Campus Ecology: A Class in Practical Idealism
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| Elise Braaten, '04 leading a Campus Ecology course |
We cannot begin to know ourselves until we can see the real reasons why we do the things we do, and we cannot be ourselves until our actions correspond to our intentions, and our intentions are appropriate to our own situation. —Thomas Merton
Campus Ecology is a team-taught interdisciplinary class that explores the nature of our lives-both the nature of Manitou Heights, with its Midwestern landscape, and the nature that comes to campus every day in trucks, pipes, and wires. Through reading, writing, research and conversation, we cultivate a sense of place, as we set our own campus ecology in conversation with the moral ecology of everyday life. And we evaluate the resources (both natural and cultural) that we have for living the good life (and maybe even a better life) at this college.
The class studies what the college teaches us about the environment, in and out of the classroom. Paying attention to the common things we ordinarily take for granted-showers and drinking fountains, sidewalks and parking lots, hamburgers and French fries, beer and booze, books and paper, computers and condoms, lawns and potted plants, prairies and wetlands-we explore the invisible complexity of the college, looking for the natural sources of our food and water, our heat and electricity, our books and clothes and computers. We also consider the cultural resources we consume, from advertising and television to religion and politics. In the process, we hope to discover what we value (personally and culturally) and why. We think twice about the American environmental values and practices implicit in our everyday lives. And we learn how the habits of our hearts affect the way we in-habit this place on earth.
In this class on practical idealism, we also learn how to make history by making ourselves at home in this place. During the semester, we use our designing minds to make St. Olaf more sustainable. We also study new forms of ecological design for a sustainable planet, and we practice the rhetoric and the politics of environmental change. In short, we learn to live lightly on the earth, both on campus and in the places we inhabit after graduation.
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