Page 33 - 2018_Jour_85-1_Societal-Issues

Schools and Societal Issues 33

that is highly contentious. The teachers looked at a public policy that brought various
groups into conflict with each other, states, or the federal government. The availability of
water determines who can build, ranch, farm, or engage in industry.
Some of the controversies explored came down to competing philosophies involving
the concepts of conservation or preservation. These ideas emerged before the turn of
the last century and competed for adherents across the twentieth century. One educator
reported,
I learned the difference between conservation and preservation and that Theodore
Roosevelt and John Muir were the leaders behind these two principles. Also, I was
happy to find out the difference between the different federal land management
agencies and what their roles were. (Philip, personal correspondence, March 23,
2018)
Conservation as promoted by Roosevelt was
the desire to have a supply of a resource such Teachers need help in
as timber; a well-managed forest would always
be able to provide timber to cut for lumber as finding quality experiences
opposed to using all the lumber today and having and meeting new people in
nothing for the future. The contending idea of
preservation as promoted by John Muir was that new situations to practice
some things were unique and valuable and thus
needed to remain unspoiled for the future. These democratic education and
are not the same ideas, and tension between them find social justice in the
prompted public policy debates from Roosevelt’s
administration to the present. public schools.
Teachers thought about their own experiences
as a continuum between extraction and attraction.
Extraction consisted of removing natural resources such as mining, minerals, or timber
harvest and leaving the left over. Attraction consisted of enticing people to come and visit
the land for the purposes of natural wonder, recreation, and relaxation:
Extraction v. attraction. I am very familiar with both aspects but had never really
taken the time to break it down in such a way. Initially, extraction of nature
resources was the main focus of the western lands. Today, millions of people
visit the land to take in the natural beauty of what the areas have to offer. (Ryan,
personal correspondence, March 23, 2018)
Living in an area where mining and tourism are still economic options, people in Ryan’s
area are making that same choice today. Mining is still an option in some areas of the West,
but more communities look toward the economic stimulus of visitors bringing tourist
dollars. The economy of the West needs to run on an extraction or attraction basis.
For the secondary level teachers, the interaction between the economy and the
environment was a big issue. Tinkering with one part triggered a reaction in the other.
One participant said, “The delicate balance between the economy and the environment
was something I had not thought much about—but I certainly will now!” (Jayne, personal
correspondence, March 23, 2018). The issues of water, wildlife, and land use all interrelated
and impacted the quality of life for the culture of the people in the area. The interactions
between extraction and attraction and the economy and the environment led people to
make careful decisions about what they would select for a future. The teachers carried
the interaction of culture with each of these issues of land policy, tropic cascade, water,
conservation and preservation, extraction and attraction, economy, and the environment