Pr he Anu BrO wes UL eer N 19 
New Aim for State Schools: To Get 
Conservation into Classrooms Regularly 
Various means to accelerate the teaching of conservation and environmental 
education subjects throughout the state are being explored, according to 
State Conservation Director Henry N. Barkhausen, who said a joint effort 
began in April with preliminary talks by representatives of the Illinois 
Wildlife Federation, the Wildlife Endowment Fund, the state Department 
of Conservation and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
“Two private and two state agencies have cosponsored winter con- 
servation workshops in the past, with cooperation of Southern Illinois 
University. The Department of Conservation has worked with the federa- 
tion in various summer workshop programs. But the present effort marks 
a unique, cooperative approach toward getting conservation education into 
the schools on a regular curriculum basis,” Barkhausen said. 
Initial discussion covered such topics as teacher instruction, curricula, 
environmental aspects in classrooms, the annual winter workshop at SIU, 
Carbondale, and the summer workshops at Western Illinois University, 
Macomb. 
Talks will be continued, with the forming of a framework for a state- 
wide program as an objective. 
The conservation workshops have been held annually in a series of 
weekly sessions for high school students through cooperation with various 
Illinois Universities and with use of their facilities and teaching staffs, 
with registration and promotion by the OSPI, instructors from the De- 
partment of Conservation, and scholarship backing by the Wildlife Federa- 
tion and its endowment fund. 
“This has been our project for a number of years, but we need man- 
datory conservation teaching, as provided by law, actually implemented 
into the classroom on a regular curriculum basis,” commented John Worth, 
Springfield, president of the Illinois Wildlife Federation. “The present 
joint effort marks the best way we can conceive of getting this done.” 
Need for more financial support to provide incentives for both teachers 
and students to attend the workshop sessions was stressed by Leonard 
Dishman, Skokie, president of the Endowment Fund. 
“Plans had been made to accommodate 400 students at last winter’s 
workshop at SIU,” explained Dishman, “and we could have taken care of 
up to 500 of them. But we had a total enrollment of only 296.” 
This was not due to a lack of students, commented Dishman, but sim- 
ply to a dearth of financing. The Illinois Wildlife Federation’s Endowment 
Fund sponsored 100 students, 57 paid their own way, and 139 were spon- 
sored by other groups and individuals, including a number of sportsmen’s 
clubs, women’s clubs, Jaycees, various service clubs and organizations, 
school districts, Izaak Walton groups, P.T.A. groups and others. 
“The week’s course costs only $50.” Dishman said. “In view of the 
fact that conservation and environmental education is such an important 
concern today, it would appear that there is a great need for public 
knowledge about these workshops and our Endowment Fund avenue 
of help.” 
