Uncontested capitalism.

[Tigerhair]

Hi, I hope we can all have a voice... I work in a vets practice which is hugely wasteful by necessity... however, because of my friend and I, they are now re-cycling tins, clear plastic, cardboard, etc and our boss is using low-energy light bulbs, going to put solar panels on the roof... etc. All who work there live locally and therefore don't drive far. I hope that my and my friends voices have changed things there. Small changes in the large world....

[Sarahcook]

I'm teaching the children about recycling, for everything. We are working on having a paperless classroom (which is not as much of an oxymoron as it sounds!) but the amount of pointless paper is what gets me.

I know that I might have my enviromental understandings the wrong way up (and I'm happy to be told I'm wrong!) but surely if we all have PDA's we don't need memos/diaries/timetables/writtenplanning and so on anymore? I hand my subject evidence in on disc to the co-ordinators, and ask for it the same way.

To my mind, we have to start with the children, hope that they affect their parents, and that they are effective as parents when they grow up.

Sarah

[Tigerhair]

Yeah, my little boy, just turned 3 says to me "we can recycle that, can't we mummy"...

[Sarahcook]

Mine is the same. He's 3 and ahalf, and everything goes in the black bin or "in the 'cyclin' bin what's green and has white writing on it?"

(the other one is the tetrapak bin, and he won't attempt that at the moment!)


Sarah

[Shirley]

mine is almost 3 3/4 (the fraction is important when you are that age!!) and he asks about everything.... never throws anything in the bin without asking whether we can recycle it or use it.

Paperless classroom - J is at nursery at the moment.. and the amount of paper he brings home is scary. Big pieces of paper with a splodge of paint in the middle... in fact it's not paper, it's 100% cotton and must cost a fortune.


Muddypause said...

And, most importantly, I don't believe that one person making a change or stating a view is trivial. It is often compared to a drop in the ocean, as if that invalidated it. For example, people often say, in exasperation or resignation, that one person using the car less, or turning the tap off more, is not going to make any appreciable difference to anything. But look at it the other way round; it is exactly that thinking that got us into this mess in the first place - people thinking that their extra car journey, or their tap left running won't make a difference. It has.

You are SO right there mate... and also... one person doing something differently can set a trend, especially if that person isn't preaching but enjoying life and reaping the benefits.

[Tigerhair]

When J and I go the playmill (indoor play centre) they recycle as much as they can. I will actually mention to his nursery about recycling - as I haven't seen much sign of it. I did provide them with some spare plants last year (and some to the cubs as well) to encourage them to grow things...

[eek]

There is a Christian group here (not sure if it's over there or not) that call themselves "Quiverful" families. You are encouraged to have 7, 8 ,9 children to build up God's army to hopefully sway policitics and whatnot in the future. A sort of strategy "if there's more of us, we'll get our way" mentality. Frightful thought and horrible reason to have children. Do you have separation of church and state in Europe?

Most families I know can't afford to have more than 2 kids, and these are "upper middle class" families. I hear it's more expensive living in Europe. My boys are 18 and 13 and will recycle at home (with some prompting at times), but I don't see it happening at school.

With the paperless classrooms comes the disposable/broken/forgotten computer parts that are made with plastics and contain loads of toxic chemicles to produce. Not sure which is better. Slate and chalk? I work at a middle school and the paper trash is rediculous. Have been trying to find a recycling program, but I've been told they had one here in the distant past and the teachers thought it too much of a hassle, so it was axed.

There are many Homeowners associations in the US that require you separate your trash and recycle certain things. It's a start and the kids will hopefully pick up on it and keep it going.

[Annpan]

In Britain church and state are meant to be seperate (I think) but they are linked. The Queen being the head of the anglican church etc. Also I think that all the British PMs have been Anglican (please correct me if I am wrong) There was alot of talk about it all when the pope died because Cherie Blair is a Roman Catholic. (The first non-anglican 'first lady')

The thing with having lots of kids over here is that we have a social security sytstem that in certain circumstances can make you better-off having more children and being unemployed than if you have 2 kids and are both in full-time employment. - I am not saying that is in all cases but certainly happens.

Recycling in schools is the way to start... kids always get excited about things like that and take it home and bully there parents into recycling - I remeber this happening when I was younger with dolphin-friendly Tuna.

Oh... Its all got awfully political..

Ann

All of the above is only my opinion, I am sure other people have other views on the subject.

[Tay]

Do you have separation of church and state in Europe?

In France, yes, but not really in the UK. British kids still have to have religious assemblies at school, people can get legally married in church etc. Here, a church wedding isn't legal. If you want a religious ceremony, you have it at church after the legally binding ceremony at the mayor's office. As for other European countries, I have no idea...