Lessons From Mowgli: Wildness and the Need for Eco-Pedagogical Education

• In Event: 46.053 - The Disney Curriculum: Pedagogies of Being and Buying

Abstract

The story of Mowgli the man-cub, raised by wolves and mentored by a bear and panther, thrilled and captivated my childhood imagination. I still feel a familiar tingle of exhilaration as I imagine such a life: sleeping in trees, snacking on ants, facing my mortality in the eyes of a hungry tiger. In short, Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967) evokes a sense of wildness that I feel warrants closer examination. This essay presents a hermeneutic analysis of The Jungle Book with attention to the film’s depictions of wildness. In defining this term I refer to Turner’s (1998) helpful distinction between wildness and the related concept of wilderness; Hatley’s (2004) unforgettable meditation on wildness as awareness of one’s edibility to bears; and seminal works of Thoreau (2008), Muir (1954), Abbey (1968), and Berry (1987). My analysis considers the film’s stirring representations of nature’s beauty and mystery and its revelations of humankind’s kinship with all living things. At the same time, I address the distortions and inadequacies of Disney’s romanticized and anesthetized depictions of nature. Finally, I discuss how the dominant themes of the second half of the film contribute to a problematic view of “the natural and the human [as] two separate estates, radically different and radically divided” (Berry, 1987, p. 6).

My argument is that, for better or worse, The Jungle Book successfully capitalizes on our need for wildness that, in our present condition, we are unable to satisfy through more natural means. I believe this is a problem that curriculum must address. The approaches I suggest represent a radical departure from our current systems of education, yet they are rooted in conceptions of progressive education tracing back to Dewey (1958). Drawing upon the ecopedagogical essays of David Jardine (1998; 2000) and the more recent work of authors such as Hensley (2011) and Saylan and Blumstein (2011), I call for educators and scholars alike to work toward development of curriculum that provides opportunities for encounters with wildness, helping to alleviate what Louv (2005) calls nature deficit disorder, while cultivating organic perception and a sense of responsibility for preserving the wildness that remains in our world.

Author

• Caleb Steindam, Loyola University Chicago