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Show exercise. Eaxh student selected some evidence of resource misuse or depletion in the local commu- nity-an eroded field, a polluted stream, a waste- ful or unhealthy system of sewage disposal, or some evidence of conservation such as contour strip farming. Then the student photographed this situation and prepared a talk. At their graduation exer- cises, before teachers, parents, and community citizens, these boys and girls, with pictures and comments, showed how their community could be improved by a more enlightened use of its renew- able resources. The spotlight has been turned on a situation which that community had here- tofore accepted blindly, and out of this have grown new and constructive attitudes and im- proved resources. Behind the children who worked this change was an enlightened and in- formed teacher, and behind the teacher was a citizens' organization with clearly defined objectives. When a county agent or a Soil Conservation Service technician serves as an instructor on the field trip of a conservation workshop of a teachers' college, and a citizens' organization fi- nances the transportation for the students, we be- gin to see emerging a new and integrated approach to education. Those responsible for directing the educational policy of each State and those responsible for directing Federal co- operation in education may well build on this practice. TJiey should realize, moreover, that there are social and economic phases of proper resources use as well as technical phases. To be truly informed, students must not only under- stand what can be done technically, but also must comprehend the life problems that have to be solved in the shift from all of the exploitative methods of the past. They must understand, for instance, that many farmers fail to follow better methods of land use, not through sheer ignorance or willfulness, but largely because of economic problems which, alone, they find difficult to solve. Solution frequently must come through wider community and State and Federal cooperation. Ignorance and willfulness play their part on the road to disaster, but it must always be kept in mind that we are dealing here with long-estab- lished patterns of thought and action, of ways of doing things and of dealing with nature. A national water resources policy should seek noth- ing short of a gradual revolution in outlook. Education and the conservation movement should become as one. Through conservation, educa- tion can create a people which not only guide the necessary governmental action to assure a wise and expanding use of renewable resources, but also act in their daily occupations and recreations in harmony with the highest principles of sus- tained yield and so achieve permanence as a people. If we are to build a truly permanent society with constantly rising standards of living, we must understand the nature of the renewable resources on which all physical fife rests and the vast possi- bilities of their effective use. In the past we have not understood this, and in the course of our his- tory we have gone far toward undermining our very existence as a Nation. From now on we must understand. We must assume responsibility for the proper use of the resources on which our society is built, and there must grow within us an inspired impulse to use them rightly. Only a dynamic educational system aware of the prob- lem can bring this about. 276 |