The use of place-based learning as a means of improving understanding among students has been proven to be effective, as shown in the articles. Statistically speaking, more times than not, place-based learning has shown improved scores across the boards, in subjects ranging from science to social studies. The fact that this learning approach encompasses such a broad variety of subjects shows its obvious success. “Learning in Your Own Backyard” gives the example of students studying tree roots stopping erosion. The article elaborates that students “remember their own experience from this gallery and have a scaffold on which to hang their understanding,” referring to the Turtle Bay Exploration Park. The author states that her own experience of “being under dirt looking up and using the roots to climb.”
An interesting point was that this learning technique has Marxist and socialist roots, as it encourages learning outside of “institutional and ideological domination.” This echoes the ideology of private Montessori schools, which encourage hands-on learning from a very young age, going outside of the idea of a common core curriculum approach that’s sweeping the nation. In fact, this method was recently implemented in New York State, and most teachers find it tedious, as students are forced to take pointless tests at the beginning and end of the school year to catalogue their progress. Furthermore, the Montessori approach caters to the idea that different students learn in different ways- some through, listening, others through reading, and others through touch- and encompasses all of these learning styles. Place-based learning seems to do the same: being somewhere correlates to touch, reading exhibits notes to reading, and hearing a curator talk to listening.
It’s also very reminiscent of the Martin family, who sold all their belongings in order to go on a road trip with their children through all 50 states. Their children were schooled online, and were able to visit all the different memorials and historical sites that are brought up in social studies classes. This brings up the very interesting point that place-based learning not only instills a better understanding of a subject, but a greater interest. Perhaps the person who learned firsthand about preventing erosion by planting trees will be the next NGO leader fighting against habitat and critical geographic changes. Perhaps the person who visits the tenement museum will further read about social injustice in the past and even today, becoming the next champion of the working class, propelling America towards equality. Perhaps the person who visits the New York Hall of Science will play with the atomic models and be the next great chemist.
The effect that planting the seeds of interest in young minds is even greater than the effect of showing kids how planting trees can save the Earth. The broad range of topics that place-based learning can affect means children are encouraged to explore their own interests. As The Best of Both Worlds states, “Educational theory that synthesizes ecological and social concerns is, however, in an early stage of development.” These are issues that strike home, and are becoming increasingly prevalent in modern day politics. By raising concerns, raising interest about these topics in today’s students, we’re only creating the leaders of tomorrow. Improving grades is only a step towards a better educational system. Wiping away ignorance is a step towards a better America, a better world.
Education was considered to be of utmost importance during the Age of the Enlightened. Today, we look towards a more enlightened populace, a populace who we can entrust the future of our Earth to. Improved education through place-based learning won’t only serve to propagate ideas and ideals in students, but to encourage them to innovate by creating new ideas, and to instill better socially/environmentally conscious ideals in a new generation.
Today, American seeks a more educated youth in order to stay on top of the world. “Classroom-based research is inadequate to the larger tasks of cultural and ecological analysis that reinhabitation and decolonization demand.” As Peter F. Drucker said, “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” Maybe the “new” is the implementation of the ideologies of critical pedagogy of place.
