Earth Systems Science, Inc.

It never crossed my mind that African-Americans were any less concerned about environmental issues provided they had the opportunity to learn about them. That's what is so great about your and Patrick's efforts.

Toward True Cultural Diversity

The problem with ?“conventional wisdom?” is that few people seek out the underlying reasons for the ?“convention?” or the ?“wisdom.?” The world changes over time, and we all need to periodically re-examine our thoughts and beliefs.

?“Conventional wisdom?” of one group about another group is also complicated by emotions, prejudices, and misperceptions due to linguistic and cultural differences. This has been a significant contributing factor to the segmentation and segregation in society. We can see it in the educational system when the various disciplines are departmentalized/compartmentalized, rather integrating them to demonstrate synergy. We can also see evidence of segmentation in many ''cultural diversity'' programs, especially those based on ethnic groups.

When it comes to youth environmental education programs, the cultural segmentation results from programs targeting ''traditionally under represented groups'' where the groups are ethnically defined. Small wonder that targeting African Americans (for example), results in a largely African American group. Then you can see an African American group in a National Park, but I question if that is true cultural diversity. Yes, you now can show there was an increase in African Americans visiting the park that year. So you do get ''statistical'' cultural diversity. But is this true cultural diversity?

In contrast, ESSI strives for ''cultural diversity?” through an openly inclusive approach at participant recruiting through self-selection (an out of the box approach). We think the biggest under represented group are people who did not have an opportunity to learn in a truly nurturing, non-threatening and conducive learning environment. Rather than force feed, we let individuals choose to join us when the ''timing is right for them (the individual).'' When that happens, the learner is much more receptive to learning than in the traditional classroom (literally in the box). No exams, no grades, no pressure to perform. The ''acid'' test for our community-based learning is the ''teach back''.

Awareness and education are the keys to combating and eliminating ignorance. Many people, especially newly arrived immigrants, live in ethnic enclaves. Their children have few opportunities to get out and away from the strong family bonds. The disadvantage to this is the perpetuation of old fears and misperceptions. Our participant groups are ethnically and culturally mixed. The mixed group creates a learning opportunity that few have due the rather segmented lives most people live. After each trip, participants comment on making new friends, sharing new experiences and learning many and diverse things not just the job skills/academics of the particular project, but of sharing new food and cultural awareness.

National Park personnel we contact and work with express ?“amazement?” at the diverse mixture of our groups. One on trip we had Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican, El Salvadoran, Palestinian, Thai, Burmese, Native American, Caucasian (German, Irish, English), African American all in one group of about 26 individuals. The groups are diverse in terms of age (ranging from 2 ?½ to 58+), gender (at least 25-50% female), interests (relative to hobbies and academic majors), and experience (in many cases, 50% of the group are first time campers and about 50% had not been to the destination for that trip). At ESSI, we feel this is a fuller and more meaningful functional definition of ?“cultural diversity.?”