Are schools doing enougth to teach kids about the enviroment?

In Prinary (elementry) We we're told very little about the enviroment untill year 7 (last year of primary). Should we talk about the enviroment more in primary/elementry.

 

We werrn't told that much untill the we did the john muir project, but in high school we did it in Religous ed, science, socal ed, Modern studies...ect...ect...

 

Really I think we should teach kids from an early age about the enviroment an how we should protect it.

 

parents should take action in their kids lives and not depend on schools to teach things aside from the 3 R's. Well rounded ducation is an important and diverse thing.

 

Yeah, good point.

BUT if you are taught about the eenviroment by both your parents AND your school, then you have all the Moral view-points and the intellectual viewpoints.

 

i learned a lot in my elementary school. we had recycling on the base (we lived on a military base in socal) we would get handouts talking about ways to conserve water and energy and how to recycle and what cleaners were biodegradable since we wanted to take care of the ocean, etc. i remember talking to my dad about the stuff and finding out we already used simple green and tried to watch our water intake and stuff... we weren't too good on the recycling though. we also had decent presentations about the three Rs too, and using cloth bags instead of the ones at the grocery store was included in that. so, it got decently in depth. i didn't have too much more education in my other schools after that though. probably some reminders in biology class or something.

i think kids should be taught stuff in school because not all parents are that devoted or have that much time or even care themselves. same reason i think sex ed that isn't abstinence-based should be taught in schools.

around here, kids are taught neither, so we have a lot of teen pregnancy, stds, and waste. i'm sure other factors come into play, and there are exceptions, but around here taking care of the environment as a highschool or college age person isn't socially acceptable to a lot of ppl. recycling is seen as an old-person thing (mainly because it takes so much time to do... sorting, washing, and driving and putting into separate bins) littering seems to be fine as long as you're not in view of a cop, and you're weird if you take your own bags to the store... (this changed slightly for a little while when the main supermarket chain was deducting nickels for re-using cloth bags that they had handed out, but stopped when they started selling larger bags and nobody wanted to buy them)

 

Here, here.

The Sex ed I got wasn't abstanince based. (Infact, 4 years after I took the course, the course my year got, the videos, sheets and such) hit the front page of the papers for causing outrage amonst parents for being too graphic!

But back to buisness. I think That the enviroment should be taught in schools because some parents may not be arsed to teach it. If the parents don't teach it, schools should! That's what an education is there for.

 

hehe, you responded fast. i added more stuff to my post

that's good that you guys got good sex ed, now you all know how to use condoms, and hopefully will!

 

shit! welllll...

Wow, you were taught neither!!!! No sex Ed or enviroment?!!! Wow...

I think here should be more education on the subject of the enviroment, that should be a part of the curiculum in ANY country!!

 

I think kids should be taught from much younger yes.

Even just small things like teaching 3 year olds to draw on both sides of the piece of paper would help. Also by making it the normal to put your rubbish in the recycling bins at school and stuff. Even if they don't know why, just get them used to the 3Rs as a habit.

Those walking school buses should be encouraged more for children who live close to school. I've heard of a few here, but not many.

 

I don't remember being taught too much about the environment when I was in school, however, the school my children go to is doing a fairly good job in my opinion. They have a litter free lunch program (it's encouraged to bring all your food in containers rather than plastic wrap etc..) They have different bins for compostable scraps and other rubbish, they have a compost heap and a veggie patch. They upper primary students are doing a project on energy efficient homes with an emphasis on water efficiency (we have bit of a water shortage here atm)

Kinda OT, but they also have a decent sex ed program. At the age of 10 my son had his first sex ed classes, where they were told the basics, including masturbation, wet dreams, menstruation and learnt about the body parts of boys and girls and the correct names for them. They were also encouraged to write down a network of friends and family they felt comfortable asking any additional questions they had.

While all that is great, I still believe that parents should be the number one teacher. I have always encouraged my boys to never litter and to not waste water. My 4 yo is better than me about remembering my cloth shopping bags ( I mention we are going to the store and he grabs them and jumps in the car) My children have a respect for animals, they are not wasteful.

Woah.. I didn't mean for this to turn into an essay.

 

i have kind of a bias i guess against some things. not the environment, but govt run things such as public schools. I dont trust the same inept business that cant seem to do anything with teaching my kids. I think parents should take a more interactive approach to their children, i think alot of the problems we see today is a result of the declining time and amount of time some parents spend with their kids and the parents relying on school to teach them far more than i believe they should.

 

i agree, its as much the parents job if not more than it is the teachers.

 

I think it's a mix of the two

 

My 5th grade child is learning in school what she has learned at home about global warming, causes and implications this year in science in a section on climate. I was pleasantly surprised. I think a teacher in school can expand on the basic teaching outline a good bit, emphasizing what she thinks is important, or downplaying what she doesn't. In most things, the parent needs to know what the kids are learning in school, because a teacher's personal slant on things can come across and influence the kids.

I think they are learning a good bit about environment in a broad sense, but probably not many specifics on current concerns.
My experience (as a teacher assistant at 2 schools) is that the teachers are under a lot of pressure to teach for the end of grade testing, standarized testing, whatever it's called in your state. The teachers do (in NC) get a bonus if the entire school reaches it's goals in regards to test scores. This has impacted what is taught and how it is taught. A good bit of time is spent on "pre-tests", practice tests, remediation, etc. so that the kids will do well on those tests. I was hired specifically to work with kids that werent expected to pass the standardized testing. The schools get funding specifically for that.

Now, some things kids used to do and learn in school are gone, like art and music.
This is all due to Bush's NCLB bandaid on the broken education system.

 

it is both the schools and parents job to teach kids about the environment. but is is more then just telling them about it, both have to set examples for kids so protecting the environment is the norm to the children and they know nothing else because they see it everyday.

 

I agree with komokwa, make things a habit with the children when they are young and they'll hardly question doing it when they're older.

 

my dad being a hunter and fisherman taught me 100x more about the outdoors, respect and love for it, than any teacher could.

 

Yeah, But there are some schoolkids witch haven't been out into the country untill they are much older. I was intraduced to the outdoors very young, but there are kid out there who think food comes from the supermarket and not a farm and who haven't seen a cow. Your quite lucky. Alot of kids don't have that luxury.