Joseph Bharat Cornell

{{Short description|American educator}}

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{{Redirect|Joseph Cornell (writer)|the artist and filmmaker|Joseph Cornell}}

Joseph Bharat Cornell (born September 2, 1950){{cite web |date=January 19, 2025 |title=Joseph Bharat Cornell |url= https://www.sharingnature.com/joseph-bharat-cornell.html |access-date=January 19, 2025 |website=SharingNature.com |publisher=Sharing Nature Worldwide}} is an American nature educator. His first book, Sharing Nature with Children, written in 1978, "helped to spark a revolution in nature education, and it soon became a classic."{{cite journal |last=Knapp |first=Clifford E. |date=Fall 2009 |title=An Interview With Joseph Cornell, Nature Educator |url= https://academyforeducationalstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2009completethrvol35no3.pdf |journal=Thresholds in Education |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=45–48}} It was translated into 15 languages with sales of half a million worldwide.{{cite web |url= http://www.dawnpub.com/our-authorsillustrators/joseph-cornell/ |title=Joseph Cornell |author= |date=2009 |website=DawnPub.com |publisher=Dawn Publications |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150924060539/http://www.dawnpub.com/our-authorsillustrators/joseph-cornell/ |archive-date=September 24, 2015}}{{cite web |url= http://www.acacamps.org/campmag/1109/creating-community-nature-interview-joseph-cornell |title=Creating Community Through Nature – An Interview with Joseph Cornell |author= |date= September 2011 |website=ACACamps.org |publisher=American Camp Association |access-date=August 8, 2013}}{{Independent source inline|date=January 2025|reason=Publishers, especially self-publishing operations, are not reliable sources for claims about their own sales records. If a third-party source cannot be found, then reducing this to "translated into 15 languages" would be fine, without the "half a million" claim.}}

In the field of nature education, Cornell has long been singled out as one of the most influential contributors worldwide. Among those who have so referred to Cornell are the French organization {{lang|fr|italic=unset|Les Anges Gardiens de la Planète}} (Guardian Angels of the Planet), calling him one of the “100 biggest opinion leaders committed to the environment”; the American Camp Association, calling him "a world-renowned naturalist, educator, and storyteller";{{cite web |date=November 1, 2018 |title=Inspired Learning Through Deep Nature Play |url= https://www.acacamps.org/article/camping-magazine/inspired-learning-through-deep-nature-play |access-date=January 21, 2025 |website=ACACamps.org |publisher=American Camp Association}} and the editor of Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education, calling him "one of the most inspiring nature educators today."{{cite journal |last=Yaple |first=Charles |date=2003 |title=Storytelling – An Interview with Joseph Cornell |url= https://digitalcommons.cortland.edu/taproot/vol14/iss1/3 |journal=Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=6 |publisher=Coalition for Education in the Outdoors |via=SUNY Cortland Digital Commons}}

In 1979, Cornell started the Sharing Nature Foundation – later renamed to Sharing Nature Worldwide – to help his work in promoting nature education. Although most of his publications and awards have been under his birth name of Joseph Cornell, when he received the Indian name Bharat as a spiritual name within his spiritual community, he began publishing with it as a middle name.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}}

Among the international awards he has received for his publications and activities in nature education are:

• recipient of an honorary award from the National Association for Interpretation "for his vast contribution in the field of natural science education";
• recipient of the Countess Sonja-Bernadotte Prize in Germany for his great influence on environmental education in Central Europe;
• selection as an honorary member of the Hungarian Society for Environmental Education –as one of three non-Hungarians along with David Attenborough and Jane Goodall –for "service as a role model for educators worldwide".{{cite web |date=January 20, 2025 |title=Mission and Aims of the Hungarian Society for Environmental Education (HSEE) |url= https://mkne.hu/en/ |access-date=January 20, 2025 |website=MKNE.hu |publisher=Magyar Környezeti Nevelési Egyësulet (Hungarian Society for Environmental Education)}}