Last Friday I and
several of my classmates had the opportunity to facilitate discussion with teachers at Stanley Knowles School. They are beginning a 3 year sustainability program, and needed help coming up with ideas to integrate sustainability and environmental issues into their teaching curriculum and school policies/programs. It was a wonderful experience to speak with these teachers who are so eager to increase their students environmental awareness. I helped facilitate discussion with a small group of Grade 8 teachers.
several of my classmates had the opportunity to facilitate discussion with teachers at Stanley Knowles School. They are beginning a 3 year sustainability program, and needed help coming up with ideas to integrate sustainability and environmental issues into their teaching curriculum and school policies/programs. It was a wonderful experience to speak with these teachers who are so eager to increase their students environmental awareness. I helped facilitate discussion with a small group of Grade 8 teachers.A topic we discussed at length was regarding children's exposure to the outdoors. Many teacher's are finding that students are coming to school exhausted from playing videogames all night...and yet never go outside and play, which would allow them to be the "good-old-fashioned-kind" of exhausted. It is a huge problem because urban students are losing their connection to nature, and their health is also at risk.
One of the big problems is lack of space for the children to play outside. There is just not enough green space in the area. Even the school itself is located way out in suburbia, with just a highway and asphalt pad to play on. When I was growing up on the farm, I was lucky enough to have the "whole world" to play in. I could play in the forest, wade in the sloughs, dig in the garden, run around with the dogs and cats, observe wildlife such as deer, coyotes, birds, foxes, raccoons, ducks, geese, and more in their natural habitat (and sometimes even as pets!), enjoyed hunting and fishing....And I did some combination of these things and more EVERY SINGLE DAY! When I think about the severe limitations on city kids, it makes me really sad that they won't have these opportunities.
One of the big problems is lack of space for the children to play outside. There is just not enough green space in the area. Even the school itself is located way out in suburbia, with just a highway and asphalt pad to play on. When I was growing up on the farm, I was lucky enough to have the "whole world" to play in. I could play in the forest, wade in the sloughs, dig in the garden, run around with the dogs and cats, observe wildlife such as deer, coyotes, birds, foxes, raccoons, ducks, geese, and more in their natural habitat (and sometimes even as pets!), enjoyed hunting and fishing....And I did some combination of these things and more EVERY SINGLE DAY! When I think about the severe limitations on city kids, it makes me really sad that they won't have these opportunities.
But that's what the teacher's at Stanley Knowles school hope to change. They want to bring nature a little closer to these kids. Some ideas we discussed were vermicomposting, indoor and outdoor gardening, projects on the full lifecycle of "stuff" and food.
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Retrieved on: March 17, 2011.
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