Recommended Reading

Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities
by David Sobel
The Orion Society, 2004
ISBN: 0-913098-54-X

In the introduction, the author notes that "a significant transformation of education might begin with the effort to learn how events and processes close to home relate to regional, national, and global forces and events, leading to a new understanding of ecological stewardship and community.

Place-based education is about restoring the essential links between a person and his or her place. Projects related to this concept are now spreading across the country, adapting to and evolving from the uniqueness of each community. According to Sobel, "place-based education is not simply a way to integrate the curriculum around a study of place, but a means of inspiring stewardship and an authentic renewal and revitalization of civic life." This book offers a comprehensive review of place-based education and includes many practical examples from classrooms at all levels in a variety of areas throughout our country. In these classrooms students are learning about stewardship of the environment in ways that will affect their behavior throughout life.