Head of School's Message: September 23

Smog days during the fall and spring were everyday occurrences for seventh-grade English teacher Ashley Laird when she was a student at Pasadena's John Muir High School. Students needed to remain inside all day for several days each school year. A first-grade parent who works in downtown L.A. said on Friday that when some of his older colleagues first moved to L.A. in the late seventies, they rarely saw the mountains because the air was thick with carbon emissions.

 

California's successful efforts to reduce emissions and clean the air in the L.A. region thanks to a federal waiver was last week rescinded by Washington, but it is now being challenged by our state government. Our state's immediate action is an important demonstration to students that despite discouraging trends in the local air quality, adults are capable of winning a battle that is deeply concerning to them.

 

In Young and Driven to Save the Planet, L.A. Times journalist Molly O'Toole wrote on Friday, "Young people are scared about climate change. They see it as a profound injustice and an existential threat to their generation and those that will follow." After writing about activities that high schools had planned for the global climate strike, she noted that based on research conducted in Sweden, "Kids fare best when they engage in meaning-focused-coping, which emphasizes finding sources of hope and support rather than getting rid of worry."

That was the emphasis of activities organized for Chandler students by Middle School Director Jill Bergeron during Friday's advisory period that she writes about below. I asked several students for their comments as they made posters, questioned science teachers or researched climate change and global warming.

 

"It's hard for students to address this crisis. Adults have to help."

 

"There needs to be less talk and more action. We talk a lot about saving water, but we're not doing enough."

 

"I know my parents are thinking about an electric car. We should ride bikes more and use public transport."

 

"If we put our minds to it we can solve this problem. We need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

 

Concerns about climate change run deeper in some than in others. A group of sixth-grade boys was huddled over a poster drawing space ships. I asked them what point they were trying to make, "We need to clean up the air so that aliens from other planets will want to live on planet Earth and help us with this problem." They were deadly serious!

 

Systems change when we shift conditions that hold a problem in place. We have to be careful not to jump into action without knowing or teaching the science and the facts, but the evidence is irrefutable. Young people worry about this topic in ways in which previous generations never did, and it makes sense for us to pay more attention through our curriculum and our practices.

As an example, a seventh-grade boy sent Jill Bergeron and me an e-mail on Saturday with a suggestion to consider.

"Following Friday's activity, I am interested in how we can save resources, and save energy at school. All middle schoolers have at least one Tupperware and a fork/spoon/spork from their Boojum trips. The lower schoolers probably have some Tupperware and spoons and forks at home.

During hot lunch, instead of using the paper trays and plastic forks that are provided to us, we could use the Tupperware and spoons and forks. It would cut down on a lot of waste, and Chandler would be cutting down on a lot of costs too. I looked online to see how much trays cost, and I realized that it would save the school almost fifty dollars per lunch if everyone participated. And not to mention, none of those things go into the trash. If there is no need to buy trays then that is a lot of money saved.

The school could even incentivize kids to do this by letting the kids with reusable containers and utensils get to skip to the front of the lunch line. We could also set up wash stations, with bleach, soap, and water to clean the Tupperware, so the kids bring their containers home clean. Making this change would teach kids valuable life lessons about the environment and might even lead them to want to help out in dishwashing at home.

Following Friday's activity, there will be no shortage of suggestions from our engaged student body, and we will consider all of them.