Kids are chomping and dumping like there’s no tomorrow.

 

By Johnette B. Miller

 
Urban educators seem to routinely ignore the tremendous issue of litter in and around neighborhood schools.  Recently, while investigating potential schools for my son, I visited a public school with the best reputation in our area.  I was immediately turned off by potato chip bags, soda bottles and other garbage strewn on the lawn and other parts of the school grounds.  I was disgusted, as I often am upon viewing piles of garbage around the city.  Schools should not only be a safe haven from violence, drugs, etc., but also 
from garbage.

 

Get to the Source  

Parents and schools should be held accountable for this smelly situation.  We already know that many parents aren’t teaching their kids not to dump on the city.  Littering is a form of disrespect. Children are not only dumping on their school, but are constantly dumping in front of and around neighborhood homes.  This is infuriating to local residents.  I definitely am not amused to find garbage abandoned by neighborhood school children in front of my home. I see children toss candy wrappers and drink containers just as naturally as they breathe. However, the most prominent sight amongst stinky sidewalk trash is the potato chip bag.  They are everywhere!  School students are eating chips by the truckload throughout the day. 

But the dirty, discarded bags tell another story.  They speak loudly about how educators have largely ignored the issue amid school bus safety assemblies and career days.  Our students must be made aware that they are damaging their school and neighborhood’s reputation as well as hurting the environment.  We also need to teach them (because many parents obviously haven’t done so) not to eat potato chips and other junk foods for breakfast.
I frequently discuss the litter issue with the students I teach.  I tell them not to complain about their neighborhood or school if they are a part of the problem.  I have taught my own child that if you have a wrapper and there’s no garbage can available, stick it in your pocket or hold onto it until you find one.  I tell my students the same thing. 

I not only practice what I preach, but I take an active role.  For example, if I see a child of any age littering, I confront it.  “Please don’t dump on our neighborhood,” I plead, or I simply say, firmly, “I live in this neighborhood too, let’s keep it clean.”  On one occasion I even said, “Don’t do that!” as a seventh-grader tossed a label from his pants to the ground. “Give that to me.” He actually walked over and gave it to me, and I rolled it up and put it in my pocket. You’ll get a variety of responses: embarrassment, grumbling, blank looks.  But it makes a difference.  And if every teacher made teaching 
litter awareness a priority, we could attack the problem head on.

 

 Litter Awareness Education  

*Discuss the littering issue periodically with your students.

 *Send letters to parents telling them to discuss it with their children and to change, if need be, their own behavior regarding litter.

 *Have at least two assemblies a year on trash and other environmental issues.

*Trash is disgusting. Consider it a real threat to your classroom, your school and your city.

 *Have children clean up their desk area at the end of each day.  Teach them that strewn trash is offensive.  Make sure they pick up papers, wrappers and pencil shavings in their classroom --- no matter who dumped it.  We hope that these good habits taught within the schools will stay with them at dismissal time.  

 *Impose penalties for dumping in and outside of the school.  Show your students the right way even though their parents may not have shown them. 

 *Organize plays where children can act out the theme and lessons learned.  This will add an effective, realistic element they’ll remember.

 *Have your students write essays or reports on trash.  Tie this in to science chapters on trash and the environment.

 *You may want to have a meeting or garbage program for parents, complete with videos and literature.

 *Remember, school clean-up days are short term.  Education lasts forever.

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