When education issues make headlines in Los Angeles, the subject’s often bad nutrition and obesity at best and deleterious budget cuts at worst. So visiting Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale, Calif., is like stepping into an unexpectedly healthy green oasis — with organic fruit trees, compost bins for food waste — and a healthier vending machine with lots of organic options!
ECHS has an eco-curriculum of environmental education and activism called Green Ambassadors — and signs of this green-minded thinking can be seen all over the small campus. Students can eat their lunch on benches designed into drought-resistant gardens — or by a seasonal stream that doubles as a natural flood deterrent that recharges the local aquifer — or on the recycled concrete (a.k.a. urbanite) seats of an outdoor ampitheater. Post-meal, students throw what can’t be recycled or composted into bins appropriately-labeled “Landfill.”
Nonprofits like ReDiscover and Bring Your Own work closely with ECHS — but even big corporations — like Staples Eco Easy for office supplies and Radio Shack for battery recycling collection — take part in the eco-curriculum. Even ECHS’s art classes bring in environmental awareness, with many art projects incorporating recycled and upcycled materials.
The green initiatives at ECHS is getting the attention of educators all over California. Sara Laimon, Director of Green Ambassadors, said that the school recently picked 10 public schools in California to participate in a Green Action Curriculum Project intended to incorporate environmental education and awareness into school curriculums across the state.
Sundance Channel viewers may have seen the Green Ambassadors in action on a “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” episode a couple years ago. Students working on an “Rise Above Plastics” program built boats out of discarded plastics and floated them down Ballona Creek!
Environmental Charter High School’s open to all high school students in L.A. County. Want to find a similar school in your neighborhood? Visit Green Charter Schools, an organization that supports the “establishment, enhancement and advancement of charter schools with environment-focused educational programs and practices,” for a list of like-minded green schools.
That’s awesome.
Comment by Dave Bullock — June 9, 2009 @ 1:11 pm
I taught art for a long time until I got sick of the golden handcuffs of tenure. I have dreamed of a school like this!
Now I make kefir, goat cheese, fermented vegetables, “chips” made with dehydrated leaves…..all kinds of things that I’d love to teach kids. I’ve pulled up the lawn to make a food garden, which is teaching me a lot. I’ve made cob structures and helped build straw bale houses.
I’m so glad to know that you are in the world. May I come visit? I live in Ventura, not all that far away.
Comment by Silani Wahlgren — July 12, 2009 @ 6:32 pm
Silani — Maybe you can teach workshops at local schools? I’m sure kids would enjoy making and eating goat cheese — Yum!
Comment by Siel — July 13, 2009 @ 5:44 pm
sigh…………sure, right! At a regular school? I highly doubt it.
Comment by silani — July 13, 2009 @ 6:23 pm
Times are a changing — Don’t give up! :)
Comment by Siel — July 20, 2009 @ 5:52 pm