Green Schools and Student Wellness

A couple of interesting ideas to emerge from last Friday's Green School conference at the Nittany Lion Inn came from the table conversation with other attendees. Among others, I spoke with Donnan Stoicovy, principal of Park Forest Elementary, who has long been an advocate for environmental responsibility coupled with student engagement. I came away more convinced of the importance of approaching "green" issues holistically.

In particular, a lot could be gained by integrating our commitment to environmental responsibility with the district's wellness policy.

For example, should we rethink the district's busing policy, which currently provides transportation to elementary students who live more than one mile from school?  (The secondary threshold is 1.5 miles; the state requirement is 1.5 miles and 2 miles, respectively.) Potentially, this could reduce vehicle emissions, save money, as well as give students a little more physical exercise.

Should we be trying to purchase more locally grown food - or perhaps, try growing it ourselves, as part of the curriculum? In addition to the environmental impact (less pollution from transportation), and the potential for a healthier diet, what would be the educational impact of having students seeing how their food is "made"?  I suspect that our eating habits would change for the better overnight if our food production processes was more transparent.

(In a related note, Slow Food USA’s Central PA chapter recently announced a Labor Day “Eat In” to be held from 3-5pm at the Panorama Elementary School. The community pot-luck is in support of Slow Food’s goal of “getting real food into school lunches.”)

There are also clear benefits to actively involving students in these decisions, both for the educational value, as well as for the increased sense of student engagement in the school community. One presenter showed us four short student-made videos that were produced to encourage environmental awareness within their school. Locally, first and second graders at Park Forest recently took on the challenge of reducing paper towel consumption. - this involved some impressive math - resulting in "One or two will do" stickers being placed on every towel dispenser.