The Green Guide
Reading books is an experience that cannot be compared to any other form of learning. There is something special in the process of reading a physical book rather than just reading articles on the internet or e-books. It’s easy to get immersed while reading a book physically. You get to feel it’s touch and anticipate the turning of each page. Not the forget the smell that is unique to books. These are all the things that excite me as a bookworm. But then with the talk of sustainability nowadays it is often a debate between e-books vs physical books. But I want the readers to know that just because you love reading physical books doesn’t mean you’re being unsustainable. If it makes you happy it is not unsustainable. I believe in the coming years almost everything will be digitalized, even the learning experience in school. We are already undergoing the process. It will then become important to not forget the physical experience of books because consumption of digital content is so constant that there is no far solitude of the individual experience like it is with physical books.
Along with getting students to read books I thought it would be great to inform them more about what sustainability actually is and help them understand our nature in order to do so. It’s like killing two birds with one stone. This guide is going to be a weekly magazine that will be available in the school libraries for anyone to access.
Below is the example of how the first edition of the guide will look like.
We begin by introducing the concept of land ethics and making the students aware that all of us have a responsibility towards this Earth.
We introduce the students to the three pillars of sustainability and how all three of them are required to achieve sustainability. This will make the students understand that sustainability is multi and inter-disciplinary.
Every week a new term will be introduced to the students. The word of the week will then be explained with visuals and elaborate information.
To make things interesting short stories and illustrations will be used to make the kids understand sustainability in a fun way and to see things from a different perspective.
Each week an activity sheet will also be attached to the book to make it interactive for the kids as well. For example a coloring sheet introducing nitrogen fixing plants and their qualities.
The topics covered in the later editions could be about the ecosystem functions, energy/toxins in the food chain, man is nature, tragedy of the commons, climate change, planetary limits, sustainable development goals, carrying capacity, earth overshoot day, biodiversity etc.
Slowly like this each week will bring the students a little closer to understanding sustainability.
