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Mike Mansour, 70, is a 43-year director and sole employee of the Hawk Woods Nature Center, in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Mansour taught science at Page Middle School in Madison Heights, Michigan and Harrington Elementary School, in Pontiac, Michigan.

Early and Personal Life
Mansour grew up in South Dakota, and spent much of his time exploring around the Missouri River. Mansour believes the freedom to explore gave him a passion for learning and outdoor education. After studying elementary education at Oakland University, Mansour taught science at Page Middle School in Madison Heights, Michigan and Harrington Elementary School, in Pontiac, Michigan. In his first year of teaching at Harrington, he organized the school’s first Earth Day, which the school still celebrates. Shortly after arriving in Pontiac, Mansour became the head of outdoor education for the district, and the director of Hawk Woods.

Hawk Woods Nature Center
Mansour has seen funding for nature programs like his cut often since the 1970s. Mansour says that volunteers, like Casey and David, are significant to programs like his that “are not seen as critical by the city and municipal government.” Mansour is a Boy Scout merit badge counselor, and the nature center is a site Eagle Scouts projects. Hawk Woods has just a $2,000 budget for events and improvements each year. Brian Marzolf, director of parks and recreation for the city of Auburn Hills says, “no matter the lack of funding for environment programs, (Mansour) continues to reach out to the community and schools.”

Environmental Education
In many school districts around the nation, environmental education happens inside the classroom, due to lack of funding for fieldtrips, and more stringent requirements for testing performance. Los Angeles Times writer, Seema Mehta, surveyed teachers from across the country and found that “sixty percent of teachers…reported decreased funding for field trips.” Mansour believes this is due to a decrease in the perceived value of “exploratory education.” A father of four, science teacher of 36 years, and nature center direcot, Mansour, 70, has seen first-hand how environmental education has changed into a classroom education since he was began teaching science in 1969.

In a 2008 study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Illinois-Chicago researchers Oliver Pergams and Patricia Zaradic reported an 18-25% decline in time spent outdoors for all ages since the late 1980s. The study concluded that less interest in outdoors nature activities could has translated to less support for national parks and wildlife conservation. Mansour has seen a dramatic decline that he has seen in participation in outdoor education since he began at Hawk Woods, when he would have 4,000 kids visiting each year. Hawk Woods now goes for weeks at a time without classes visiting.

The call for assessment-based education in schools has caused teachers to become less creative in the classroom rather than using summers as an “exploration and an enrichment of their professional development,” Mansour says. Arnie Calhon, Mansour’s neighbor of 15 years, said, “Mike never stops learning—he takes his summers to go to China to study bears, and Brazil for bees.”

At the root of the environmental education problem, though, is a lack of adult involvement in outdoor education. “My grandkids all love being outdoors when they come here because Mike is always over showing them something new and exciting—they need an influence like that,” said Calhon. Not only are adults not going outdoors, but they are passing that on to the next generation. A 2010 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that the average American child is looking at an electronic screen for eight hours per day—two hours more per day than a similar 2005 study.