Arjen Wals' blog today has an existential cry about appropriate university courses if you're of a sustainability mindset:
Today I received an interesting new years message from Rolf Jucker from the CoDes project:
Dear All
I hope you have had a very good start to 2012 and wish you all the very best for it!
I have a question regarding tertiary education for my daughter. She is currently finishing her IB at the Mahindra United World College of India and she is looking around for suitable colleges to maybe go to after a gap year.
We have discussed it at length over Christmas and we find it very, very difficult to suggest anything suitable. She has had a very special educational experience at Mahindra College and she doesn't really want to study at a conventional university (be it as prestigious as it might be) where we have all the known problems David Orr has so succinctly spelled out years ago: i.e. highly intelligent lecturers and students doing high status degrees, but with scant respect for sustainability, for the consequences of the careers they are aspiring to, etc.
So she is looking for a college where students and staff are committed to actually practising sustainability, not just in the studies, but also in the way that they live together, act, etc. (be it through regular work at an attached farm or in the community, through the way they prepare and cook food, the way they interact with each other and staff, they way the campus is run and kept, etc. etc.).
Her interests lie in Environmental Systems Studies, Biology, and languages (particularly Spanish) and she is wondering whether first a liberal arts degree might be a good idea. My question now is (since there is no way to find stuff like that over the internet: either you personally know about it and can vouch for it, or it's impossible to assess):
Do you know of an colleges, degree schemes etc. which might fit this bill? They can be in the US, the UK, mainland Europe, India, Australia, wherever. ... I would be very, very grateful indeed for any suggestions. With many thanks in advance and best wishes Rolf
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Here's what my [AJ's] immediate response was: Thanks Rolf! What a wonderful message/question. Not an easy one... Some come to mind: The Peace University or U of the Peace in Costa Rica, Evergreen College, Prescott College en Middelbury College in the US, but let me think a little more.
I would like to use your message on my blog... To see how people from across the world respond to this question. With two children (18, 15) myself I am also interested in finding out. All the best, Arjen
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My response is somewhat different. Given that Rolf's daughter obviously has so much to give, and that she could work on a farm anywhere, I'd suggest Harvard where their need is obviously great. After all, ...
Ask not what your university can do for you, but what you can do .... etc
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