Newswise — When Williams College invited Thomas C. Jorling to return as a Visiting Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies (http://www.williams.edu/CES/), the retired educator, government administrator and corporate executive knew he would find major changes in the classroom after 20 years away from college teaching.
Interviewed this fall at his Kellogg House office on the Williams College campus, Jorling said, "I was more apprehensive now than I was back when I first began teaching in 1972. Part of that is because the expectations of students, faculty, and the institution are very different now with respect to everything that's encompassed in the electronic revolution."
He was prepared for big changes involving the arrival of high-tech teaching tools in the classroom when he agreed to teach the Introduction to Environmental Studies lecture course to 49 students, mostly first year students. But he also told the college he would prohibit laptops, Blackberries, and similar devices in the classroom because "when they're in a wireless environment, they're all over the world." He encountered no opposition from students or from the college to his requirement.
Jorling, a Cincinnati native who's now 67, served as the director of Environmental Studies at Williams College from 1972 to 1977 after a stint as minority counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee for Public Works. He headed New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation and worked as assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov/), returning once before to Williams from 1980 to 1986. He spent 10 years as vice-president for environmental affairs at International Paper, retiring in 2004.
Another change, he noted, stems from the students' access to "an unbelievable amount of information, instantly." The major challenge is helping students sort through the deluge of information available electronically. He's concerned about an "attention-span issue" - students are accustomed to a deluge of stimuli from different sources, leading them to require a rapid-fire approach in the classroom.
"I think there's a tendency to be too uncritical of the information flood; they tend to believe almost anything they read or gain access to," Jorling observed, although he pointed out that students arrive better-equipped with knowledge about the environment thanks to high-school courses.
When climate change comes up in the classroom, Jorling emphasizes that while scientific consensus has emerged on the dimensions of the problem, workable solutions are far more elusive. He cites the development of wind-power technology as a "very important part of the solution," part of a long list of alternative power sources, but opposes the use of nuclear energy to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.
"The key to it - and where we're stuck right now - is a social commitment to wean ourselves from fossil fuels," he said, citing a "substantial wing of the Democratic party" that's committed to clean coal technology (http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18398/) that requires a "huge new demand for energy, something like 20 percent more to operate cleanly."
But he foresees a bipartisan approach emerging on Capitol Hill to tackle the climate-change crisis; he has viewed the environmental movement as hampered by its close identification with the Democratic Party, an impediment to meaningful consensus in Congress.
Jorling says his teaching technique has not changed over the years. "Then, as now, I consider the basic objective of teaching as helping students to learn how to think seriously about a problem, not a right answer or wrong answer, but giving them the confidence that they can think through these things deeply and learn how to use the tools they have available."
He urges students to consider opposing views, not to demonize those who disagree; an example is a classroom exercise to think through why someone would support going slow on climate change.
"If there is a lesson that I've learned," Jorling explained, "it's that most people want to do the right thing, but they have a different history and a different perception of what the right thing is. They're not evil if they disagree with you."
Looking ahead, Jorling hopes to teach a seminar that would draw upon his experience in academia, government, and the private sector - "all of them have important roles...and they've all been rewarding."
Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college's 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students' educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student's financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.
To visit the college on the Internet: http://www.williams.edu
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