PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Papers (150)-- Viewpoints

Two studies of the development of children's moral relationships with nature addressed such questions as: (1) What does it mean to say that we have an obligation not to harm the natural environment? (2) Does the natural environment feel pain? (3) Does it have rights? or (4) Is moral obligation an inappropriate construct by which to understand the poral relation of humans with nature? In one study, 60 children in grades 2, 5, and 8 were interviewed about the Prince William Sound Oil Spill. In a second study, 72 children in grades 1, 3, and 5 in an impoverished inner-city black community were interviewed on their conceptions of and values about nature. The preliminary findings from these studies provide evidence for several overarching ways in which children reason about the natural environment: (1) homocentric reasoning, in which an appeal is made to the child's understanding of how the action of one person or;rou