Outdoor education, pedagogia dell'ambiente, ecologia della scuola

[Autom. eng. transl.] Placing the school in relation to ecological thinking means talking about it with reference to the territory, to ecosystems, to the "common home" which is the Earth. This does not imply placing it in a geographical area, in something separate from it, but rather referring it to the community, to a set of social subjects, institutions, traditions, which form a living environment, a network of relationships, where individuals and groups of people, by virtue of their dignity, should manage its material and immaterial resources responsibly and consciously. If everything is related, even the state of health of the school and of society has consequences for the environment and for the quality of human life. In the era of distance learning and artificial intelligence, talking about an education in the open air beyond conventional spaces may seem out of date and not in line with the needs of the younger generations. In continuity with what Aldo Leopold recalled over half a century ago, it can be argued that «the educational system is far away rather than oriented towards an intense awareness of the Earth». In a world that increasingly imprisons human beings between walls and borders, it is necessary to reconnect with nature, in an interactional relationship between the natural and human environment. Nature is not a luxury for the few, it is our common home, experienced in an authentic way, it becomes life lived, between pleasures and joys, an opportunity for education of the senses and the meaning of living.