Creating Sustainable Communities
by Jean Berthiaume

We asked Jean Berthiaume, Social Studies/History teacher at Harwood Union High School in Vermont, to describe for Community Works Journal his ninth-grade course called “Creating Sustainable Communities.” The course is closely tied to his state’s Framework of Standards, and we found it an inspiring example of how to help students understand the complex issues of sustainability and environmental stewardship. As a culminating activity that demonstrates their learning, students take on an issue of importance to them and begin to involve their community.



Creating Sustainable Communities is a ninth-grade civics course that addresses the basic responsibilities of the individual in his/her community.
Community is identified from the local to the global level. Sustainable communities meet the needs of the present while ensuring that future generations will be able to meet their needs. The class focuses on citizenship and responsibility toward those resources we have in common, including our environment, economy, and human rights. Topics of study include, but are not limited to, the protection of the environment/animal rights, land use practices, basic principles of an economy, role and responsibility of government, analysis of global issues and the protection of human rights.



Thinking About and Affecting the Future
Students at Harwood Union High School have two options in choosing a Social Studies course when they begin their freshmen year; both teach about civic responsibility. One course is entitled “Democracy” and focuses on ancient Athens and Rome and the birth of democracy; the other is entitled “Creating Sustainable Communities” and focuses on more contemporary issues that teach about active citizenship in our local and global community.


Creating Sustainable Communities captures the mind through imagining the world that could be if we all make sustainable choices. Students are introduced to the abstract concept of sustainability through the eyes of The Lorax by Dr. Suess. The Lorax teaches students the importance of revisiting children’s literature, which often holds deeper, more complex meaning as one grows older. The fable is about how the destructive “Onceler” ignored the warnings of the Lorax and destroyed the truffala trees to manufacture “thneeds.” When all the natural resources were used up, the Lorax gives this message: “Unless someone like you cares an awful lot, nothing is going to get better.” The lesson of the Lorax is combined with the study of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Students are able to associate Maslow’s five needs to the story— now a shared class experience.


Perspectives on Land Use and Act 250
The course then teaches some Native American perspectives on land use practices and leads to an essential question: How ought man to live on this earth? Students use their newly acquired information in their study of Act 250 (Vermont’s comprehensive environmental impact law). Act 250 allows students to experience and learn about choices that are made within a community. Vermont’s land use law teaches students that we all live downstream. The learning activity for Act 250 consists of students working collaboratively in groups of four to assess the needs of their particular community, selecting one need to focus on, and then fulfilling that need by choosing a development site and creating a blueprint of their proposed development. Students work hard on their proposals as they prepare to present their work to a panel of “planning commission members” for approval. Students participate as both a developer and a planning commission member. They learn the need to examine many considerations before anything is built, and they understand that selfish interests must be put in check.


Issues of Land Development
Students then study sprawl as a continuation of land use and development. The topic of development is further explored through a wonderful video entitled: Earth and the American Dream. The video begins with the arrival of Columbus and traces America’s development through the basic wilderness life of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the agrarian lifestyle of the eighteenth century, and the great changes of the Industrial Revolution. The film moves through the twentieth century into the highly industrialized landscape of today, in which manufacturing and commerce have consumed many of the planet’s resources. What was once regarded as progress has become a legacy of wildlife destruction, deforestation, soil depletion and pollution. After viewing the film, students turn an entire bulletin board into a timeline called “Earth and Humans: The American Dream?”



Issues of limited resources and land become apparent to students. Students go on to study a unit on population and concerns related to a rapidly growing population. One learning activity consists of cutting up an apple representing the earth, to help students grasp the amount of land available to support human and animal life; another is mapping human stress in obtaining natural resources such as water and crop land around the world. The culminating assessment for this unit is a population scrapbook in which students need to find newspaper, magazine, or Internet articles pertaining to population or the effects of population growth or change. Topics must be diverse and could include the following: Deforestation, Commercial and Residential Development, Wildlife/Biodiversity, Waste Disposal or Pollution, Status of Women, Hunger, Housing, Energy Shortages, and so on. Students support each article they find with a paragraph summary and an explanation of how the article relates to population or community sustainability.




Reading Ishmael
To raise another essential question about the human role on earth, we examine the question, “How do we behave toward and relate with the earth?” Students spend two to three weeks reading a book together called Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. Ishmael teaches us to ask questions that often are ignored, questions that force us to reflect on how humans continue to try and conquer or dominate the natural world. The book begins with a classified ad that simply says, “Teacher seeks student with desire to save the world.” The teacher is then revealed to be a gorilla and the student remains, purposefully, nameless through out the book. Students become that character! The book is taught using a variation of the Socratic method and Critical Thinking Questions (CTQ) in responding to literature. Students maintain a journal and develop a cover that reflects their experience with the book.



The Economics of Sustainability Students then move on to study economic sustainability and the distribution of natural resources. This section seeks to show students the interrelationships between sustainability and factors such as income, poverty, educational attainment, empowerment, international trade, and population growth. In addition, students study developed and developing countries and the factors that influence a person’s ability to meet basic needs. One unit is called “Material World” and uses a beautiful book put out by the Sierra Club called Material World. Students are assigned to a country of their choosing and create a visual of what life is like in their country, imagining themselves to be one of its citizens; they then establish a pen pal relationship with someone here in Vermont describing a day in their lives. This is often an eye-opener for many students!


The Philosophy of Human Rights “Human Rights” is the final section of study for the Creating Sustainability Communities course. In this section, students continue to build on previously learned lessons and are able to tie it all together. Students begin by philosophizing with the help of the sixteenth-century philosopher John Locke and the State of Nature. They focus on two essential questions: What is the role and purpose of government? Is there a need for government? In one learning activity, students create a children’s book version of the State of Nature and the establishment of government. In addition, students become familiar with the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights and then identify human rights issues around the world and how governments have failed to protect basic human rights. Students then choose human rights issues to study as a class. Some units of study have been The Holocaust, Gandhi, Rwanda, Japanese Internment, and Native Americans.



The Peace and Justice Center To culminate the course students have to demonstrate their learning. The last three to four weeks are devoted to project initiatives that work towards a sustainable community. Here at Harwood, students and two faculty members—Deb Ormsbee and Jean Berthiaume—have created a Peace and Justice Center.


The PJC is an extension of our classroom and will become a center of active and continual learning for all grades and the many lessons of CSC. Students are beginning clubs such as an Environmentalist group, an animal rights group, a Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA), Amnesty International, and so forth. The PJC is the umbrella under which students can educate our school community on many diverse issues. Students are currently establishing a newsletter so that all groups and interest have a voice. We are just beginning, but have great hopes and aspirations for the future!