A unit of Lasting Forests evolving since March 30, 1999
A Total Forest Management Plan and Wildland Management Decision Support System
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Education

Educate...To change behavior.

The education subsystem of the land needs to develop specific competency-based objectives such as:

1. To enable local citizens to list the environmental resources of the land ownership.

2. To have 80% or more of the local citizens and employees support and obey the environmental laws, rules, policies and guidelines of the ownership.

3. To promote desirable environmental behavior off the area but in the region.

These are objectives rooted in behavior. They state desired behavior and strive to avoid use of words such as "educate" or "teach." They may involve attitude change but that must result in some observable and significantly different change in behavior or acts. The differences between using these words and expressing objectives in this way with past efforts are often difficult to communicate. Not critical of the past, and well aware of past successes, the alternative effort may be suggested in the difference between education that:

1. teaches about birds and mammals vs causes behavior to obey the game laws.

2. teaches about recycling vs stops littering and starts home recycling and composting.

Working for behavioral change by a variety of media and pathways leads to realistic age- and responsibility-relevant actions on, with, or for the environment.

The above is considered general environmental education. We must progressively become more explicit about the behaviors we intend to change. A variety of activities designed to change specific behaviors may be conducted by the staff as time is allocated:

1. Newspaper and magazine accounts of activities
2. Summer camps
3. Citizen information and education meetings.
4. 6.5 minute video tape
5. Organized deer hunts
6. A fishing derby
7. Fishing tournaments
8. Hiring and working with interns, partially for educational purposes
9. Earth-week activities
10. Outdoor sponsored picnic

There are options suggested by the unique conditions of the area. The options are numerous and part of the plan is to consider a novel strategy for the area, perhaps selected from such options as:

1. a facility (center) for high-intensity education in select ecology for teachers and leaders.
2. a leadership training center, designed to influence education on 50% of all forests
3. a center for natural resource educational media development.
4. a demonstration of the limits to which youth may be taken in environmental knowledge.
5. a new computer-based strategic environmental "game", analogous to chess, to be played in international competition

These are not main-line educational system action, but, given the characteristics of the area and the sociopolitical and socioeconomic environment, they may be appropriate. These are suggestive only, for a non-traditional low-impact, mission-compatible work may be an appropriate role for the people and environment of the area.

We encourage clearly articulating behavioral objectives; doing intensive, repetitive work; using computers; giving abundant incentives and rewards; and using well-designed measurement devices to assure that desired behaviors are resulting from the efforts and costs.

We operate on the premise that there are many types of intelligence (Gordner and Hatch 1989).

Table 1. Types of intelligence or "intelligences" adapted from Gordner and Hatch 1989:6
Type	Representative Superior Level	Components
Logical-Mathematical	Mathematician	sensitivity to and capacity to discern logical or numerical patterns; abilities to handle long chains of reasoning
Linguistic	Poet	sensitivity to the sounds , rhythms, and meanings of words; sensitivity to and ability to use the different functions of language
Audial1	Violinist	abilities to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timbre; appreciation of the forms of musical expression
Graphical2	Painter	abilities to represent the world and ideas in two dimensions; sensitivity to color, hue, contrast, and proportion
Spatial	Sculptor	abilities to perceive the visual world accurately and to represent that perception in some way; abilities to work in more than two dimensions
Bodily (kinesthetic)	Dancer	abilities to control personal body movements and to handle objects skillfully
Interpersonal	Salesperson	abilities to discern and respond appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations, and desires of other people
Intrapersonal	Self-knowledge	access to accurate, detailed personal feelings; ability to discriminate among them and draw on them to guide behavior; knowledge of personal strengths, weaknesses, desires, and levels within types of intelligence
1Listed as musical by Gordner and Hatch (1989:6) 2Added by the author. Abilities to work in two dimensions such as drafting, drawing, painting and weaving cloth are notably different from those of wood carving, sculpting, carpentry, or tool making. Highly related to abilities to work in three dimensions, the ability to make transformations from two to three dimensions is different than ability to transform from three or more to two.

These types provide dimensions along which a person may be evaluated. An individual may be perceived as existing at some zone, a cloud, within an 8-dimensional hypervolume. An alternative perception is that each person can be positioned in a tetrahedron represented by extremely closely related pairs of these concepts, each representing a continuum. The pairs do not seem forced. For example, the linguistic-audial pair may reflect areas of high correlation in measured abilities or at least where sums of these paired scores may suggest dominance over other types within an individual. All are potentially relate, however, as suggested by the lines between the topics as well as the suggested interplay along the green surface area, the triangle of the tetrahedron. The relation between dance and musical ability seems evident as is manual dexterity related to violin playing. Interpersonal abilities relate to team sport abilities; logical developments relate to linguistic ability; spatial skills are essential for the mathematician. While the superior human may exist at the center of this tetrahedron, it is likely that most people exist in one corner, perhaps only at one point or small zone on one of the eight types. From these elementary observations, the following seem meaningful:

1. The concept of intelligence (as measured by IQ or other related indices) can be discarded and replaced with types of intelligence.
2. Measures of logical-mathemetical type intelligence can aid in predicting or explaining success in conventional schools.
3. There are other intelligences needing measurement and prediction and explanation. Knowledge of the types and indices to them can probably be useful.
4. The analyses can aid in achieving higher indices in the eight types of intelligence (in contrast to grouping them).
5. In selecting people to work in environmental system management, diverse abilities are needed. It is likely that selection on the basis of types of intelligence to achieve specified needs can be effective.
6. Selection of individuals for employment in natural resource work should be to achieve highest levels of intelligence of all eight types. Not likely acquired, temporary groups may suffice. Their selection or that of individuals needs to be made to achieve stated objectives for that will be in the best interest of the environment and people dependent upon it.

References

Gordner, H and T. Hatch. 1989. Multiple intelligences go to school: educational implications of the theory of multiple intelligences. Educational Researcher 18(8):4 - 10.

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision July 1, 2004.