The ultimate goal of the sustainability endeavor is to graduate students at all levels who understand the concepts of sustainability, take them to heart, and incorporate them into their daily lives.  To reach that goal, all teachers, including those outside the science disciplines, must understand the concepts of sustainability and be able to relate them to students in the classroom in meaningful and useful ways.

The work of the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) has served as an important resource for this workbook.  The PCSD, in its report, "Education for Sustainability, an agenda for action", states that the connection between the education of teachers and the environmental literacy of students as an outcome of education is a key step toward the advancement of sustainability.

The PCSD notes that teachers will be expected to play an increasingly major role in preparing society for an age of accelerating change.  However, day-to-day realities for teachers include increased pressure to teach; to prepare exams, stress academic basics, and bring large numbers of unprepared, unmotivated students up to basic levels. These constraints pose a challenge to this vital role and a majority of teachers surveyed by PCSD felt ill prepared to convey issues and content related to the environment.  The intent of this workbook is to help teachers begin to bridge the gap and discover a means to tie together the vast amount of information and various curricula available to them.

In her ground-breaking book, Silent Spring, Rachel Carson tells us that the ultimate future of the earth demands that humans develop an appreciation of their many connections to nature and a desire to interact with caution and respect.  This knowledge must begin with all students across the entire curriculum of learning.  It can be developed through the processes of sustainability education, which plays a vital role by imbuing meaning to the way we educate our children so that they will know enough and care enough to be stewards of the Earth.

Harriet Goldman
South Lake Tahoe, California
December 1999