Library of Congress
DCL
Getting to School:
Perhaps the single biggest contributor to your kid's carbon footprint is the trip to and from school. Nobody seems to walk to school any more; old smoking yellow cheesewagons pick the kids up, or mom or dad drive the kids. It is, as always, a design problem; our neighbourhoods used to be designed so that people could easily walk around them on grids of streets. But suburban, cul-de-sac designs connected by arterial speedways makes walking to school arduous and often dangerous. 71 percent of parents with school-aged children walked to school themselves, only 18 percent of their children do, while 53 percent are driven to school. (see Getting Students to Walk It Out) The culture of fear that has developed makes it impossible to even consider a kid walking alone to school.
Some are fighting this with walking school buses, where "drivers" walk the streets to pick up kids who walk in a group to school, getting important exercise and air.
Bicycling your child to school is almost as fast as driving; get the child a cheap bike and an expensive lock so that you can leave the kid's bike at school while you do the round trip. In the Netherlands, "Many Dutch children bike to school and back which takes 30 minutes a day or more 5 times a week until they are 16 years or older." (see Why Do the Dutch Like Bikes So Much?)
There are other more esoteric ways of getting around; I know one Toronto parent who takes his kid to school on the tail end of a longboard.
More on Biking to School:
Bike to School... Win Gold Medal at Olympics!
[ur="http://www.treehugger.com/culture/decatur-high-school-principal-rides-his-bike.html"]Decatur High School Principal Rides His Bike[/url]
What You Get When You Get to School:
James Howard Kunstler notes that these days, schools look like prisons and prisons look like schools. Ever since Columbine, schools have had controlled access, minimal windows and natural light, and now require year round air conditioning and mechanical ventilation. If you have the choice, go old-school, with high ceilings and big windows. Your kid will be happier.
Make Low-Carbon School Lunches:
Get your kids used to the fact that there doesn't have to be meat in every meal. Get a Japanese Bento Box set and fill it with lots of different things chosen for seasonality, local and low carbon. This is how kids used to eat and they didn't starve. Vegan Lunch Box has great school lunch meal planning ideas!
More on food and carbon:
Less Meat = Less Heat : TreeHugger
Vegetarian Diet Could Cut Climate Change Mitigation Costs by 70 ...
Put Music Back on the Schedule
Music programs have been cut across North America as unimportant. But now there are very few kids who can actually enjoy themselves without plugging something in and passively participating. A musical education can lead to a lifetime of low-carbon, low-tech entertainment.
Got a tip or a post idea for us to write about on Planet Green? Email pgtips (at) treehugger (dot) com.
