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Have you ever wished for more environmentally friendly schools in your area? Did you ever think that maybe YOU could help play a part in implementing green schools initiatives in your town? I am going to share a few eco friendly school ideas for you to research and implement in the fall. There are many, MANY, ways to green your school but most of them require that parents, kids and teachers get involved.
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Why Push for Sustainable Schools?
Why do we need green schools? Most of the time, parents are expected to be the ‘teachers’ when it comes to their children. We teach them to walk, talk, use the potty, do their math homework (at least until 6th grade!) and drive a car. We hope (or pray!) that our lessons are well accepted and our children become well adjusted members of society.
What if teaching eco friendly lessons went from child to parent and not the other way around? When your kids head back to school in the fall, talk to teachers and administrators about these important eco friendly classroom ideas.
Green Classrooms and Smaller Footprints
There are certain things that we, as parents, can learn from our children. The environmental movement needs to capitalize on this idea for increased awareness. Adults are often stuck in their ways. They are determined to do the same things over and over just because it is how they have always done them.
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Are you idling the car while waiting in the carpool line? Throwing out your soda can instead of recycling it. Throwing a cigarette butt out the window instead of putting it in your ashtray (or quitting all together!). Sound familiar?
These are all habits adults have already formed but with a little bit of guilt from our children, we may just think twice about our choices. The eco friendly school ideas that our children are exposed to in the classroom don’t just stop once they walk out the door.
Bringing Those Green Lessons Home
Kids spend 8 hours out of just about every day at school. In order for environmental activists to change the way that people impact the world around them, they need to start with the little people FIRST. Teach kids about reducing, reusing and recycling. Then, they will bring those lessons home and teach their parents.
The next time mom goes to toss a can in the trash, little Susie may just speak up. “Mom, you know you really should recycle that!”. And maybe, (just maybe!) mom will listen! Eco friendly school ideas not only teach lessons to our children but in turn those lessons go home to parents as well.Eco friendly children are vital to the survival of this planet.
Today’s Green Lessons
According to Wikipedia, in 2000, there were 76.6 million students enrolled in schools. Kids enter school at around 5 or 6 years of age. They graduate high school at about 18. That is over 13 years that we could be teaching them how to care for our environment!
Want to get your school to go green but you aren’t sure how to do it? I was the chair of my kids Environmental Committee for 4 years and learned quite a few things along the way. Is it easy? NO. Sometimes it can be downright frustrating but it does have its rewards.
Eco Friendly School Ideas for Your School
When a child recycles their scrap paper or takes one less paper towel in the bathroom I cheer inside just a little bit. Here are a few eco friendly school ideas that might help you change a few kids’ behavior at your local school.
Start an Environmental Committee.
Talk to the school staff.
Make a visit to the classroom.
Start an environmental club.
Look into green fundraising.
Tackle the school lunch program.
Funding for Green School Initiatives
Research grants from the federal government or private sources to help fund your green school initiative. Check out the Department of Education website for more information on how to start funding. They have links to many programs that are free and just waiting to be brought into your child’s school.
If just ONE green-minded parent helped enact a few changes in their child’s education, that same environmental lesson may also be absorbed by hundreds of other kids in that same school. And if those 100’s of other kids go home and lay just a little bit of a guilt trip on their parents for idling in the parking lot, you have taken a huge step towards improving our environment.
The eco friendly school ideas that you implement in the classroom may very well make it back home without any additional effort on your part.
Diane has a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology with a Minor in Health Management and Policy. She spent many years working in cancer research, academics, and biotechnology. Concern over the growing incidence of human disease and the birth of her children led her to begin living a more natural life. She quickly realized that the information she was learning along the way could be beneficial to many others and started blogging as a way to share this knowledge with others. While passionate about health and the environment she can’t quite give up her favorite Cheetos and Diet Coke! Learn more about her HERE.
I passed your blog post onto my co-worker who handles our program here in South Jersey.
Yay for green!