While we trust that parents and teachers are educating children about the environmental ills of plastic pollution, the time has come to consider using more than just our words. Perhaps more powerfully than anything we might say to them, our actions speak volumes to the next generation when it comes to plastic prevention for kids.
Conscious Modeling
When it comes to behavior, actions and attitudes are caught as well as taught. This principle has implications for how we train the next generation regarding plastic recycling and environmental care. First, we must ensure that our actions absolutely match up with our words. Little is more off-putting to a child than an adult who doesn’t practice what they preach. Second, we can rest assured that even if students don’t hear everything that we say, they still have an opportunity to learn by seeing what we do.
Some would argue that modeling behavior is one of the most vital positions someone in a teaching role can assume.
Modeling, explaining, and demonstrating are essential teaching activities if all children are to learn to read and write. Teachers model the reading and writing processes by engaging in them while children observe. Reading aloud to children, for instance, provides a model of how reading sounds and how stories go (Education).
Children can learn all the reading and writing theory that they can handle, but unless a teacher shows them the theories in action, they’re missing a key component in the learning process.
The same can be said of teaching kids about preventing plastic pollution.
Internalized Values
Our goal for the next generation, of course, is not just that they learn methods for preventing plastic pollution but that they also internalize a value system that emphasizes caring for the environment. If they’re able to do that, they will be able to build on what they’ve been taught, providing the next generation with everything they need to protect the environment within their own context.
Together, let’s teach them a better way.
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This is a really great article. Thank you. If we don’t start with our kids and get it into their consciousness at the start, the ever increasing problem of plastic pollution that is causing such harm to our environment will continue. It may take a generation for the real impact to hit, but we need to start and continue the education process. Thanks for a really important article!