Photo credit: Lester Spence_Flickr

Although I taught in a city where most kids walked from place to place, I found that many of my kids didn’t have quality time in the outdoors, let alone a place to explore and get their hands dirty.

Most of them came to school at 8am and were there until 6pm. By the time parents took them home it was time for dinner and then off to bed (in the best case scenarios).  For my students, school became the ultimate outlet for exploration in the outdoors. 

Unfortunately, our first adventure into the outdoors ended abruptly.  Instead of a grass, trees, and open space for play we found wood chips, outdated play ground equipment and drugs.

What’s worse is that this very scenario plays out across cities, small towns, and suburbs all across America.

Every child deserves a free, green space to play and discover the natural world around them.

Check out the full story below:

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TAKE ACTION

Help get kids reconnected to wildlife! Urge Congress to help get America’s kids back outdoors, and on a path to a stronger appreciation for wildlife and the natural world.

National Wildlife Federation’s Storytelling Video Diary Series shares the candid tales of 10 NWF staffers from around the country; armed with their cameras in California, Wisconsin, the Pacific Northwest, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC, these nine staffers will share with you their individual trials, epiphanies and stories as they unfold in their daily adventures.

Savannah Country Day School, one of the inaugural US Green Ribbon School Award winners as well as an Eco-Schools USA Green Flag recipient (Laura Hickey)

Seventy-eight schools representing 29 states were awarded the nation’s first U.S. Green Ribbon Schools Award for overall excellence in environmental literacy; environmental quality; and the health and wellness of students and faculty.

The announcement took place at the Stoddert Elementary School in Washington, D.C.  which is LEED Gold certified and the city’s first geo-thermal building.   Included in the roster of winners were 19 schools registered in the National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools USA program.

During his speech, Secretary Duncan pointed out how important a holistic environmental education is for 21^st century employment:

 ”Science, environmental and outdoor education play a central role in providing children with a well-rounded education, helping prepare them for the jobs of the future […] U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools demonstrate compelling examples of the ways schools can help children build real-world skill sets, cut school costs, and provide healthy learning environments.”

The inaugural class of U.S. Green Ribbon School Award winners signals a shift in the understanding of environmental education as integral to our nation’s success.  “These Green Ribbon School award winners are taking outstanding steps to educate tomorrow’s environmental leaders, and demonstrating how sustainability and environmental awareness make sense for the health of our students and our country” said Chairwoman Nancy Sutley.

As host of the Eco-Schools USA program and a member of the U.S. Green Ribbons Schools Partnership, NWF continues to work tirelessly on the effort to ensure that all students receive a quality environmental education and develop an authentic relationship with the outdoors.  “America’s schools still lead the way in making our communities more efficient and environmentally literate,” said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation in a statement.  “By cutting their expenses and recasting themselves as living laboratories for a sustainable future, these Green Ribbon awardees prove a great model for well-rounded 21^st century education.”

The author, her mother and her grandfather.

Born in Jamaica, my grandfather loved the outdoors. Who wouldn’t love it, in a place where the deep blue color in the ocean isn’t an optical illusion and there is no need for Vitamin D tablets—a walk along the palm tree lined streets or a stroll along the beach is all you need.

I used to ask him when I was young why he had so many muscles because he didn’t go to the gym. He used to look at me, laugh, gesture to the outdoors and say “why would I go to a gym?” Why indeed.

My grandparent’s garage wall was filled with tools and fishing rods for all their grandchildren—and there were a bunch of us.

The drive to the docks were always the most fun, all of us kids crammed into a car with our heads hanging out the window taking in the smell of the early morning and noticing the change in the air as we got closer to the water.   As soon as we arrived we would all spring out of the car like Jack-in-the-Boxes itching to be the one who brought in the first catch of the day.  We were like little sailors (minus the boat) lined up on the dock taking in the sweet salty smell of the water and watching the sun rise higher and higher in the sky. Nothing used to beat those mornings with my family outside—well, maybe the fish dinner that my grandmother would make that evening.

My grandparents were sustainable before it was cool.

Whether we were picking callaloo and mint from their enormous backyard garden or fishing on the dock or swinging from the handmade swing my grandfather fashioned for me from their largest tree—the outdoors was always a place where family and adventure intertwined.

What Has Changed

Many years have passed since those family outdoor adventures, and it saddens me that pollution has stopped my grandfather from being able to take my younger cousins on the fishing trips I once enjoyed so much. Unfortunately, it’s not just pollution that has kept them from the outdoors—today kids spend on average 7-10 hours plugged into electronics and just minutes in the outdoors.  Where I used to make up stories and find mystery under stones or within the limbs of trees, they seek out video games and the television to entertain themselves.

Did I watch TV as kid, sure! But I never did find a show or game that provided me with the joy that the feel of a fishing rod in my hands; sight of the sun glistening off the water; and the burst of giggles at the first catch of the morning ever gave me.  Nope, there is no screen that has ever given me more excitement as a kid or adult for that matter, than the sound of a screen door swinging open to the adventures that await me in the outdoors.

To learn more, take a look at Kristy Myers’s five tips for spending time in nature with your family, see our Outdoors and Family Channel for easy outdoor activities or check out how you can get involved in NWF’s Be Out There campaign to connect kids with nature.

This seems to confirm that, whether “red” or “blue,” every state has a stake in environmental stewardship and sustainable living.  Teaching K-12 students about the environment and its connection to economics, health, and wellness—-with a strong ‘STEM’ emphasis—is the first step toward driving that common cause home and creating the next generation of environmentally informed and responsible Americans.

The Green Ribbon Schools Award models itself after the highly acclaimed Blue Ribbon program, nearly 30 years old, which recognizes schools for academic progress.  Now, following the May 3^rd announcement by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley, schools across the country that save energy, reduce costs, feature environmentally sustainable learning spaces, protect health, and offer environmental education to boost academic achievement and community engagement will be awarded for their great work.

This is an especially exciting initiative for NWF because it lines up with our work of helping more than 4,000 schools go green over the last 15 years through Certified Schoolyard Habitats and the Eco-Schools USA program. The latter, which boasts registered schools in all but four states, will act as a stepping stone for many schools to work their way up to Green Ribbon status.

A Green Shift in American Education

Green Ribbon—-together with initiatives like Eco-Schools USA—signifies a great shift in American education.  In order for the U.S. to remain competitive within the 21^st century global green economy, students need curricula that promote critical thinking and innovation.  Studies have shown that schools with an environmental focus help to shape such programs, and may improve  test scores and graduation rates to boot.  Perhaps most importantly, students need to understand their impact on the natural world now more than ever—preferably in a formal school setting–if we are to stem the tide of environmental degradation and misuse. The U.S. Green Ribbon Schools Award recognizes these trends and promotes its integration with all aspects of the school—from the buildings, to the surrounding grounds to the students’ learning experience.

The U.S. can’t lead if it’s lagging behind the pack, and the U.S. Green Ribbon Schools program signals that we recognize green schools as a key to catching up and winning the future.

Green Ribbon states:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota , Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island (Independent), Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin

Italics indicate states with Republican governors. Rhode Island is Independent.

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Today is a fantastic day for the environmental education movement!   The U.S. Department of Education alongside the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency launched the U.S. Green Ribbon Schools Award.  This program will recognize and award schools that make exemplary efforts in greening schools in the following 3 areas: Environmental Impact and Energy Efficiency; Healthy School Environment; and Environmental and Sustainability Education.

The effort to get the U.S. Green Ribbon program adopted by the Department and working in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, has been strongly supported by the Campaign for Environmental Literacy (CEL), alongside Earth Day Network, the National Wildlife Federation and the U.S. Green Building Council. These organizations, along with the greater NGO community, have worked with many interested parties and stakeholders to build a robust and comprehensive awards program that will celebrate the innovative greening efforts of the nation’s schools.

NWF’s Eco-Schools USA program has been helping schools in the U.S. since 2009 integrate sustainable principles throughout schools and curriculums across the country. The Eco-Schools USA program will act as the stepping stone needed for many schools interested in pursueing the nation’s first  U.S. Green Ribbon Schools Award.   

Recognizing schools for their environmental and sustainability efforts is a tremendous step forward in making our schools healthy green living laboratories that will provide students with the skills necessary to innovate and excel in the 21^st Century global green economy.  The country that invests in environmental and sustainable education will be the country to lead in the 21^st Century.   We cannot build the innovators of tomorrow with the inefficient, unhealthy, education system from yesterday and with the announcement of the U.S. Green Ribbon Schools Award we know that that the U.S. is headed down the right green path!

We hope you will learn more and apply to become a U.S. Green Ribbon School today!

Quality education begins when a child walks into their school building not just when they open a book. How can we expect creativity and innovation when a child is ill? These are just a few of the issues that the green school movement has on its agenda.

This week Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers wrote about the importance of green schools and environmental education for the success of the U.S. in the global green economy:

“Aside from providing a huge health benefit to students and staff, constructing, renovating and maintaining sustainable school buildings are key components to an overall plan to create “green collar” jobs that will put Americans to work and give our economy a sorely needed boost”

As we start a new school year, the BlueGreen Alliance released its “Policy on Green Schools and Environmental Education” brief (PDF) this week to provide a blueprint for Congress as it works to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This set of policy principles focuses on the short- and long-term benefits that can be achieved by greening our school facilities and educating our kids about their environment. And there is already some exciting work happening in DC that is in line with the BlueGreen Alliance blueprint.

Flickr/D Sharon Pruitt

Recently the U.S. Department of Education, The President’s Council for Environmental Quality and the EPA joined the charge for green schools with the announcement of the  U.S. Green Ribbon Schools Award.  The Green Ribbon Schools Award seeks to recognize schools that incorporate the three pillars of greening: healthy environment, environmental literacy, and environmental impact and energy efficiency (The Department of Education recently announced that the Green Ribbon Schools program is now live for public comment  through September 14).

The bi-partisan No Child Left Inside (NCLI) Act, introduced in Congress in July, seeks to put environmental education back in the classroom.  Since the advent of the No Child Left Behind law, school curricula have been narrowly focused on testing, leaving little room for anything else.  The NCLI Act would change this issue by providing states with incentives to create environmental literacy plans that would equip students with the skills necessary for success in the global green economy.

NWF is a longtime proponent of greening schools and curricula too. The Eco-Schools USA and Schoolyard Habitats programs are both supportive of the Green Ribbon Schools initiative and the Blue Green Alliance policy brief, and NWF actively works with K-12 schools to emphasize the importance of environmental education, healthy school environments and sustainability.

The world is rapidly changing and currently the U.S. finds itself at the back of the pack instead of leading it.  Environmental education is the key to our success. U.S. students cannot create solutions for 21^st Century  environmental issues with an education system from the last century!

Today the bi-partisan No Child Left Inside Act (NCLI) (S.1372 and H.R. 2547) was introduced by Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD).  The NCLI Act will provide states with incentives to create environmental literacy plans. Historically, this legislation has been overwhelmingly bi-partisan passing the House back in 2008 with 68 Republicans voting in favor of the measure.  As the Elementary and Secondary Education Act works its way through the House and Senate for reauthorization we have been busy working with the NCLI Coalition on Capitol Hill educating Members of the importance of environmental literacy for our future success in the 21^st Century. Currently there are over 40 states that are in various stages of working on environmental literacy plans and the introduction of NCLI helps to fuel the momentum.  NCLI will help put environmental education back in our nation’s classrooms and provide our future workforce with the environmental foundation they need today, to address the environmentally-based economic problems of tomorrow!

TAKE ACTION: Urge Congress to support the No Child Left Inside Act!

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Last week must have been a slow news week for the right wing media,  as the new Maryland state environmental education graduation requirement was placed on their “most wanted” media hit list alongside the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign; which is as much about children’s health as it is about our military readiness.  Reports have come out that we as a society have become too fat to fight!  Regardless of the reports the right wing continues to attack the program and now they have set their sights on environmental education.

Last week on Sean Hannity’s Fox news show, he railed against the environmental literacy requirement just passed by the Maryland Board of Education.  He suggested that teaching children about the environment was somehow pushing climate change “propaganda”.   What do you think gets the Hannity Fox news “Take back America” clan so riled up about getting kids in touch with nature and learning better in school through hands-on environmental education?  Do they fear it means that when kids grow up they will be less likely to follow their right wing policies that result in dirty air and water in our communities if they understand all sides of an issue including their impact on the environment? Under the new Maryland requirement, students will need to exhibit their understanding of energy, matter, and sustainability among other issues in order to graduate.  Why is that bad? We need to teach kids the full story about the environment and the challenges they will face, we can’t ruin the planet and burden future generations further by not telling them the full story.

No one really knows what’s behind the right wing’s radical agenda, other than billions of dollars (thanks Koch brothers)!

Environmental Education and playing outdoors in nature is a child’s fundamental right.  Kids these days spend 7-8 hours in front of a screen and only 4-7 minutes outside in unstructured play.  Therefore, any measure such as a graduation requirement that will get our kids off the couch and out of doctor’s offices waiting for adolescent diabetes medication should be welcomed with open arms, not ridiculed as a “conspiracy indoctrination” scheme as “so and so” put it.   Hannity and the Tea Party enthusiasts want to keep our kids indoors, pumped up with sugar and fat, so once they wake up from their food haze they will be powerless and unprepared to reverse the damage being inflicted on our planet!

Environmental literacy is a pathway to maintaining U.S. technological leadership — by helping kids stay interested in and not bored by science and technology.

Environmental Education will not only prepare our children to be stewards of the environment but it will provide them with the skills necessary to innovate and lead in the 21^st Century clean energy economy.  Therefore, Maryland’s environmental education requirement should be cheered by anyone who cares about the future of our economy and ranking in the world!  The question we need to ask is why Hannity doesn’t want our kids to lead in the inevitable green economy? Why are they so bent on holding America back?

We need a thoughtful and educated workforce prepared to take America forward, not the noise of a clan of people with antiquated ideals that want to take our country “back” to the 20^th Century!

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The lunchtime briefing room was packed with Senate staff eager to learn more about how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) education programs play an intrinsic part in understanding the “Four Es” of 21^st century global competitiveness: Environment, Economy, Energy and Education.   The event was moderated by Campaign for Environmental Literacy director Jim Elder.

Since the agency was created in 1970, NOAA has supported education projects that cover topics related to ocean, atmospheric, climate, and environmental sciences.

While most job titles in this century will remain the same, the skill sets and thinking required to be successful will be different.  To be successful, the United States will need a broad base of workers who understand the deep connections between environmental stewardship and economic development.

How the United States can lead in the 21st Century

The global leaders of the 21^st century will be those countries that put the most investment in environmental innovation and sustainable energy, and currently the United States lags behind.  The steps that we take in the next few years regarding environmental education will decide our place in the global economy.

Our education systems must provide a comprehensive environmental knowledge base, especially in relevant sciences, in order to foster the innovation and discoveries needed to maintain our competitiveness in an increasingly challenging global economy.

In addition to Kevin and Jim, the following leaders attended today’s briefing:

- Sharon Walker, Director of Education and Outreach, Institute for Marine Mammal Studies-Center for Marine Education and Research, Gulfport, MS;
- Martin Storksdieck, Director, and Michael Feder, Senior Program Officer, Board of Science Education, National Research Council; and
- Louisa Koch, Director of Education, NOAA

Read National Wildlife Federation’s 2010 Back to School: Back Outside report to learn about the impact of outdoor and environmental education, outdoor time and nature study on student motivation, effectiveness at learning, classroom behavior, focus and standardized test scores.