Page 11 be useful. To bring about sustained change, the real help is needed right in A second need which might be served by Federal funding is the support of the relatively limited number of institutions and centers, both public and private, which are already involved in educational development work in this field. These centers may be located in universities, like David Hawkins' new center at the University of Colorado and Lillian Weber's effort at the City College of New York. Others may be independent centers like Wave Hill in New York or the Children's Museum in Boston, but whatever their status, they must be closely tied in with the educational systems which they serve, and concerned with fundamental aspects of learning in the classroom. I would place a much higher priority on support of such innovative centers than on funding, for instance, for the far more ubiquitous nature centers and sanctuaries which are usually more remote both geographically and educationally. I would also place a relatively low priority on school sites for outdoor education. Our really difficult environmental problems have their genesis right in our midst, and a city street or a polluted river girded by highways and railroads is a much more cogent site for environmental education than a nature sanctuary. The basic problem is that environmental education is an abstraction which is little understood and only sroracically prreticed. It's not now a rationel priority, Page 12 nor is it likely to become one unless it is clearly defined and shown to facilitate the achievement of current educational goals such as high achievement in reading and math. The relationship between environmental education and the realization of social objectives must also be clarified. Curriculum reform has been triggered in the past by such crises as war, economic stagnation, immigration, and the launching of Sputnik. The resulting improvements in vocational education, agricultural practices, and in the teaching of science, math, and foreign languages were the consequence of a considerable mobilization of talent, effort, and money. While both government and public are showing increasing concern over the state of our physical environment, our responses as a society in the educational field have been tentative and inadequate. We can only hope that these hearings represent the beginning of a redirection of our priorities and a commitment to the achievement of an education that truly prepares students to cope with the difficult problems that face us as a nation. Senator NELSON. Our next witnesses will be Mr. James Pratt and Mr. Alan Levy of the American Institute of Architects. We appreciate your taking the time to come here today. Your statement will be printed in full in the record and you may go ahead and present it however you desire. Identify yourself for the reporter so the record will be correct. STATEMENT OF JAMES PRATT AND ALAN LEVY, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS Mr. PRATT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is James Pratt. I am a practicing architect in Dallas, Tex., and chairman of the Committee on Public Education of the American Institute of Architects. Accompanying me is Alan Levy, an architect from Philadelphia, Pa., and president of the Group for Environmental Education. In testimony presented today, and in other testimony before the House committee, we constantly heard references to the scientific, the industrial and the academic communities in terms of findings solutions to the problems to which S. 3151 is addressed. We would like to add the viewpoint of the design professions: The planners, the landscape architects, the urban designers, the engineers, and all the professions which are basically concerned with the actual fabrication of the physical containers in which we live. We believe that this legislation is not only a remedial action program; it is also a very serious and long-range educational one. What we are striving for is to inculcate the will to achieve a better quality of life and to give the general public tools to judge not only the problems of nature with respect to man but also the problems of land use-for settlement purposes, for parks, for whatever qualities in the city will reinforce his way of life. To do this, we believe a program must start with the familiar. The broad purpose of solving man's relation to conservation, ecology, nature, can best begin in our own backyard by learning what his relationships are to his local community. For instance, in the context of planning and organizing cities today, we have just seen a major revolution in mobility within this country since World War II in the interregional highway system. In general, this has been a single purpose activity, organized purely to move people at faster rates of speed and more efficiently. It has, in many, many places in this country, completely torn up the values, and the intimate relationships of the environment in "the neighborhood." In Dallas, the schools no longer bear any rational relationship to the local living environment. Although they may be situated on the freeways or major thoroughfares, they are not organized so that foot traffic or bicycle traffic can get to them, or in a significantly sensitive. relationship to the dwelling. Drainage systems are being eradicated to use the land for other purposes. We do not anticipate maintaining these for many multipurpose activities, we only consider how to move water faster to get it out of our way in the public environment. Whether or not we could use that land for linear movement systems, for recreational purposes, or for a connection to nature in the city also are matters which are little understood. 46-880 0-70- -14 Another example is this room. Having learned to control temperature and atmosphere in the environment, we have a comfortable level of each and a personal communication with each other which is probably very efficient. What about the psychological factors of this room as a place for the purposes for which we are here? What is the psychology of tedium and boredom by staying in this environment for an extended period of time? Do we have values to judge this? Yes. The choice of this room is much better than the one in the House Office Building where we appeared a month ago. In that room, it is difficult to communicate person to person. These factors are very little understood, however, and often overlooked in fabricating containers for human use. In general, then, the processes of using the city, of using space, and of using the public domain are to often neglected in education. It is to that area of environmental concern that we shall address ourselves. Specifically, we believe that this is not something separate from the concern for ecology and pollution, or for natural relationships of man, but an integral part of it. We urge that the word environment be defined in the legislation to include not only the natural, but also the built environment. We believe that a successful education which all of us seek must be one that is an integral part of the curriculum and is not a new and separately added discipline to the traditional academic subjects. It is an attitude and it is information which perhaps belongs in various academic subjects. For example, in a pilot program that we have in Dallas, our profession has hired a teacher to act with us as an intermediary with the 12-grade secondary and primary school. There, a pilot activity experimented in a variety of levels and with a variety of academic subjects. We have developed a lesson plan with a 6th-grade geometry teacher in which he is attempting to demonstrate the relevancy of geometry to the real world. The students explore a building geometrically but, in addition, analyze attitudinally what parts of it feel good to them, and where they like to sit in it. They thereby are breaking down the barriers of traditional education and considering not only the math factors but certain social factors in it use: Certain factors of order or art in the way it is put together. Perhaps they are getting a much more significant and a more meaningful educational experience than in a traditional mode. We have worked with social studies students in the 3d and 4th grades and we have taken them on tours to look at dying suburban towns that are being submerged in the growth of the metropolitan area. They see what relationships existed in the past between public facilities, talk to the old people in the dying towns, and compare the general store organization for services in a town of a hundred years ago, versus present separated and fractured service organizations for commercial needs. We have looked at history. We have worked with a 9th-grade course to make certain areas of ancient history more relevant to today's terms. Specifically, they studied Egypt when, at the very beginning of recorded history, man learned how to use stone. They compared the learning of the use of stone with the learning of the use of steel and materials today. We have tried to reinforce the hand-eye relationship through a more sensitive art program. It was not purely related to drawing and traditional modes of coloring and early school experience, but involved the children in three dimensional activities using clay and other media. We have worked with science teachers who have taken children into nature on an esthetic basis as well as a scientific or more traditional mode of education. I believe, that, in general, in our own secondaryprimary school experience we looked for ways in which we were encouraged to become professionals dealing with the problems of the environment. This, to me, is quite meaningful. In my own experience, a woodshop course in the 8th grade was probably a very significant factor in making me very interested in becoming an architect. Pounding scenery or putting together flats for a theatrical production were significant in making me an architect. I may have been turned off by the mechanical drawing course, but I survived it. These are considered the frills in education and, until we can reach a point where these attitudes change, we may not be even providing enough manpower within the professions to deal with this subject. Certainly I never would have dreamed of taking an art course in secondary school. It was not culturally acceptable. We all ran from it. I would be a much better architect today, however, had I done so. I would like to take a minute and look at what we believe the thrust of your legislation should be at the grassroots level. Our experience shows that education of this nature needs to be closely connected to local problems. The local teacher must be directly involved in curricula development in his school if he is going to be successful in this. It is the kind of subject in which the role of the expert is more catalytic than informational which perhaps is unlike the relationship of experts to other academic subjects. There is a need to disseminate information about existing programs, other teachers' experiences, and source materials that are available. This is an important role which the Federal Government can take in the development of a program rather than working specifically toward an omnibus curriculum. We recently produced a survey of projects in environmental education, not in the natural and ecological area, but in the area of the built environment. We identified approximately 18 to 20 instructional programs that are either just being produced or in the process of being produced in the whole country, and approximately 18 to 20 other programs being developed by professional societies and their local components. This represents a very small beginning that could vastly be reinforced through the aid of the legislation before this committee. I would hope that you do not accept the recommendation that State accrediting agencies be asked to approve the kinds of programs that go on. It is our experience that many of these agencies are not in tune with current needs at the grassroots level. Many of the fresher and more creative approaches that don't follow traditional modes may be stifled in that kind of relationship. In summary, we strongly support S. 3151. Thank you for asking us to come. Now I would like to turn to Mr. Levy who also has a statement. · |