The Good Human » Children

Going Green Has Never Been So Fun!

david — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:30:13 +0000

One of the first steps to caring for our environment is getting to know and love it. For those of us who grew up playing outside until the street lights came on, this is not such an alien concept. That said, those days are gone and many kids today are missing out on the opportunities that help foster the connection to nature and help them connect with the world we live in.

Before we ask kids to save the world, we have to give them the chance to get to know it for the shear beauty and wonder of it. To dig in the dirt, climb trees, sleep under the stars, and wade in creeks. Kids need to know the feeling of grass under their feet, sand between their toes, and the joy of watching birds, squirrels, and butterflies. They need to think of the planet as something to love and cherish, versus simply something to save.

Protecting the planet starts with one simple step: playing outdoors! Not only are there countless health, educational, developmental, and emotional benefits to outdoor play, but it is the first step on the road to going green. Simply put, you cannot save what you do not know. It’s time to give kids the chance to know this beautiful planet we live on.

A great way to help bring play back to your community and to the lives of children and adults alike is to host a Play Day the week of September 19 -27th. This event can be whatever you choose to celebrate play and get your community outside!

Why not…

Sponsor a community toy swap and park clean-up
Host a family nature hike, fishing derby, or canoe trip
Have a geocaching or letterboxing event
Have a community garden day or a scavenger hunt that challenges families to explore the parks and trails in your community

KaBOOM! can help. Our Play Day Planner will walk you through the steps of planning a successful event in your community. Click here to register your Play Day today, and get started on bringing fun and play back to your community. Join people nation-wide as the celebrate play and connect with nature.

Bethe Almeras writes The Grass Stain Guru, a blog about restoring childhood, and saving ourselves in the process. She is the DIY Online Community/Communications Manager for KaBOOM!

Post from: The Good Human

Going Green Has Never Been So Fun!

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Lessons For Children And Families Going Green.

david — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:30:05 +0000

Dear EarthTalk: What are some things that children and families can do to be greener (and to provide life lessons for the kids in the process)?

There are many ways to be green around the family that are sure to rub off on the littler ones in your midst—if they don’t beat you to it, that is.

With environmental awareness so widespread among younger people in our society, most kids have learned more about being green from their school teachers and camp counselors than we adults might have gleaned in a lifetime. For one, the environmental “Three R’s”—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—are followed at many schools nowadays. But just because your kids might hear about it at school doesn’t mean that it is sinking in, and that’s where you come in. By reinforcing such messages at home and on outings—and leading by example—you can be certain that today’s ‘tweens will be tomorrow’s greens.

If you don’t know where to start, look for the metaphorical low-hanging fruit: recycling. Learn what types of items your city or town accepts for recycling and sort accordingly. Teach your kids what goes into the recycling bin, and put them in charge. In many locales, residents must pay for trash hauling but not for recyclables, so diverting more of your waste stream to recycling will also leave more money in your wallet for those outings to the ice cream truck and toy store. Also, raid your recycling bin when the kids want to make arts and crafts; reusing materials for creative endeavors is about as green as you can get.

Another way to teach kids about being green is by talking about the foods we eat, where they come from, and the environmental impact our food choices have. No one wants to cause pollution or eat chemicals, kids included, so sourcing your food from local and organic sources when possible—and explaining why to your children—will benefit not only their development but the health of the Earth as well. Many vegetarians have chosen to avoid meat for environmental reasons, and should make sure their kids know why so they can make informed choices for their own diets accordingly when it’s their turn to decide.

Exploring the outdoors near or far with the family is also a great way to teach kids about appreciating and respecting nature and its wild plant and animal inhabitants. Any tidbits of knowledge you might have about the natural history of the place you’re visiting will be eagerly absorbed and remembered by the kids.

Richard Louv underscores the importance of fostering a connection between children and nature in his book, Last Child in the Woods. In it, Louv traces the evolution of a phenomenon he calls “nature deficit disorder,” whereby kids raised on a steady diet of video games and junk food may not turn into the great stewards of the outdoors we might hope for. His solution? Get them off the couch and into nature, where they will surely be wowed by what they encounter.

Last Child in the Woods has inspired dozens of “Leave No Child Inside” initiatives around the U.S. since its 2005 publication, and Louv has gone on to found the Children & Nature Network, which works with upwards of 50 regional groups across the U.S. that offer programs connecting children and nature. Parents can find events and activities near them via the group’s free online interactive “movement map.”

CONTACT: Children & Nature Network, www.childrenandnature.org.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php. EarthTalk is now a book! Details and order information at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalkbook.

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Lessons For Children And Families Going Green.

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Set An Example Of Planetary Stewardship For Your Kids.

david — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:30:19 +0000

When it comes to kids, leading by example is the best way to teach them. We have all seen the studies about how many kids grow up to repeat their parents’ lives, for both good and bad, and it’s up to parents to set a good example of planetary stewardship for their kids. If they see that you don’t care much for the earth you depend on for life, how do you think they will behave when faced with choices in the future? Will they remember seeing you recycle your plastics and your use of nontoxic cleaners, or will they remember watching you pour motor oil in the yard and putting aluminum cans in the bags going to the landfill? They start to learn by your example, and it is a duty you must take seriously.

It’s up to you, as a parent, to teach them that:

The planet is for everyone and no one should take more than their fair share.
Future generations will need to live here, so we should clean up after ourselves.
Everything we put down the drain, in the toilet, or in the landfill ends up in our drinking water eventually. Explain the process of wastewater and aquifers and why we don’t put toxic ingredients or pharmaceuticals down the drain.
Healthy, natural, organic foods are better for them, the farmers, and for the planet than those grown using toxic fertilizers and pesticides.
The choices we make and our day to day behavior can negatively affect people around the world, so choose wisely.
Electricity doesn’t just show up in the house in an endless supply – explain where it comes from and why we need to reduce how much we use.
That there are millions of people who go hungry every day and who live in terribly unsanitary conditions, and who need our voice to speak up for them whenever we can.

photo credit: mikebaird

That list could go on and on and on…but you get the gist of it. It is up to all parents, and all adults, to teach environmental stewardship to our kids. Every generation from here on out will have an increasingly more aware and vested stake in what happens to our planet, so we need to do right by them. I don’t even have kids – but if I did, you could bet on the fact that I would be teaching them all this information that I know and live every day. Even when I watch friends’ kids, we talk about the environment…because their parents already started teaching them about it! They know about the polar bears and the melting sea ice – at 4 years old. And because they already know a little, they turn off the lights behind them and they don’t leave the water running when they brush their teeth. Every little bit helps – but it’s up to us to help them get there.

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Set An Example Of Planetary Stewardship For Your Kids.

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What Is Schooling For?

david — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:30:08 +0000

This is a guest post from Zoe Weil, author of Most Good, Least Harm.

I’ve spent over two decades in the field of education, first as a visiting humane educator who has brought issues of social justice, environmental preservation, animal protection, and culture to tens of thousands of students in secondary schools and colleges, and now, as the president of the Institute for Humane Education, where we train people to be humane educators through an M.Ed. and certificate program in humane education, workshops, online courses, books, and resources at our website: www.HumaneEducation.org.

As an “alternative” educator – someone teaching about topics not generally covered in the standard U.S. curricula – and as a teacher who has visited many kinds of schools, I’ve got lots of opinions about the current system of schooling, including critiques of homework, grades, disconnected subject matter, bells, rote learning, teacher training, standardized testing, textbooks, unhealthy school buildings and cafeteria food, and more. But my strongest beliefs about education – and my current life’s mission – revolves around answering one simple question: what is schooling for?

I believe that it’s time to shift the purpose of schooling from the narrow goal of educating for existing jobs – whether as factory workers or business owners, farmers or engineers, nurses or physicists – and expand our vision of what schooling can and should achieve. I believe we must educate young people so that they have the skills and desire to re-imagine and re-create systems in business, food production, construction, healthcare, transportation, law, politics, energy, etc., so that these new systems are healthy, humane, sustainable, just, and peaceful. We must provide students, in age appropriate ways, with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to become conscious choicemakers and engaged changemakers for a peaceful, sustainable, and humane world for all.

We can see the potentially catastrophic results of current systems in the prevalence of sweatshops and escalating slave labor, poverty, global warming, pollution, resource depletion, species extinction, institutionalized animal cruelty, and so on, but we have failed to teach our students, at least in any committed, systematic way, about these issues. Nor have we prepared them to solve these problems through their future work and careers or their engagement in democracy, volunteerism, and activism.

Imagine that instead of preparing students to simply find jobs, we prepared them for their roles as solutionaries in these jobs. We will certainly need people working in production and business, growing food and building structures, keeping us healthy and advancing technologies, but imagine if these “workers” were taught and inspired to revitalize and revolutionize their fields so that they did the most good and the least harm – what I call the MOGO (most good) principle – for all.

Given the grave problems we face, shouldn’t we educate our children to play a role in solving pressing challenges? Given the extraordinary qualities we humans possess, shouldn’t we provide an education to our children worthy of their imaginations, hopes, and intelligence?

I welcome your thoughts and your ideas for making such a paradigm shift in the purpose of education take hold.

Zoe Weil is the President of the Institute for Humane Education and author of Most Good, Least Harm, The Power and Promise of Humane Education, Above All, Be Kind, and Claude and Medea.

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What Is Schooling For?

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