Green Schools Don't Make the Grade, But Someone Makes the Green

After reading the article about "green" changes being made to several pilot schools in Washington state aimed at not only making schools more environmentally friendly, costing 30-50% less to operate, reducing absenteeism by 10% (because students would be healthier, ha ha), and improving test scores; all I could think about was John Gatto's book "Weapons of Mass Instruction".  I really wanted to ask myself "when will all of this end?".  As a soon-to-be science teacher, I am a huge advocate for doing anything that truly works on the "green" principle.  It is of extreme importance that we try to do things in order to protect our environment.  After reading the results of the article, I have come to the conclusion that some special interest group, (maybe the people doing the construction, maybe a governmental agency, maybe even someone in the educational system) dangled the it's-all-about-the-kids-and-their-test-scores carrot in order to have their project approved.  By the summer of 2007, all but one of the pilot schools had been open for at least one year and data were available to compare their performance with conventional schools recently built in the same districts (Myers, 2008).  A summary of the results showed that in no case were the green schools the most energy efficient (never mind supposedly costing 30-50% less), there was no evidence supporting a reduction in absenteeism, and the green schools costs were nearly 6% more to operate than the regular schools.  Millions of dollars were spent on a project that actually increased the cost of operations.  Apparently somebody didn't read Greg Katz's book "Greening America's Schools:  Costs and Benefits" stating that green schools use 33% less energy and 32% less water than conventional school buildings.  The concept of converting schools to make them greener is a relatively new one, so advocates of this program need to do a lot more planning and research before billions of dollars are wasted.  Maybe we should start with baby steps by teaching students about things they can do themselves to help the environment. A science teacher named Chris Bergmann from Colorado takes his students on a trip to  learn about sustainability practices and to take the environmental practices they observe being used in nature and brainstorm how to apply them to their own community.  Throughout the year, the students work on improving their own school environment, which has led to the development of a compost system. The class also hopes to gain approval from administrators to build a garden and a greenhouse (Ash, 2011).  I believe the student-centered approach is much more practical and cost-effective than wasting money on ineffective buildings-give that money to the students for their garden and greenhouse!

References:
Ash, K. (May 26, 2011).  'Green schools' benefit budgets and students report says.  Retrieved from http://www.leef-florida.org/net/content/go.aspx?s=96818.0.0.37432

Gatto, J.  (2009).  Weapons of mass instruction.  Gabriola Island, BC:  New Society Publishers

Myers, T. (August 23,2008).  Green schools don't make the grade.  Retrieved from http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba622