A message from the Green Schools National Network Executive Director
I recently received an email from young parents who had a three-year-old and a baby on the way. They were in the market for their first home, and while exploring the local housing market, they hoped to find an area that not only offered beautiful houses, safe streets and friendly neighbors, but a green, healthy, sustainable school.
Were student achievement scores important to this couple? Of course, but not as critical as diversity and exposure to experiences that would help their children learn to love the natural world and celebrate being a part of the Earth community – and not just the human community. How awesome is that?
We have come so far as a movement. As we look forward to Earth Week, and the announcement of the 2015 US Department of Education Green Ribbon School award winners Wednesday, let’s celebrate how much we have achieved. As a movement, we are linked to Earth Day and the larger conservation and environmental movements. Our green best site to buy ambien online schools best practices are the result of research and strategies defined by so many who have paved the way: friends and colleagues in the field of environmental education that emerged in the 70s; in the environmental health disciplines that shaped the early policies around healthy environmental standards in the 60s, 70s, and 80s; in the high performance green building movement that paved the way for green building standards that emerged in the 90s; and in the children and nature network movement that emerged in the early 00s.
A healthy planet benefits us all, so our efforts must include us all. We cannot transform every school in the US within the next generation without all of our continued and coordinated efforts.
Let’s celebrate this Earth Day knowing that the green schools movement is part of something much larger and with deep, far-reaching roots. Let’s celebrate and look forward to a world in which schools are recognized as one of the greatest tools in shaping a healthy, sustainable future!
Jenny
