By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Do you think it’s important to teach the world's children about environmentalism? I do.
The future of the world is sitting in school somewhere right now, or are being homeschooled, as the case may be. But what whatever the case may be those future leaders are the children and their children and as parents, you have got the unique responsibility to educate your children so they make the right decisions, and that also means the right decisions in the field of environmentalism.
How do you do it? What works and what doesn’t? Is environmentalism – or environmental awareness, as some prefer – an especially challenging issue?
Many a green parent worries about teaching their children and the rest of the kids about the environment and environmentalism; the truth is though that the majority of kids seem to be getting it much better than the adults. And I am serious at this stage. For some reason most children understand far better how to look after Mother Earth and her Children, all of her Creation, than the adults of the world seem to.
However, you, as a parents are the one that guides them...
It is part of being a responsible parent. You begin from the time they are born (or sooner) through the choices you make. Which diapers will you use, which mattress, clothing, toys, etc. When our children are young it is crucial to model lifestyle choices. It is a great time to teach things like recycling (the four Rs).
Did I say “the four Rs?” Yes, indeed I did. I know that in the recycling logo and message there are only three, reduce, reuse, recycle... but I always like to add one, namely... rework. Aside from reduce, which is something that we sure have to do, and not just in way of waste and packaging, but in way of consumption too, reuse is the most important one of the Rs, followed then by rework. Rework is another term, basically, for upcycling; for using an item or more of trash to make something new.
Teach them also how to eat locally by going with them to farmers markets, by planting your own vegetable garden and by letting your children have their own part of the garden where they should be encouraged to grow veg of their own. It actually can be fun and very rewarding.
Children who grow their own green are also, strangely enough, going to eat those very greens that you would, maybe, have difficulties to get them to eat otherwise. Personally I have difficulties understanding as to why children seem to be refusing to eat their greens; I never seem to have had that problem as a child and neither did my siblings.
I think the biggest reason for children rejecting their greens is, aside from the McDonald's and such meals that give them the wrong kind of taste, that many a parent cannot cook properly nowadays and just cannot make greens and other vegetables appetizing and tasty for the kids.
Most kids and even adults find Kale, for instance, bland and tasteless, and I can never understand how they come to that conclusion. Cooked properly, ideally steamed, and then spiced well enough makes Kale a royal member of the brassica family and the same is true for Broccoli, Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts.
Children who understand the value of reducing consumption – and properly shown they soon grasp it and will no longer play the “I want, I want, I want” tune – and of reusing will soon point out to the adults around them where they go wrong, if we but let them.
Tech them to turn off lights in rooms and on landings when no in use. While such small deeds may not, on their own, save the Planet, they all add up.
Children are much more natural in the reuse category as well. Their imagination can see something in an item of packaging waste that we, as adults, often cannot see.
I always try to keep a childlike thought pattern and imagination active when I look at waste and as to whether I can use it for something and I have had this attitude ever since childhood. It was born out of necessity as much as out of not wanting to waste things. We must rediscover this attitude and must teach it to our children.
It does not, however, take much to green our children as long as we, their grown-up models, are consistent in our actions towards the Planet. Alas, though, too many of us are not consistent at all in that field.
How many times do we preach to the children and the rest of the world that we should walk more or cycle and then, because we have a lazy day, or it is drizzling a little, or a little cold, jump into our car and go the mile down the road to the store to pick up a pint of milk and the paper.
The children will notice when we just preach and don't do as we preach and they will either point it out to us that we are hypocrites or they will stop listening and become anti-green. It is up to us how the message is being received.
© 2011
