In the past decade, public awareness of our planet鈥檚 natural resources has grown, and with that understanding has come to a movement in living in environmentally sustainable 鈥済reen鈥 ways. While just a few decades ago recycling was a fringe activity, today it is a widespread practice. Hybrid vehicles have gone from fantasy to reality.
As national interest in living sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyles continues to grow, a number of public schools are joining the green movement, designing green curricula for students at all levels. In fact, some charter schools are now based around the ideals of green living.
This TED Talk discusses teaching sustainability in schools.
Green Charter Schools
The reports that across the country, public charter schools that are based around a 鈥済reen鈥 theme have been springing up. The Green Charter Schools Network, which is based in Madison, Wisconsin, says it has counted about 200 green charter schools nationwide, according to the Times. These green charter schools serve several purposes that both benefit the earth and their students鈥 futures.
Preparing Students for Work in the Sustainable Energy Industry
Some charter schools focus on technical skills that will prepare students to find work in the 鈥済reen collar鈥 jobs that are frequently touted as a part of a growth industry.
The mentions Manhattan鈥檚 Urban Assembly School for Green Careers, which opened in Fall 2009 with a ninth-grade class and focuses on 鈥渏ob skills needed for the design and operation of energy-efficient buildings.鈥 Students at the new school benefit learn skills such as installing insulation and solar panels, which prepares them for entering the work force or pursuing college-level engineering work.
This video offers suggestions for teaching green.
Making Social Justice Connections
Other green charter schools take a more social justice-based approach. At Brooklyn鈥檚 Green School, the , students make public service announcements about smoking and air quality in their community.
Across the country, in Los Angeles, Alison Suffet Diaz founded the Environmental Charter High School with an explicit focus on making connections between environmental issues and the low-income communities in which students live. Poor communities, Diaz tells the Times, are especially affected by environmental issues, such as contamination from industrial sites.
Green Lessons Increasingly Popular in Mainstream Public Schools
Green curricula are not limited to these specialized charter schools, of course. The quotes Randall E. Solomon, executive director of the New Jersey Sustainable State Institute at Rutgers University, on this issue. Lessons related to sustainable energy use and humans鈥 impact on the environment are not limited to charter schools, he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also mainstream public schools that are taking this on.鈥
Edutopia, a print and online education journal funded by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, offers a on its website, where teachers can find lesson plans, resource lists, and field trip ideas related to specific environmental issues such as 鈥淓nergy Conservation,鈥 鈥淲aste/Recycling,鈥 鈥淲ater,鈥 and 鈥淎ir/Climate.鈥
The , meanwhile, is a nonprofit foundation that is entirely focused on providing 鈥渆nvironmental education resources鈥 to K-12 classrooms and youth groups. They organize a yearly National Green Week and offer curriculum and lesson plan ideas for teachers.
Critics of Green Lesson Plans Fear a Political Slant
Although the importance of environmental awareness and sustainable living is promoted by a wide range of public figures from across the political spectrum, the trend towards green lesson plans does have its critics. A Fox News article on 2009鈥檚 National Green Week says that according to Angela Logomasini, a spokesperson for a free-market environmental policy group called the Competitive Enterprise Institute, green lesson plans can quickly turn into political indoctrination.
Logomasini says that students in taxpayer-funded public schools should be 鈥渓earning different perspectives from which they can make a critical analysis,鈥 instead of being taught that there is only one correct viewpoint.
However, Heidi Suydam, a conservative environmental blogger writing for the environmental website , by pointing out that 鈥渆nvironmental messages have been presented to children through books and programming for years.鈥 From Dr. Suess鈥檚 The Lorax to TV channels such as Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel, messages that encourage environmental awareness pervade children鈥檚 lives. The goal of removing all values from school curricula is impractical, Suydam contends.
Although it may continue to ruffle the feathers of those who fear that pro-green messages carry with them an inherent political bias, the rise of green charter schools and movements like National Green Week seems to indicate that the 鈥済reening鈥 of public schools will not be stopping any time soon.
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