Environmentally Challenged

I’m bloggin today about the environment because bloggers around the world are uniting just for today to blog about the environment, and I like the idea of being a part of something much bigger than myself.

Of course, I guess that means that I have to admit that I’m not really very environmentally aware. I think Ed Begley is somewhat of a kook – him and his green self - and I’m not really ready for a “draft Gore” movement. However, several things have happened this week that make me know that I am really out of touch - environmentally challenged. Haley Alvarado, Chets Creek Teacher of the Year, suggested that I quit giving everyone extra copies of the vocabulary unit to edit because we needed to save the trees! She is also on a one-woman crusade to help Chets Creek learn to recycle. I have to admit that I’ve never used one of those green recycle bins for anything except extra storage. It looks like Haley, with help from Debbie Harbour and our Science Wizards, is actually going to get recycling off the ground.

Then last week, Elizabeth Conte pulled 5 pieces of paper out of the trashcan in her kindergarten class at the end of Writers’ Workshop. She fussed at the kids because they had thrown away papers that had a mistake. She reminded them that authors call mistakes revision, but then she said the words that sent daggers through my heart, “Kindergartners, you probably killed a tree with your thoughtlessness.” That look of disappointment in her eyes… She asked the offenders to come claim their papers and put them back in their writing folders. I slipped over guiltily with my head down to claim Jadan’s paper because when he said he’d made a mistake, I just carelessly threw the paper in the trash and gave him a new sheet! I honestly never thought about the trees.

I so admire these young kindergarten teachers who take this world we live in so seriously. They understand that we have a responsibility to those that come after us to protect what has been entrusted to us. They feel the responsibility to pass on their passion about this Earth to the next generation. I am inspired by them... so I promise – to think about wasting paper – and to listen and learn when they talk about recycling! And that’s just the first step…