Little echoesters revolutionize the house
The students of the fourth year of Primary Education of the Francesc de Borja Moll school in Palma de Mallorca have a mission every year: they must prepare a plan to reduce waste and electricity spending in their homes: “Based on what they have first learned inClass on responsible consumption, energy production or sustainability, students investigate with their families how they can improve these aspects in their homes, ”explains Rubén Alarcón, professor at this school.A project that makes the little ones the echsuceros of their families.
Alarcón puts some examples of the students' recipes: “Concentrate several devices on a strip and turn it off when they are not used;Check the energy efficiency of appliances and assess whether you can buy a best category;Talk to colleagues who live nearby to go and return from school and not use several cars ... ".In this way, the kids manage to save their families for a few euros while acquiring sustainable habits so that, when they are adults, they make decisions in their homes.
Los niños se han convertido en influencers de sus familias, como revela el informe The Little Big Book, de la consultora especializada en marketing infantil The Modern Kids & Family.Its general director, Miguel González, explains that children are a way to raise awareness among adults."They influence the consumption decisions that their parents make and can modify habits at home," says González.
The commitment to sustainability is not yet a priority for homes, according to the global report who cares, who does, prepared by the Kantar consultancy.The family nuclei in which actions are carried out to reduce the environmental footprint are still minority.However, children and adolescents can reverse this situation now helping to raise awareness among their elders and, in the future, becoming responsible adults.This is demonstrated by this report, in which progressive growth is projected in the next decade of households aware of the environment and active in sustainable habits.
"Environmental awareness, or towards any cause, begins in childhood, is consolidated in adolescence to subsequently put into practice in adulthood," González explains.And he adds: "That is why environmental education is essential at an early age".
A sparing school curriculum in environmental education
School centers have a fundamental role in this work, as Laura Benítez, Environmental Education Coordinator of the NGO SEO/BirdLife explains.However, currently the integration of this subject into the primary school curriculum is scarce in Spain, according to the Report Review of Content on Climate Change in the SEO/BirdLife school curriculum."We refer in the title to climate change, but the study is also set in other environmental concepts such as sustainability, use of resources or the protection and conservation of nature," says Benítez.
The report reveals that only 20% of the entire school curriculum addresses issues related to climate change, although the results are disparate between the 17 autonomous communities, Ceuta and Melilla.In the Basque Country and Andalusia, the presence of this environmental knowledge widely exceeds the average of the national territory, with 65.2% and 56%, respectively;while in the Community of Madrid this percentage is 5.3%.
At the Nuestra Señora de Begoña school in Barakaldo (Bizkaia), the teaching team is not difficult to integrate environmental education in the different subjects, in other extracurricular activities or in the school environment, as one of its teachers, Sara Calvo,.“For years we have an ecological orchard within the school, we have adapted the energy resources of the center with LED bulbs and tap aerators to reduce water waste;We also carry out environmental awareness activities within the classroom and in the patio;And we organize days in which families participate, ”says Calvo, who ensures that this is due to“ the philosophy of the center, carved after many work ””.
However, this is not usually the general tonic of the Spanish educational centers “because no environmental training is taught to teachers, so that everything is at the will of the teacher and his sensitivity with the subject to work it orNo ”, Benítez denounces.The Professor of the Francesc de Borja Moll school also regrets this situation: "All the training that is currently offered for teachers revolves around technology and digitalization, but no environmental education," says Alarcón.
From SEO/BirdLife they hope that the new Lomloe Educational Law, approved in December 2020, feels the basis for an improvement in the integration of environmental education in the school curriculum."At the moment he contemplates it, but it has not been specified how Benítez points out, which adds:" It should develop as a specific subject and, of course, train teachers and strengthen knowledge with the presence of external educators ".
The responsibility of the private company
As the SEO/BirdLife expert points out, "the awareness in the environmental field of children is not only a task of the educational community, public administrations and families, but of the whole society".In this regard, private entities can also collaborate.An example of how companies can do it is sharing their knowledge.The company Leroy Merlin launched six years ago the Hazlo Verde project, which seekswork fundamental issues framed on the UN Sustainable Development Agenda.
Each edition of this project revolves around an environmental aspect, as María Morales, Leroy Merlin's business specialist and dolo green coordinator.For the 2021-2022 course, it will focus on the circular economy, "a fundamental sustainability model today and that must be incorporated into the pedagogical curriculum".
"Children are very aware of aspects such as recycling, but perhaps not so much with the repair or reuse of materials, which are fundamental to sustainable resource management," says Morales."The little ones have a much more open mind than adults and are more creative, understanding the circular economy and reinventing objects is easier for them".
The green dolo website proposes different didactic activities to perform in the classroom.In addition, volunteers from the Corporation develop online workshops and in educational centers to show students how to reuse waste and turn them into new useful objects for day to day.
Both the Francesc de Borja Moll school and the Our Lady of Begoña have participated in several editions of the Green Hachalo Contest that, “also to raise awareness among students and motivate them to carry out different activities”, as Rubén Alarcón and Sara Calvo count, marks awork path in the environmental area of schools.
Dice Miguel González que los pequeños configuran el mundo en el que viven a partir de lo que oyen y lo que ven “en casa, en el colegio, en la calle, en la televisión… Por eso es tan importante abordar la situación medioambiental, que se hable de ello”, añade el director de The Modern Kids & Agency, agencia que colabora con Leroy Merlin en la elaboración del programa de Hazlo Verde.
In fact, both González and those responsible for Leroy Merlin agree that “children show empathy towards everything that surrounds them much greater than adults.Awakening in them that sensitivity towards nature is simple, you just have to offer you the information in an attractive way;The methodology varies depending on age, but the objective is the same: that they receive a correct training that allows them to assume their responsibility as citizens in the future ”.
