“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
–Nelson Mandela
Millions of Americans are still unaware of the problems surrounding the current environmental crisis. Although eco-consciousness across the country seems to be steadily growing, we have to wonder why more people aren’t actively posing more questions about these issues? In 2015, the United States Census Bureau reported that 62.7% of people were living within incorporated places/cities. Still, major infrastructural changes that remove a lot of environmental stresses, such as overusing natural resources, are not being seriously considered by both the state and its citizens.
Juggling between college and work, I find it difficult to engage in minor scale sustainability practices like composting. Although I try to do my part by aggressively refusing single-use plastic, I’m privileged to live in a city where I can drive less than 15 minutes to the nearest health food store, dispense choice dry goods into glass mason jars, then refill my 5-gallon water jug for free before I leave. Life is good in Colorado Springs.
I cannot say that these liberties are shared in my birth state of New Jersey. Newark and its surrounding regions are home to a plethora of fast food chains, liquor stores, and dirty strip malls. Supermarket aesthetics and produce quality vary depending upon the ethnic and economic demographic of each community. In short, the dull cityscape reflects the lackluster reality of its residents.
Who is to blame? A person cannot aspire to what they don’t know. People are not advocating for change within cities because they have settled for preset conditions they were born into. Debasish Mridha states, “The whole purpose of education is to transfer and transform knowledge for the future generations so that they can transcend their lives and humanity as a whole.”
I propose a solution to fixing the issues of food availability within U.S. inner cities through implementing environmental education classes into the K-12 public school curriculum by way of alternative learning models. Environmental education will connect people with the tools they need to better themselves and their immediate environment. Cross-curricular learning places students into holistic study environments and provides practical hands on experiences. As Gregory Stack from Nac Architecture says, many states are realizing the value of allowing students to connect what they’re learning with what they know about other subjects. Also this engages students to explore a variety of techniques.
My vision for this system is a problem/solution-based curriculum structured on the why’s and how’s. Kids should learn the importance of nutrition and sustainability whilst integrating that knowledge with either an indoor or outdoor growing facility. Involving community members and parents into this process will help improve neighborhood interactions, as well as slowly begin to change the mindset of health within the community. Once the produce has matured, schools can host events like family dinners, and “Growing for Beginners” workshops as well.
Philosophical concepts need to be addressed, too, through an understanding Deep Ecology, which is “an ecological and environmental philosophy promoting the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, plus a restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas.” It’s purpose is to nurture and protect the unique perspective of students. Insidious industrialized racism reduces opportunities for many students to improve their quality of life. Inner city people are not ignorant to the unsavory conditions into which they have been placed. The certainly realise this on 45-minute bus rides to the grocery store. What they are ignorant of are the long term effects that an improper diet and poor air and water quality have on their bodies.
Introducing philosophy at a young age will do more than just help students raise their test scores–it will engage kids in discussions about topics such as environmental ethics, what they consider to be freedom, and so on. Ecological sensitivity leads to a conglomerate of new perceptions, attitudes and judgements’ to create new theories of values and ethics for society. Philosophical minds like Arne Naess encourage people to refrain from relying on politics to solve ecological issues, which creates a “false ecological conscience” where anthropocentric values control a person’s mindset about their environment.
Standardization in our society has reached its peak. Educators and their pupils are becoming increasingly fed up with the results of our outdated educational system. Gen Z young adults, such as myself, have often taken to social media to express how meaningless our middle to high school experiences have been, for these experiences have given us little to no form of real-world knowledge. From Preschool to Kindergarten, children are encouraged to express their sense of individualism within classrooms and are given more hands-on activities to help them memorize material. This nurturing method is fazed out as kids get older and is replaced with an authoritative teaching model that removes student involvement in the classroom almost entirely. There’s no mystery to why teenagers across the country feel largely unmotivated and unconnected to course material.
A school’s purpose within society is to create functioning members. It is obvious that this definition has become lost within lower income districts. “Zeroing in on Place and Race” explains that a larger percentage of young adults (ages 16 to 24)–specifically Native American, African American, and Hispanic American communities–are “disconnected,” meaning not enrolled in school or working. Living without purpose can prove highly self destructive, causing substance addictions and increasing a person’s likelihood of being involved with law enforcement. Hands-on learning opportunities through environmentalism are essential in that people are more conscious of their personal and communal impact. Environmental programs will not only reduce the feeling of displacement by setting in place mentorship programs, they will also fulfill community service requirements needed for continuing education.
Examples of successful programs are not hard to find. For instance, The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Memphis offers a culinary arts and hospitality program called Garden to Groceries, which teaches young adults entrepreneurship, marketing, and customer service skills. Participants also learn basic cooking and catering techniques within a commercial kitchen. This program and many others provide students with the tools, knowledge, and experience they need to further their professional and personal development. Their 480 foot greenhouse is home to several vertical garden towers in which students harvest herbs and vegetables year round.
As the club website puts it, “By growing vegetables, teens have learned about whole foods, offering new insights into the process each product goes through from farm to table. Through a partnership with the Memphis Zoo and Rosie Hills Field University, students also learn more traditional gardening methods that rounds out their experience.” Most importantly, this program has broadened the palette of other club members by challenging students to prepare nutritious meals for their peers.
Tiffanie Grier, former job placement specialist for the Boys and Girls of Memphis, notes, “The sense of pride and accomplishment is overwhelming. And these are kids that, when they started, didn’t know what pesto was.” 85% of the kids in this community come from single family homes. They reside in high crime and poverty neighborhoods and are at or below the federal poverty line (by 200%). However, statistics indicate that students enrolled in the Boys and Girls club are 99% more likely to graduate from high school. Through the club’s connections, students are not only graduating, they are also able to go straight into their career fields and/or college.
Decades of redlining and strategic urban form have caused the continuation of ghetto-like conditions to worsen in U.S. cities. Simple liberties such as having a consistent means of transportation are often expensive and hard to come by for families. The two most convenient ways for people to get around in a city are by walking or public transportation. Walking to school is a problem because “neighborhood schools may be far from students because of school closures for poor performance, low enrollment or budget issues.” Main industrial activities contributing an increased greenhouse effect come from large factories, transportation, electricity and residential areas.
A backhanded benefit to transportation issues is that a percent of city populations aren’t contributing to CO2 emissions leaked from using cars because they cannot afford them. A study by Safe Routes National Partnership found that 33% of low-income African Americans and 25% of low income Latino families lack access to a car. A good attempt at remedying these issues comes from Washington D.C, where the program “Kids Ride Free” have been installed to help provide students transportation for their daily commute.
Parents are not only sacrificing better paying jobs to provide transportation for their children. They also have to set aside more time for grocery runs. Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, states that 23.5 million Americans living in low income areas have to travel more than a mile to get to the nearest supermarket. Food deserts are communities that lack convenient access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and other whole food items. Many cities are also hampered by an abundance of fast food chains and corner stores that mainly carry snack foods, sodas, and canned goods. One of the main duties of teaching environmental education in schools is to develop students into self-sufficient, informed individuals. Growing their own food will motivate them to learn varying qualities of their produce. This first-hand knowledge will make them more informed buyers with A1 purchasing practices.
In order for education to be impactful for minority students, schools must show examples of people of color leading in urban gardening. Known as the “gangsta gardener,” Ron Finley is breaking down the existing system of food inequality in South Central, California by actively planting fruits and vegetables around his neighborhood. In his TED Talks video, “A guerilla gardener in South Central LA,” Finley describes how the terrible conditions of his neighborhood inspired him to take on gardening, and how illegal gardening on sidewalks have fed the people of his community. In the beginning segment of his speech, Finely proposed an open ended question to the audience, “How would you feel if you had no access to healthy food? If every time you walked out the door you see the ill effects that the present food system has on your neighborhood?”
Important questions like these need to be considered more often in school board meetings and administrative offices. More parents should be enraged that they are forced to travel so far for quality food. Finley offers free food to his neighborhood through actions of paying it forward. A Vogue article notes that he “also hosts field trips to the Gangsta Garden, where children learn how to plant fruits and vegetables, and he organizes community events that feature fresh food made from the produce he grows.”
Concrete testimonials from residential impact should be the driving force for adopting sustainable models within schools. Urban gardening is a helpful insourcing tool that inherently strengthens neighborhoods by creating purpose through active education and job opportunities. By providing after school gardening and mentorship programs, the everyday lives of parents, students, and community members alike will become more intertwined. This will further the balance of responsibilities and lighten community related stress, while simultaneously solving major environmental issues caused by inner city pollution.
Atmospheric pollution is another problem for inner city people. Air quality alone is disturbed by surrounding infrastructure, such as power plants, chemical manufacturers, and metal producers, as well as automotive traffic, leading to key respiratory issues for people living within the cities. The EPA describes particulate matter as a combination of liquid and solid particles in air that embed themselves deep within the lungs and bloodstream, causing or inflaming asthma, non-fatal heart attacks, and irregular heartbeat. Atmospheric pollution also damages agriculture, specifically by decreasing the nutrient content within the soil and river beds.
The Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine’s research suggests that “African American and lower socioeconomic status groups are at independent risk factors for asthma prevalence, morbidity, and death.” Kathy Andria, President of the American Bottom Conservancy, explains that cities are still receiving industrial emissions no matter which direction the wind is blowing. Moreover, many of these cities lack funding to support a change in infrastructure for their inhabitants. They’re still using century old pipes and buildings in the community till this day.
Crisp, a 42-year-old St. Louis native, encourages teaching early asthma education to children in order to empower them to take control of their condition. In order to encourage more outdoor activities, schools can look to plant green walls/rooftops, as well as flowering trees like apple, pear, magnolia and red maple. Indoor asthma-inducing plants like cacti, ferns, and ivys should be strategically placed throughout the school to improve air quality, reduce allergic reactions, and work as a beautification tool to increase moral.
Student involvement is absolutely necessary, especially in the preliminary process. The first topic of discussion should explain these gardening models: standard in-ground, vertical, and aquaponic. Important factors that both teachers and students need to consider are: Will the project be indoors or outdoors? What is the city’s air and soil quality? How much space will be allotted? Moreover, students need to understand that problems can and will arise. A lesson in managing expectations could help remedy any unfortunate outcomes of the harvest.
No matter where you place a garden, someone needs to tend to it. Volunteer opportunities can be advertised throughout the city to young adults (both in college and not). Constant community engagement is required for maintaining inground school gardens, especially in the off season. For instance, every school working with the non-profit organization Enrich L.A. is supported by a garden ranger “who serves as a teacher, gardener and plumber and is responsible for community outreach, as well as after school maintenance.” With the help of Enrich L.A, Jefferson Elementary has built a cross curricular learning garden called Latino Heritage Garden. It’s aim is to teach language and cultural sustainability by growing a variety of plants from Spanish speaking countries. Many of the children attending Jefferson are of Hispanic descent, making this program even more impactful. Kirsten Harmin, a fellow parent/ garden organizer claims, “There’s nothing more central to each culture than its food, where it comes from and how it’s prepared.”
High start-up costs could pose an issue. As far as funding is concerned, public schools already receive a certain allotment of federal aid, making state and independent fundraising efforts the only other options. A school board implements laws passed by the state legislature and creates local policies for districts and individual schools. Members decide what types of schools get built, what is included in the curriculum, and determines which schools receive funding. Parental involvement is a crucial element in enacting change within the school system. By parents attending board meetings and creating a social media presence, environmental education programs remain well funded.
It is clear that the educational institution is far removed from the practicality of its use. The only thing that’s keeping this system running is mandatory participation and the perceived value of generic information. Malala Yousafzai says that “Education is the best weapon through which we can fight poverty, ignorance and terrorism.” Humans have distressed the planet to its impending end. It is fair to call this unlawful behaviour (by nature’s definition) terrorizing.
At the same time, basic human rights are not being fulfilled. For a large majority of inner-city dwellers, life consists of unpleasant air, water, and food. Unlike their wealthier counterparts, poor people are not able to run away from the effects of massive industrial and agricultural waste. This is a slow demise through literal sensory deprivation. Can the cause of death be suicide if the culture is unaware?
Running is not the answer. The impact of pollution and other negative environmental conditions in any one community cannot be contained, for it spreads due to ignorance and neglect. As a result, we need to establish cross-curricular environmental education for inner city youth to change the quality of their lives and the lives of those in their surrounding communities. Let’s value urban youth and provide a quality environmental educational system that can change the world.
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Kai Gaynor is a writer from the Colorado Springs area.
