One of the best ways to inspire change is to start with educating children and younger generations on issues.
Today’s kids are going to be the future of our society.
They will be our future doctors, lawyers, judges, scientists, politicians, journalists, presidents and so much more one day.
From a conservation standpoint, today’s kids will be the future in either saving or further damaging the environment. So what is being done to educate them?
I caught up with my now 13-year old sister, who attended one of the local elementary schools in Western Massachusetts for a majority of her pre-high school years, to find out!
Q & A with Victoria K. on Conservation Education:
Me: So what elementary school did you attend when you were younger?
Victoria: I went to E.N. White Elementary School in Holyoke, Mass.
Me: Did your school have a mascot?
Victoria: Yes! We were the tigers and we were proud of it!
Me: Did you learn anything about the tigers while you went to that school?
Victoria: A ton! We learned that they were big predatory cats that lived in the jungle-regions of Asia, the kinds of animals they hunted, what their stripes were for, and that they were endangered.
Me: Did your class or school ever do a fundraiser to help out tigers?
Victoria: Yes! The school once a year would raise money to ‘adopt a tiger’ through the World Wildlife Fund.
Me: Awesome! Thanks for having the time to chat with me!
Victoria: Anytime!
What I got out of this conversation with my sister is that some schools that have an endangered species, like the tiger for instance, as their mascot, are educating the children that attend their school on the animal, its importance, and things that they can do to help.
If more schools started to use this idea of making an endangered animal their mascot and educating their students about its importance to the environment society might be able to make a big change in our views and motivation on conservation science.
Change starts with us, but future generations are the one who have the ability to take the idea and run with it!
Interested in symbolically adopting a Tiger or another endangered species?
Check out the World Wildlife Fund’s symbolic species adoption page to see how you can help!
The Last Melon 