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| "Wood Duck at Sunset" by Jan Barry |
Ramapo College of New Jersey has taken an innovative approach to teaching about global climate change. Last fall, the liberal arts college in Mahwah, NJ directed all incoming students to take a course in World Sustainability. So it was that I began teaching one of several classrooms full of newcomers an expanded course that previously was provided to a smaller cohort of students majoring in environmental studies.
This development came about because student leaders requested that every student have an opportunity to learn about what’s happening in today’s world. As one of my Fall 2019 students noted in the course evaluation, this class “gave me a better understanding of the things that are harming the world and the sustainability issues in different parts of the world.”
This development came about because student leaders requested that every student have an opportunity to learn about what’s happening in today’s world. As one of my Fall 2019 students noted in the course evaluation, this class “gave me a better understanding of the things that are harming the world and the sustainability issues in different parts of the world.”
Having previously taught
Environmental Writing for nearly a decade after retiring as a news reporter, I jauntily told the Spring semester class in
January that this global topic was a stretch for me so we were going to be
learning about world sustainability together.
Midway through the
semester, the conornavirus pandemic hit our part of the world and classes
did not resume on campus after spring break. Abruptly, students and professors
across New Jersey and much of the United States were thrown into learning how
to live, study and communicate online, via email and unfamiliar conference
programs such as Zoom.
We were suddenly immersed in the midst of a global crisis that was all too real, not futuristic like climate change. Some students and family members got sick with the mysterious virus. The mounting number of hospitalizations and deaths in New Jersey, New York City and across the United States relentlessly shot higher and higher. In the midst of stay-at-home orders, medical quarantines, cautious expeditions to food stores, jobs and medical appointments, finding out what was happening in our own communities, let alone around the world, became a challenge.
We were suddenly immersed in the midst of a global crisis that was all too real, not futuristic like climate change. Some students and family members got sick with the mysterious virus. The mounting number of hospitalizations and deaths in New Jersey, New York City and across the United States relentlessly shot higher and higher. In the midst of stay-at-home orders, medical quarantines, cautious expeditions to food stores, jobs and medical appointments, finding out what was happening in our own communities, let alone around the world, became a challenge.
Here's a selection of
perceptive, often amazing essays by students in our Spring 2020 World
Sustainability class.
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