{"id":307,"date":"2011-05-27T15:08:26","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T15:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johncanning.wordpress.com\/?p=307"},"modified":"2011-05-27T15:08:26","modified_gmt":"2011-05-27T15:08:26","slug":"we-are-learning-slowly-as-we-teach-over-the-years-teaching-the-green-humanities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johncanning.net\/wp\/?p=307","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are learning slowly as we teach over the years": Teaching the Green Humanities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe are learning slowly as we teach over the years\u201d is the last thing I wrote in my notebook at the \u201cTeaching the Green Humanities\u201d<\/a> workshop on Wednesday. I can\u2019t remember exactly who said it or even whether I wrote it down exactly as it was expressed, but it was said during the final panel with the workshop speakers. The second last thing I wrote down was \u201cSlowness as virtue\u201d. Six years after taking on the Education for Sustainable Development brief for LLAS I am still learning and still learning very slowly.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not able to do justice to the ground which was covered during the event, but a few things will stick in my mind. \u00a0Arran Stibbe\u2019s reminder (or was it a revelation) that \u201cmore sustainable\u201d planet is still unsustainable will stick with me. I need to ponder Greg Garrard\u2019s suggestion that the philosophy of ecology might be a good potential bridge between humanities and the sciences\u2014sometimes it really does \u201cjust depend\u201d and the \u2018unlaw like\u2019 nature of philosophy may allow this possibility (I hope I'm not mis-representing Greg here in any way). Jessica Frye\u2019s discussion of engaging EFL students (mainly scientists and engineers in her case) through reading eco-poetry demonstrates the potential to teach about environmental issues in a context where many would not think it possible.<\/p>\n