Archive for May 29th, 2008
The Great Green Sixth Grade
May 29th, 2008
Okay, I have a deep dark secret to confess in these “green” times. We don’t recycle. I live in a rural area where we have no garbage pick up unless we pay for it. Which we do, we pay quarterly, and the disposal truck picks up our garbage once a week. He takes anything, in any container. I could leave my 15 year old by the cans and I swear Dave would throw him in the back of the truck. (Not that he’d go, but hey.)
I’ve been reading a ton about going green, I watch HGTV from time to time and see the buzz there, but I’ve not done anything about it.
Until now. Two of our educators, Candy Phillips and Debby Jolls, are teaching their sixth graders about recycling and land fills. Deb first contacted me about the unit to tell me the students wanted to know what they could do about the Styrofoam trays (I learned that Styrofoam is like kryptonite to my “save the environment” friends) that we use in the cafeteria. Candy and Debby had a speaker coming in from the DEC and they invited me, along with our superintendent, cafeteria manager, and BOE to come in to learn more.
So there I was, a 44 year old educator, learning from our sixth grade students and thinking about all of the questions I still had. Realizing that I am shirking my responsibilities at home and in thinking about what we can do better here at school.
Then the DEC speaker said something that rang so true it’s worth repeating here. She said that by working with our students, by helping them to learn and understand why this is important, they can influence everyone. She reminded us that when the seat belt law began, it was every child who got in every vehicle and chimed, “Mom and Dad–put your seat belt on!“, that changed our behavior.
So I say, “turn up the heat sixth grade!” We can learn more, we can change behavior, and this is your chance to learn that you can change the world. I’m proud of you and of your teachers for taking a stand and for learning to advocate for that which you believe is most important.
Now about all of those questions I still have, like should I buy the paper cartons of milk instead of plastic, maybe you could publish recycling tips on your wiki from which we can all learn? Or maybe a place where we can post questions that you could research and answer? Think about it and lead the way.
