Passing down the rewards of teaching

Ships passing in the night, captain and crew recounting the hazards of their latest journey and parting knowledge to those that travel the same routes—this is our role today. Who would ever guess that one day you awake and are asked to share the knowledge of your life’s route; yet only yesterday you were running from presentation to presentation with fellow marine educators. Life passes us so fast and if your work is your passion, then time is of no consequence.

Early in my career as a marine scientist, I was challenged by my then mentor, a visionary in marine science and education, to establish a K-12 marine science program at a collegiate research lab. Although research for me continues today, one of the greatest rewards for those in marine science education is to be in a position to see the fruits of your passion coming home in a young teacher sharing the excitement of a coastal adventure with his or her students in the same manner you shared with this person when they were in kindergarten.

It is even more rewarding when you can hire someone that you taught 20 years ago and now, they too, have chosen marine science as their life-long work. Reflections like these surely mean one is getting on in years, yet you can still find the passion for the sea in the eyes, voices, and the enthusiasm shared by members of the Presidents’ Circle and the membership of NMEA.

For the past 34 years, I have had the privilege of having a large outdoor classroom and island off the coast of Alabama. Not once have I yearned for a different career. There has been no better joy than in sharing a beach excursion with young students of all ages. Even when leading a beach scavenger hunt along a remote Mississippi barrier island for older marine educators in January of 2008, the excitement of exploration and parting of knowledge continued.

I attended a Green Coast Conference in Mobile, AL in which sustainable energy and communities were the theme. Dr. Richard Jackson, director of Environmental Sustainability of the University of Michigan, and a trained pediatrician and former scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and prevention, talked about young people today and their risk for diabetes. One in four children between the ages of 6-18 show signs of pre-diabetes Type II. The leading cause is their diet and the lack of exercise.

We build communities designed around automobiles and schools similar to big box stores next to major thoroughfares, yet we want our students to have an environmental experience. Like many, I remember walking to school from first grade through high school while growing up in Vermont. I never really gave much thought to these walks, but without realizing it, I was forced to look at the changing seasons, smell the green of spring, and feel the rain. Today, the smells of diesel buses, the honk of impatient drivers, and the music supplied by IPODs are the experiential experiences of going to and from school. Teachers continue to be the lowest paid college educated professionals in the nation and they are saddled with paperwork and testing. It is no wonder that experiential learning takes a back seat to teaching to the test!

Computers have made life easier for most of us, yet it’s that same technology that has children at home in front of a screen and not in the park, along the river or stream, or in their back yard smelling the soil. Today dissections take place on a computer. There’s no smell, nothing to touch, and no direct link to the ecology shared by these organisms. With this being said, evaluations of experiential learning, watching, listening, and then doing, result in the greatest knowledge retention over time.

The National Marine Educators Association is a family of like-minded great educators who have the passion of sharing their knowledge, experiments, success and failures with anyone who will listen. It is a privilege to be considered one of them and to encourage teachers to take the time to get their students into the environment, be it fresh water, the ocean, a field, or the forest behind the school. With the continued rise in fuel costs, the challenges for those of us who have field-based facilities will be in solving how teachers can afford to get their children to us so we can share the excitement of smelling the water, feeling the sand between our toes, or listening to the call of gulls. Those of us who have leadership roles in marine education will have to be innovative in how we help students have an environmental experience.

Students are always asking what they should do for a profession. They also want to know, “how do you like your job?” “Do you make a lot of money?” My answer to them is not to limit their goals early in life, but when they do choose a profession, choose one that keeps them looking forward to going to work. Life is too short not to enjoy your chosen profession and no matter what you do in life, make the environment part of it. The environment can offer peace and calming to most of the stressful situations of life.