OCR Text |
Show tools of science, technology, and finance in uni- fied developments, and it extends the principle of ecological balance to the whole of the area and its occupants. A third new aspect of conservation is the con- cept of social costs and benefits as applied to a region. The individual farmer, forest operator, or industrialist judges his measures to use or pro- tect resources according to the net returns which they will yield him in either the long or short run. Many measures which would be desirable to hold a resource or to prevent wastage simply do not pay. Recognition of regional and national bene- fits and costs imposes a different system of social accounting in which items may bulk large that would not appear on an individual's profit and loss statement. These three ideas are already embodied in an incomplete fashion in Federal water policy. They are implicit in the recommendations of this Commission. Their full application will depend upon their acceptance or modification as citizens and technical groups seek to translate them into the concrete, earth, and steel of new water programs. The Commission therefore suggests a careful appraisal of present day educational programs by the appropriate national groups with a view to finding ways in which conservation education at all levels may or should take this recent thinking into account. It calls on schools, colleges, and adult groups to take a fresh view of the needs imposed by river basin development and to consider what action will best help citizens-young and old-to play an intelligent part in shaping new water programs. It also suggests that the very process of pre- paring water programs should be so ordered by Federal and State agencies as to stimulate the maximum amount of citizen participation in appraising regional goals and needs. That proc- ess should encourage conservation education and should be educational in itself. Areas o£ Action Conservation education now is carried on in four major areas: (1) the formal teaching of schools, colleges, universities, and technical schools as a part of both general and technical education, (2) the training of teachers to work effectively in the field of conservation and to serve as leaders in community programs, (3) adult education by schools and service groups promoting a general understanding of the prob- lems of resources conservation throughout the people, and (4) extension work by State and Fed- eral agencies among people directly concerned with farming, grazing, forestry, power marketing, water pollution, and similar problems. The Commission is not convinced that a special group of courses should be introduced in the schools or that certain subject matter should be everywhere studied. Conservation education must embrace all subjects and all ages and groups of people. It is not a subject or course in itself, but an activating view and philosophy of life to be interwoven into every course or subject. The processes of teaching, both formal and informal, must advance from the kindergarten through grade school, then on through the high school, the college, the university, with its multiplicity of technical schools, and finally into all the ramifica- tions of adult education. The underlying problems of policy and of natural relationships should be attacked on a broad front with wide latitude for imaginative and critical study. As a means of stimulating new and broader approaches to these problems a few of the recent developments in programs and in teaching aids are described in the following pages. Developments in Conservation Education During more recent years there has been a decided realization that education of the public concerning the problems of resources conservation is necessary. These years have shown substantial results in the development of educational techni- ques in the schools and for all citizens. For, through the action of professional, private, and public agencies and organizations, and through the efforts of trained specialists, educators, and laymen, the teaching of the conservation of nat- 272 |