In our Resources section, which is password protected but you should have access, we now have a scan of key selections from the book No Citizen Left Behind which is part of our preparation for the April Institute. The .pdf file is one of the first items at the top of our Resources page.

I took a paragraph from this book and used it in two different ways with two different classes.  With my ESL class on comparative culture at SNHU, I had them respond to it in a PowerPoint presentation.  With my College Composition class at MCC, I had them respond to it in an essay for their midterm.  Here is the midterm with the paragraph I used:

Answer the question: what is a good citizen?  In your answer, respond to the following quote:

Can you be a good citizen if you don’t vote?  What if you vote, but are uninformed about most of the issues and candidates, or vote solely on the basis of a single issue?  How important is it to be law-abiding?  Is being economically self-sufficient a hallmark (or even a precondition) of good citizenship?  Is never being a burden on others enough to make one a good citizen? How should we judge the act of protesting injustice via civil disobedience against the act of sacrificing oneself on the battlefield for the good of the country?

From No Citizen Left Behind
by Meira Levinson


I got amazing results from both classes!  

As you prepare for our next Institute, some of the resources in this segment may prove to be thought-provoking as you consider ways to draw sustainability concepts into your courses.     

This 60 page magazine is full of ideas, program spotlights, leader highlights and kid-friendly ideas. Though some of the articles are set at the elementary level, there are certainly ways that ideas can translate across grade levels and communities.

The full text of School Nutrition is available here online. When you go to the page, notice the arrows in the upper center of the screen; these will take you through the document page by page. There are several other neat navigation features to check out - printing, sharing, etc.

Click the image below to be directed to the home page for the NH Farm to School Program. This vast resource provides resources, program examples, lists ways to get involved, and more useful links.

The excerpt below is from thr National Farm to School Network's own introduction. Of particular interest here may be their leadership model: not prescribing or imposing, but rather connecting and enriching the experience of local programs.

Here is the link for details about this sustainability institute and application: 

We discussed the power of artifacts to draw student interest, and this recent article in the UNH Magazine (Winter 2013) shows a powerful and sustainable model. Through a combination of narrative and research-driven facts, the article outlines an exhibit that is much more than a static member of the "moth ball fleet." The dresses were originally collected to be used as hands-on models for student seamstresses. Today, they are a study in late 1800's society and enough has been documented about items in the collection that we can start to piece together some of the individual personality of the dress wearers. The article is posted as a .pdf in our Resources section.

There are so many directions this article excites thought - the first that comes to mind is the idea of having students bring one article of clothing that represents something about themselves, their experiences, their hopes and use it as a springboard into discussion and connections with character analysis (literature) or development (composition). Social Studies connections abound here, as well. What do durable styles and trends say about a people? How does clothing so carefully match economic and social status? What do the personal artifacts left behind say about what a culture valued - and which of your valued artifacts will exist in a hundred years, from which others may try to figure you out?

This article points out something bigger than the grabber-level attention-getting school scenario. The work involved is bigger than the exhibit; it's bigger than the students who get involved one way or another each term. By collecting, studying, and making these artifacts accessible to students of all walks, the leaders mentioned in Harrigan's article are part of a sustainable effort. There is material, interest, momentum, and significance to their work. Keeping the material relevant to today's scholars helps keep the "curriculum" related to the "clothes" lifeted up to a sustainable level. When we consider sustainable curriculum and sustainable culture, this is the sort of durability that makes a powerful model
                                                                                                                                          Amanda Eason,

The idea of cultural sustainability has a powerful draw to me as an "English teacher." Each course I teach - whether it's literature, composition, fiction, study strategies or skills level reading, the question emerges from students: Why does this matter? Why should we care? Why can't we just read and write what we want? Especially at the community college level, where folks are very much driven by their chosen career path, students question the validity of the "English" curriculum. They have every right to question this! The traditional response, of course, is that their college experience is building them up to be a powerful professional with excellent communication skills, who is well-read and capable of discussing in writing or verbally topics necessary for their field; adequate citizenship gets thrown into the conversation, as well. What does this mean to the 17-30 year old student in a mandated course? I'm not sure. That's why this idea of cultural sustainability means so much.

Engendering the interest in, and ability to document the world around us is one surface-level feature of sustainable culture. Earlier societies accomplished this through bards, later through the Bible and other written resources, still later through multi-media avenues. Currently, however, we have to wonder how our world of the living generations will be documented. We've learned a bit of mistrust for history texts as they are, and the internet is not necessarily the most durable option. Some students have the feeling that Facebook will save their stories, that future generations will glean their history from the pages of the internet, and that "my story doesn't matter anyway!" If a group doesn't have hope that others are interested in their culture, then they are less likely to be interested in that of others. Communication, and growth fail in this case. So, what do we do, and where do we go from here?

To begin the process of finding out what has been done so far with cultural sustainability, I grabbed a few quick internet sources and posted them in our Resources section under a new heading, Cultural Sustainability. As I continue to build the professional development presentation, "Poetry of Ecology and Farming" I intend to bring the idea of cultural sustainability into the foreground - what a better answer to "Why?" for a topic like this - or for other topics that include keeping past stories alive in durable, sustainable ways?     :)


For example, on another note, another topic - how else to get young folks interested in history than making it alive and loud? That may work for a small few, but at the same time - the culture of those who originally built and enjoyed these boats is almost forgotten. Bit by bit, each year more stories are lost.
                                                                                                Amanda Eason