Is Our Education System Failing Our Planet?

My 12 years old daughter didn’t know what a sustainable house is as she called me from her room asking me to help her with school homework. My daughter had no clue, imagination, or a solid idea what sustainable meant. What adds insult to injury, she had no idea why she was supposed to do this in the first place.

With a lot going on in the world, from climate change to wars to poverty...etc., sustainability is a topic of concern. Educational organizations as well as big industries, corporations and individuals are placing focus on the development of sustainable practices.

From an educator perspective, I once worked in a school that used to spend around 60000aed annually, with an annual paper consumption that can reach up to 360,000 sheets on average. At the same time, we used to annually celebrate earth day and lead awareness campaigns to go green. Does it add up? In my mind, it doesn’t. I felt that our education system failed our students. I failed them as I was part of a system that confused them.  The message is not translated right. In fact, I feel that we send those kids a loud message of living double standard.  It’s as if we’re telling them, it’s okay not to walk the talk. Yes, we may have taught kids in school to save energy, make them aware of alternative sources of energy, and we may have taught and led campaigns to have a more environmentally friendly living. Yes, we may have done all of that, but have we done enough?  Learning about sustainability is not an activity or an event, it is rather a lifestyle, it is more of a daily practice. It is a core knowledge to be integrated into our curriculums. I would argue that sustainable development goals should be the base of school challenges to push students to think critically at the world’s around and then allow them to become creative leaders of the future.

In my teaching and advising practices, I have always seen the cross-curriculum links essential. These are powerful elements of teaching where we connect our kids to higher learning experience when making eco-friendly choices and conserve earth’s resources.