Hans strikes again!
(This came off of the sustaindane list)
-Mike
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3. Environment-Focused Charter Schools
Posted by: "spunkledevil" [EMAIL PROTECTED] spunkledevil
Date: Thu Apr 19, 2007 10:08 am ((PDT))
Fellow Sustain Daners
A workshop on Environment-Focused Charter Schools is scheduled for
Wednesday May 2nd. I would like to suggest that the most important
step towards "green" schools is "greening" our steps ON THE WAY!
Essay on this theme follows:
Green Schools
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Copyright Dec 2005 by Hans Noeldner
I dream of "green" schools in my community; of parents, students,
teachers, and administrators working together to make our children's
education sustainable and earth-friendly.
In my dream the sidewalks are vibrant with healthy students and staff
who are walking and bicycling to classes and after-school
activities. Kindergartners and first-graders stroll hand in hand
with moms, dads, and grandparents. With so many people out and about
we are confident our children will be safe even in the evening.
One occasionally sees a parent driving a child to a medical or dental
appointment, but it has become rare for parents to routinely drive
their children. Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night stops us on
our way to school; we dress for the weather and are invigorated by
fellowship, fresh air, and physical activity!
It is painful to recall how we once swarmed here in cars and SUVs and
gargantuan pickup trucks, often irritated from lack of wholesome
exercise, endangering pedestrians, isolated from neighbors, guzzling
petroleum, and exposing our children to an atmosphere of exhaust
fumes. And think of all the valuable land that was wasted on huge
parking lots! Thank God we came to our senses. Now that our schools
are "green", village youths and school staff deploy 100% renewable
human energy to get around town, students and teachers who live
further away share fuel-efficient buses and carpool, and evening
buses take children home after their extra-curricular endeavors.
I see teachers and students speed-walking at noon, friends ambling
downtown for espresso, the buff bicycling group heading out for a
quick 10K spin. The air is bright with happy voices. There are no
rumbling mufflers, no squealing tires, no blasting stereos - even
grease-starved driving-age teens are eco-savvy enough to hoof it or
pedal five blocks to a fast food joint. Gone too are the clusters of
slouching, atrophied smokers busily speed-puffing their way to cancer
wards. Cool is different now; our offspring know that saving their
planet must begin within themselves.
I see some vehicles with disabled plates and carpool vans in the
staff section, but otherwise the modest-sized school parking lot is
almost empty. In contrast, there are hundreds of bicycles in the
bike racks.
I see parents and relatives who, having come via sustainable self-
propulsion, arrive refreshed and energized for sports events,
performances, and parent-teacher conferences. Now that carpooling is
the norm for distant suburbanites and exurbanites, vehicle traffic at
school events is so modest that disabled and elderly people can be
driven right to the door, and handicapped parking stalls near
entrances are never appropriated by able-but-lazy folk.
Notice that in my dream I have not mentioned bricks and mortar once.
Why? Because the most unsustainable aspect of our current school
system is our exorbitant use of fuel and motor vehicles on the way to
school! "Green" buildings and grounds are important too, but
sustainable BEHAVIOR must be our #1 goal. Where to start? With
ourselves.
Are you committed to walking the talk of "green" schools?
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