Don't Let Schooling Get in the Way of Your Education

Who's responsibility is it to educate the next generation about the virtues of environmental stewardship? Does it belong in the primary schooling system? Should it fall on each parent to impart such lessons? Or does it fall to the societal systems we build through our taxes?

The answer is no doubt all of these. A foundation of caring for the commons - the physical spaces we all communally share - should be formed at home, in the earliest years. But we wouldn't expect every parent to be an expert in all matters green, the same way we don't expect every parent to be a stellar mathematician, or a prominent historian. For the next level of education, we have schools.

Many charter schools and private schools have specific curriculum for teaching youngsters how to tread lightly on the environment. They realize that such lessons are formed most impactfully when begun at an early age. An example is Gladstone, NJ's The Willow School. There, in additional to the traditional coursework of the three R's, they instill an ethic of ecological responsibility. It's a style of education you simply won't find in the public sector.

At that stage, once the familial and compulsory educational values are in place, citizens with a continuing interest in environmental issues can either turn to the private sector, or, in the case of Camden County, can take advantage of a suite of classes that further the learning process.

With "Living Clean & Green", one can explore a series of workshops that immerse you in real-world activities, giving you a glimpse of the natural world you wouldn't experience otherwise. Such courses include Composting & Organic Gardening, Recycling: Trash to Treasure, and The Air We Breathe, which investigates air pollution issues.

The classes are available to organizations, clubs or schools, and the majority of the ten courses are free. Those interested can contact Maggi Liebe at (856) 858-3614. It's satisfying to know that learning doesn't have to be confined to the four walls of the classroom. Mother Nature offers her own version of schooling, and that's education we can really use.