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This is the first in a series to look at American children's education and its relationship to your family's health and the green movement.
Woo Hoo! Three more weeks--count 'em THREE! I'm a happy mama, I'm a happy mama--don't get me wrong--of course I've loved the summertime with my 3 beautiful girls, 2 dogs and assorted rodents (in cages...don't worry...) But who am I to hold back the tick-tock toward September and the great quest for knowledge?
Having said that, of all the amazing things schools represent (Six hours of free babysitting being only one--OK maybe the top one…), green has not been a huge part. Now, however, the times they are a changin'.
Today we'll talk with my friend Ms. Megan Fitzgerald, the Asst. Principal at my town's goin' green middle school, about ways your school can help your kids and Mother Earth. Here's what she had to say:
"We started with paper because it is so expensive and takes such a huge environmental toll, from our offices, to the classrooms. What kind of paper do we use? What percent is recycled? How can we make use of better resource management? These are the questions we started with."
Here are Meagan's 3 Easy Green Steps to implement in any school:
- Have recycling bins in every classroom
- Teach kids the three Rs: Remind them to reuse and recycle and get them to invest in their applications.
- Have an Energy Guard program where kids take turns overseeing the lights being turned off, computers put to sleep, etc., ala hall monitor (but more popular). This empowers the kids to create their own positive future.
In coming weeks of Green Your Kid's School we'll look at:
How to pack a lean and green kids lunch
How to avoid pesky pesticides and advocate for IPM (Integrated Pest Management)
How to make a tiny footprint in your kid’s snacks and lunch (hint, it doesn’t include any animals)
When to join the Two Angry Moms and advocate a better school lunch program (your taxes pay for them anyway...)
Lynda Fassa is Planet Green's babies and family expert. She's the founder of Green Babies organic cotton baby clothes and the author of Green Babies, Sage Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Baby, and the forthcoming Green Kids, Sage Families: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Family, both from Penguin NAL. Read her previous posts here. Green Babies is a registered trademark of Green Babies Inc.
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