Features

EYFS Best Practice: All about ... education for sustainable development

Education for Sustainable Development is becoming an essential part of the early years agenda. Professor John Siraj-Blatchford explains its
importance and shares some examples of practice

It is more than 50 years since Rachel Carson's massively influential book Silent Spring was published in 1962. This was a text that more than any other stimulated the initial development of a modern environmental movement.

In Silent Spring, Carson wrote about the child's world as being full of wonder and excitement, and said she felt sad that these 'true instincts' of childhood for natural beauty were so often lost before adulthood.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is now high on the international agenda and ESD is seen as a way to encourage greater sustainable consumption and production, to counter the effects of climate change, address threats to biodiversity and provide more effective disaster risk reduction. As the Swahili proverb reminds us: 'You must treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It is loaned to you by your children.' (Itunze arthi vyema; hukupewana wazazi; bali umekopeshwa na wazao wako.)

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