Learn how to foster change by telling, experiencing, and inventing fairy tales and stories. ZERI's tales and stories integrate academic knowledge, emotional intelligence,
the arts, and ecoliteracy so that children learn to see, dream, envision, and eventually design in systems.
Starting with reading and then writing stories in the early grades, the program becomes a sequence of learning adapted to each age group. Older students will also see how to make "waste" work in local business and industry. They will understand relationships in nature, the economy, community structures, and global connections from a systems perspective. Finally they will be able to design systems by understanding and working in parallel with nature. The ZERI Educational Initiative was developed by Gunter Pauli, director and founder of the ZERI Foundation. ZERI activities are designed to achieve environmental, economic, social, and cultural systainability. We do not force nature to produce more, we do more with what nature provides. To find out more about ZERI, visit www.zeri.org.
Photo: Miguel Santistevan, ZERI graduate and Masters in Ecology, head of Youth Development at the Penasco High school and Gunter Pauli speak to over 100 students and teachers, 2002.
The ZERI Educational Initiative has been endorsed by the Center for Ecoliteracy, the Center for Environmental Education, the Nueva School, the Antioch New England Graduate School of Environmental Education, and ecoliteracy professor David Orr. The Zeri Educational Initiative is practiced successfully internationally, including in Brazil, Colombia, England, Italy, Japan, and Nigeria. New Mexico is the first state in the US to introduce this program in public schools.
Sustainable Communities/ZERI-NM is a public 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
This page was last updated on May 28, 2004
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Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs are © 2001-2004 Lynda Taylor.