Sukkot and "Silent Spring" - Ronnie Brockman

The latest entry from the blog of Ronnie Brockman, our early childhood educator.

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the book Silent Spring from the "nun of nature" as Rachel Carson was called. Let's give thanks for a book that spawned the modern environmental movement, and rang some much needed alarm bells for our impact on nature and ourselves.

Why write about Rachel Carson in a blog talking about best practices for young children.  After all, Rachel Carson was a scientist.  She grew up loving the outdoors.  She studied to be a writer and scientist while she was in college.  In 1936, she became the first woman scientist in the Department of Fisheries.  She was not a teacher, nor was she a teacher trainer.  She was, though interested in making the world a better place for our children.

In 1962, Carson published the book SILENT SPRING, and with it the environmental movement was born. The book was written to raise awareness of the great harm that synthetic chemical pesticides had on the environment. It took great courage for Carson to speak out against the agriculture and chemical industries. But she firmly believed that we as human beings are just as vulnerable to the toxic pesticides we spray on our fields, homes and trees as the insects themselves are. In defending her book, Rachel Carson stated: “We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven’t become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of a vast and incredible universe. Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature.”

Why write about a Rachel Carson in a blog talking about best practices for young children?

 “If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.” -Rachel Carson

That’s Why!