Wow, this project conducted in the Bronx combines many of the necessary elements we felt as a class were important to conserving the environment. The fact that many children are the ones responsible for building the “thirsty playground” shows that it is possible to get kids to love nature via our education system. Instead of conducting boring classroom lessons about trees and plants, these schools took a bold step and directed a project that these kids will remember for the rest of their lives. Not only are these kids getting great exposure to the environment, they are also learning how to plant trees and other plants and will no doubt feel a deeper connection with the environment around them especially since they had a part in contributing to the growth and development of the plants at the playgrounds. Not only did the project teach a valuable lesson to the children about the environment, they also learned how to budget and plan their project, which are essential skills that they will need when they become adults.
This is definitely a big step towards the ideas of saving the environment because it included both green infrastructure and also education for the young generation, and shows if children can do it so effectively why can’t adults do it on a larger scale. The article mentions that one playground only took about one million dollars to renovate, which isn’t that much money in the grand scheme of things since you are providing children with a great learning experience and also significantly reducing water pollution levels for years to come. Projects like these will help children foster their relationships with nature around them and when they become adults, they will consider ways to further improve the environment because they were brought up to love and save it. I feel that projects like these should be a required part of the school curriculum because its a win win situation for both the children and the government. The government is essentially getting free labor from the kids to help implement green infrastructure while the children are spending time outside the classroom doing something fun and interactive with nature around them. I guarantee that the kids would rather go outside and plant a few plants rather than listening to boring lessons about how trees grow and develop. Projects like these are definitely heading in the right direction and I hope to see more of them in the near future.
