T-shirt otter.” We know—let’s learn more about helping others know too.
—by AEOE Member and 2005-06 co-winner of AEOE Southern Section's Environmental Educator of the Year Award, Richard Mandl
Richard Louv is a futurist and journalist focused on family, nature and community. He is the author of seven books, including, most recently, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder" (Algonquin). Among his other books are "Childhood's Future" (Anchor), "The Web of Life," (Conari), "Fly-Fishing for Sharks: An Angler's Journey Across America" (Simon & Schuster), and "America II" (Houghton Mifflin). He is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor and other newspapers and magazines. He also served as a columnist and member of the editorial advisory board for Parents magazine, and as a commentator on Monitor Radio.
He is an advisor to the Ford Foundation's Leadership for a Changing World award program and the Scientific Council on the Developing Child, and a Visiting Scholar at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He is also a partner in The Frameworks Institute and a member of the Citistates Group, an association of urban observers. He helped found Connect for Kids, the largest child advocacy site on the World Wide Web. Louv has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, CBS The Morning Show, Good Morning America, Today, Donahue, Bill Moyers' Listening to America, NPR's Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and many other programs. The United Nations commissioned his monograph on fatherhood for the U.N. Year of the Child, and he has spoken before the National Policy Council in the White House. He speaks frequently around the country. He is married to Kathy Frederick Louv and is the father of two young men, Jason, 23 and Matthew, 17.
He may be reached by e-mail at
or via www.thefuturesedge.com
For more information, see http://www.thefuturesedge.com/
