Nowadays Environmental protection in school is still given too low a priority. Yet there is so much to be said for focusing more on sustainability and environmental protection in schools, and perhaps even making it a school subject. The continued rapid growth of the population and the ongoing destruction of the environment and resources are sounding the alarm about the need to finally teach habits and lifestyles that promote sustainability. Today, I'd like to give you 10 good reasons why kids should be Environment need in school, which school in Bali can be a role model for the fast-paced, Western world, and where schools and teachers can get suitable teaching materials.
Here is a short Table of contents for this article:
- 10 reasons for environmental protection at school
- Green School Bali as a role model
- Environmental protection teaching material
- Conclusion
10 reasons why children need environmental protection at school
It didn't take me long to come up with these 10 reasons for environmental protection in schools. There is simply too much to be said for giving sustainability a higher priority in our education system. So, as promised, here are my top 10 reasons why children need to learn about environmental protection in school.
1. we are most capable of learning during school time!
The experiences children have before and during school influence their behavior, habits and skills throughout their lives. That's why it's especially important to teach environmental protection at school. There is a great opportunity here to instill a love of nature in children. Because later in life, with smartphones, laptops and mass consumption, a society awaits them that has largely already lost this love of nature and now urgently needs to rediscover it. Environmental protection belongs in school, because the basic attitude for environmentally conscious behavior is formed in childhood.
2. parents learn from their children!
Environmental protection at school is so important because in adulthood we increasingly accumulate entrenched attitudes and opinions that are no longer up to date. Often, we don't even realize when we're not doing something right or doing something that harms our environment. Children, when learning about environmental protection at school, can point out these behaviors to their parents. It also spurs adults on when their own children behave in an environmentally conscious way and, for example, do plastic free living. Even when we were Beach CleanUps in Bali started, there were a lot of children. I am sure to 100% that their parents think about their personal behavior when their own children have to collect their garbage from the environment.
Tip: Also like to look at the post about Environmental protection with children on to get more tips!
3. environmental protection creates more relation to nature!
Nowadays, children spend less time in the great outdoors. Instead, they spend a large part of their time on the smartphone or at the Playstation. This leads to addictions, lack of exercise, laziness and, above all, creates a great distance between children and nature. In addition, the individual development of creativity, imagination and motor skills, for example, falls by the wayside. Environmental protection at school can take place in the forest, for example, so that the connection to nature is promoted. Thus creativity, fantasy and Co. are promoted and the environmental consciousness is trained. The best prerequisites for an environmentally conscious lifestyle in the future.
4. learn waste separation at school
Many households carefully separate waste and pass this knowledge on to the children. Unfortunately, waste separation does not work in every household. When topics such as waste separation for optimal Plastics recycling addressed and also practiced at school, children learn early on how to separate their waste at home as well. In addition, they can teach their parents in this way if they have not yet separated their waste properly. Through this measure of environmental protection at school, in the long term more plastic waste is fed into the recyclable materials cycle and less waste ends up in the environment.
5. ALL children learn environmental protection!
Many children grow up in an environmentally conscious home and are already given the basis for environmentally conscious behavior in the future. But since this is not the rule, environmental protection is so incredibly important at school. So why should environmental protection become a school subject? Because then even those children will have a chance to live an environmentally conscious life whose parents are not currently environmentally conscious at all. The side effect is that the parents are inspired by their children and can change their entrenched behavior.
6. children learn to question!
Through environmental protection in school, or the school subject of environmental protection, children learn to deal critically with facts and circumstances. In the spirit of the Zero Waste Lifestyle. "Correct" interpretations of texts or poems are in principle already predetermined, and creativity is hardly encouraged. If children were to deal with sustainability at school, they would learn to question processes and consumer goods in their daily lives. This would result in more conscious consumption, which would massively reduce personal plastic waste.
7. environmental protection is a breath of fresh air for the school system!
The environmental protection school subject blows the dust off our school system. Because it is outdated and in urgent need of renovation. In most subjects it is only a matter of analyzing texts and writing interpretations. There is no variety. Interest in science is rarely taught in an exciting and sufficient way thanks to the understaffed and partially outdated teaching staff. Little of the content we have learned in ten to thirteen years of schooling can be applied in "real life". Environmental protection at school is red-hot and brings a breath of fresh air into the dreary school day. It is a school subject whose content children can also apply directly in everyday life.
8. promotion of conscious consumption
One important reason why children should be concerned about environmental protection as early as their school years is that it enables them to lay the foundations for conscious consumer behavior. After all, smartphones, television and game consoles litter us with massive amounts of advertising, and products in plastic packaging also smile at us in the supermarket. If children do not yet learn conscious consumption from their parents, then this should happen at the latest through the environmental protection school subject. In this way, environmental protection at school will also protect our environment from plastic waste in the long term.
9. children learn cultivation and healthy food
Even very few adults know about the cultivation of the food we eat every day. Conveying this knowledge to children through environmental protection in school is therefore very valuable. Among other things, they learn where and with what effort our food is produced and thus appreciate it more. In addition, children can learn at an early age to healthy diet. This is important for child development and, of course, for environmental protection.
10. save the world through environmental protection
Environmental protection and the striving towards a more sustainable life are crucial for our future on earth! Children are our future and must therefore be taught environmental protection at school with the right school materials. This is how we save our environment from plastic waste in the long term, reduce global warming and ensure that our children eat and consume consciously.
Green School Bali as a role model
The Green School in Bali is for me an absolute model for western schools. The school is located in a forest in the north of the Balinese capital Denpasar and impresses with unique bamboo architecture. Here is the largest bamboo building in the world. No walls, exciting nature, communication, fish ponds, vegetable plantations laughing children. These are my first impressions during my visit to Green School Bali. Besides algebra and Pythagoras, environmental protection is a big issue at school here. Children at the Green School learn to be part of a real community, to grow their own food, to raise chickens and cows, to catch fish, to recycle plastic and to produce plastic-free, natural things. Regular clean-up campaigns are launched by the school to remove plastic waste from the environment, and the plastic is then recycled in the school's internal recycling system.
In the video you can see the two Green School students Melati and Isabel Wijsen, who have campaigned for a ban on plastic bags in Bali. As of 2018, plastic bags in Bali are finally history. Through their commitment, the two save the lives of many marine mammals and raise the awareness of their fellow human beings.
Here you can find environmental protection teaching material
Looking for environmental education materials for school? The Ministry of Environment provides some sustainable material, but there are also plenty of other trustworthy websites with environmental teaching material for teaching sustainability and environmental protection in school. Every teacher should have the self-drive to teach this teaching material. This way, we can really make a difference in the world with environmental protection in school. Now I want to list you the best sources of sustainability and environmental protection teaching material:
- Environmental protection teaching material (Ministry of Environment): Here you can find e.g. learning material on the topics "Animals in the sea", "Air pollution with pollutants", "Climate change", "Plastic waste in the environment" and many other sustainability and environmental topics.
- Educational material environment (Greenpeace): Here's a really good fact sheet on plastic waste in the environment, nutrition tips, climate change worksheets, and more.
- Teaching material environment (UNICEF): Teach kids about environmental protection with action ideas, a cool environmental quiz, and a detailed fact sheet on the environment and climate.
- Climate Protection Workbook (Federal Environment Agency): In addition to extensive information on the topic of climate protection, you can also get environmental protection teaching materials on the topics of energy and transport.
- Environmental protection worksheets (Grundschule-Arbeitsblaetter.de): Here you can download really good environmental protection teaching material and also get some detailed tests to quiz!
- What is plastic? (CareElite): In this blog article I explained the manufacturing process of plastic and everything about the raw materials used. I think the article is a good basis for raising children's awareness at school.
- Kids for the Ocean: In her book Kids for the Ocean, author Anne Mäusbacher creates a great teaching program that can be very easily integrated into the classroom.
I hope that the environmental protection teaching material will help you and I am sure that the children at school will like it. It is incredibly important to create awareness for the environment in all children.
Environmental protection at school - Nothing makes more sense!
We can stop plastic waste in the environment, climate change and other environmental problems of our time in the long term only through education. Childhood shapes our behavior in adulthood and environmental protection in school is therefore forward-looking for our society! Use the available teaching materials, blog posts and discussions to teach children about environmental protection. Own CleanUps in nature can also raise children's awareness of environmental problems, such as plastic waste, during their school years. By the way, I advocate that environmental protection should become a school subject. What do you think about that? I'm now looking forward to your suggestions, ideas and experiences in the comments.
Best regards,
PS.: In the article Plastic waste in the environment you will find detailed information about the plastic problem and learn where the trash in the ocean comes from in the first place. The article What is plastic also explains very well how plastic is made in the first place.
I am glad that I can contact with them, because I am interested in environmental protection.My name is Irina and I come from Ukraine. I study in school with the extended German classes. In November I will take DSDll. This is the exam that confirms that my language skills are at the C1 level. For my oral communication I have chosen the topic "Environmental protection in school". I ask myself why it is so important to deal with environmental protection since childhood, what advantages the subject of environmental protection can bring in different perspectives, I need the opinion of experts and I think that you are a very good one. It is also very interesting for me to learn what problems can be confronted. I believe that your experience could help me to deepen in this subject and to find convincing arguments to the environmental protection subject in school. I will gladly wait for your reply. Thank you in advance.
With kind regards
Irina
Hello Iryna, great that you are so committed! Since you also wrote me an email, I answered you there.
Many greetings
Christoph
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Great post. I completely agree with you. Children should learn to deal with their environment sensibly and carefully from an early age. Who learns from childhood, for example, to avoid plastic for the future it is also natural.
When I went shopping in the unpacked store "Tante Olga" in Cologne in the fall, a school class was there and the owner of the store explained how shopping in her unpacked store works and how important it is to avoid waste. The students seemed very interested. I thought it was a great action. Something like this should happen more often.
Vg Christine
Hi Christine! Danke dir und ich stimme dir voll und ganz zu! 🙂
Many people simply lack a complete connection to nature, which is why they are so enthusiastic when they come into contact with conscious consumption or the environment. Enlightenment work takes place through everyone who lives consciously.
Many greetings,
Christoph
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