Let's face it, the environmental problems that we have now are not going to go away and, in all likelihood, they will get worse. We need to do as much as we can now to educate our children about environmental responsibility so they will be able to improve on our mistakes and have the tools to be able to better the environment in the future. On the upside, I do think that many kids are more environmentally conscious than most adults today, but their continuing education is nonetheless imperative.

is teaching our children about recycling enough to save our planet? i agree jeff, educating is the first step towards bettering our planet, but what are schools supposed to do? schools are for learning, not for teaching kids how to always look at the labels on bottles and make sure they were made from recycled goods.

In my sixties I went back to college and was amazed at the many students who didn't care one way or the other about the environment they lived in.Some of these children didn't believe their was a problem of any consequence.We do need to educate our children,learning the truth about ones environment can be an enlightening experience.It is easy to say that the world as we know it will be vastly changed in a few short years. To seriously educate students on the fate of this planet is a task someone should take on, What educational tool is more impotent then the ways to save the planet that sustains us all. Young adults are going to have to change their desires, one kid in my class wanted a Hummer for graduation. "Too hell with the planet" he said, I won't be around when it finally crumbles anyway," He said he wanted the same power and prestige he'd grown up with.I just walked away from him, there isn't much you can do for brains that were set in granite at age 12, but therie is srill help with the younger children,

79% agreed Ok, well what would you like to do about this? How can you influence your children's schools in such a way that they do more in terms of educating children in environmental responsibility? My top suggestions: * be a presence in your kids' schools. ask a general studies, social studies, or science teacher if you can come in to share a presentation or lesson on reducing, reusing, or recycling, or on composting, gardening, solar energy, bicycle maintenance, the local watershed, etc.-- whatever you know and care about. Ask your kid's home ec or chemistry teacher if you can give a lesson or presentation on organic or vegetarian or vegan cooking, or on green cleaning or green/diy cosmetics. Ask your kid's art teacher if you can kick off a project on found (reused) materials sculpture. Encourage your kid's preschool to switch to cloth napkins and washable/reusable flatware, plates, bowls, cups (even 3-year-olds can --and often love!-- washing spoons and cups!). if it's not present in your child's school, bring it. get it going. odds are pretty good some teachers/students will love all that you're bringing and will keep it going beyond your visit. By the way, a key to successful presentations is to keep things positive rather than dogmatic-- focus on what children and families and schools CAN do rather than what they "should" do. (No one is excited by a guilt trip.) If you solicit the teacher's advice about age-appropriate materials, presentation length and level of complexity --and if you keep it positive-- it can't help but be a beautiful thing. * Donate or lend materials to your kid's school-- a vermicomposting system, for example, or a set of Magic Schoolbus books to a preschool/elementary school, or even something as simple as a dvd copy of An Inconvenient Truth to a high school if they don't already have it. These things spark interest among students and staff, and often will lead to student- or staff-lead conversations, initiatives and programs that can make a positive difference in that school and possibly, over the long term, in the district and beyond. Jr. high and high school students especially can become very active once a spark has sparked! * vote according to your environmental ethics-- schools grade k - 12 talk about national governmental figures, and grades 8-12 often discuss local governmental figures as well. Current events via contemporary media are discussed and often used as homework and quiz focus points in grades 8-12 -- if the environment is news, it will make its way into social studies and science classes. Also, whenever educational agenda items come up for approval in your community or state (No Child Left Behind comes to mind), consider what that may mean in terms of the amount and quality of time given to instruction of environmental topics. For instance, NCLB meant that extraordinary efforts (read: funding, school hours) would be directed toward improving all students' scores on standardized tests. This means that, for most public schools, lesser and fewer efforts and moneys are now directed toward field trips, guest speakers, community projects, and science fairs. This doesn't mean that by voting to improve student test scores you are voting against hands-on projects and trips -- it just means you will probably have to help schools find other ways to work these things in if you still want them to happen. * never underestimate your value as a parent to your child's school (or your value as a citizen who supports local schools). public or private, most schools will want to honor the passions and interests of parents/neighbors who are positive contributors to their school community. if you are respectful of the teachers' time and resources, you will be a welcome and energizing guest that they will be happy to support.

Our schools are doing plenty to make students aware of environmentally safe practices. I really don't know what more could be done. Food services are serving healthy meals. "Reduce, reuse, recycle" is an everyday mantra. Reusable lunch boxes far exceed the paper bags. When possible, information is sent home via email, rather than with throwaway paper.