Review: Green Hour: “Learning through Nature: A History of Environmental Education in America.” (Prof. Charles Dorn)

Why has it become so difficult to agree on necessary measures to maintain an ecologically sustainable environment? And why does environmental education fail to create a shared understanding of what needs to be done? According to Charles Dorn’s findings, Americans have profoundly different understandings of the natural world despite the continuous concern of schools, churches, youth organizations, and the media, to convey information about the environment. But while “nature” is an important topic, or point of reference, in many institutions and organizations, it has often been used to impart other, social concerns, most obviously gender roles.