Douglas

Stoneman Douglas 

When reading the nature of the everglades, I felt as if I would know everything he was about to say. Growing up in Florida you always hear about the everglades, in school and out of school. We learn about the animals, how the everglades came about and how we need to better preserve them. As I began reading I already started to learn new things, even from the very first line, "There are no other everglades in the world." I did not even realize how important it would be to preserve the everglades until that line came about, we have the only one in the world. Other things came up early on that I was shocked I did not know "The everglades begin at Lake Okeechobee.” Later through the book, I enjoyed reading about the animals but most of all the panthers. “The pale colored lithe beautiful panthers that feed on deer,” I knew that the Florida panther roamed around our state, but I didn’t realize they would wonder into the everglades. The animals that spark my mind about the everglades are of course, alligators, snakes, fish, and birds, nothing about big cats and panthers are just one of these cats, the everglades also have wildcats! Though this section was a little longer than the others, I enjoyed reading and learning about my state and the everglades.

coyotes-wolves-cougars.blogspot.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades

Leopold

Aldo Leopold 

After going through Leopold's The Land Ethic, it had me thinking at the end whether or not I enjoyed his writing. With me not being a strong reader and not knowing certain words, his writing made me second guess myself on what I just read or made me go back and re read the sentence entirety. Even though he had a couple of words that through me off, I was intrigued from the start. "When God-like Odysseus returned from the wars in Troy, he hanged all on one rope a dozen slave-girls of his household whom he suspected of misbehavior during his absence (Leopold 58)." That sentence right there is a ballsy but eye catching statement that makes the reader want to continue on. He held my attention for the most part because of all the historically references he made, and to a history major that is all we need. It makes me wonder if he did a deep research of all the historically documented things he mentioned or if he too is a history major and just knew them. He ranges all the way from Odysseus, Ezekiel, and Isiah to parts of the revolutionary war. Land ethic changes the role of humans from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. Leopold gives an example, "the settlement of the Mississippi valley (Leopold 61)." What if American settlers never concord the land? What if the English and Indians won that? Would there have been a civil war? These are the questions Leopold was asking and they are all so good. If America settlers never tried to or even succeed at conquering the Mississippi valley, what would have happened. 

After hearing about all of this, Leopold finishes out with something that made me a little upset, but he may be right. He states, "He has no vital reaction to it: to him it is space between cities on which crop grows (Leopold 74)."  Here he is talking about my generation and how the education systems are headed away from teaching us how to respect the land. All in all, the reading was okay, he made some really good points, and then some that made me give him a nasty face. I kinda compared him to a really well known speaker in the Christian world, John Piper. He uses really big words, and leads me in all different directions, but gives amazing examples. 

Richard Louv

I did not find many quotes from Richard Louv himself, but the main person I kept agreeing with was the newly graduated teacher. She stated that "With all of the testing in schools there is no time for physical education, let alone exploring the outdoors." Louv tells us that in the United States, the local school boards have pushed for higher test scores to creating a better America. nearly 40 percent of American elementary schools either eliminated or were considering eliminating recess all together to help promote the higher test scores. To me and this newly graduated teacher, this was outrageous and unacceptable. I have been to Germany twice, one through the foreign exchange program and the other to visit the family I stayed with before. My first time to Germany I attended school with my exchange partner, Fabio. School over in Germany is very different from America. They maintain high test scores, have about 8 or 9 classes a semester, but go through them in blocks. With all this being said, Fabio had Physical education or "recess" every single day. The Germans noticed, same as the new teacher did, that the outside, in an open field will better the students, instead of keeping them locked up in a classroom the whole time.

Now studies have shown that nature may be a useful as a therapy for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). These kids are just as smart or can ever be smarter than those without a disorder. If this therapy works than we could not take out recess or physical education at all. Louv did bring up some very good thoughts later in his writing about being outside even if your not a student. But this part in the beginning really stood out to me.

Lex Krautheim