Saturday, November 26, 2011

School of reduction


by Silvia Musso

Again this year the schools have not been denied. For the third year, in fact, the percentage of participation of schools at EWWR has been very high.

As already shown by the action of the Pozzuoli School (Naples province), which in 2009 had won the European Award for schools category, the strengths that make effective the initiatives proposed by schools are the involvement of the community and the will to extend their duration at the whole school year. From all over Italy the enthusiasm and interest of students, teachers and headmasters on environmental issues of waste prevention widespread beyond the narrow boundaries of school walls to involve different actors: households, neighborhoods, people, shops.

Thanks to EWWR environmental education activities from few hours cut throughout the school year hve become true programming to be integrated to traditional programs.

This is what the three schools, among many others, demonstrated.

The “Istituto Comprensivo of Fiano” (Turin province, north Italy) with “Lo Zero Rifiuto!!! …. Buone pratiche sul territorio” (Zero waste!...Good pratctises on territory) conducted a brainstorming session on ways to reduce waste at school and organized a visit to a site that deals with the problems of waste and its reduction (composting site, company repair shop, second hand ...). It also began to network different local actors - municipalities, mountain communities, industries - for a project to be realized in the future and aimed at waste reduction, with the realization of a conference or a projection of films followed by discussion and an exhibition on the activities and achievements of students adressed to parents and inhabitants.

The “Istituto Comprensivo Galileo Chini – Scarperia” (Florence province, centre Italy) November 21st with "Rifiutili" (Useful waste) has sparked a number of initiatives that will continue throughout the school year. Students and teachers will dedicate to the creation of a laboratory of recycled paper, visit the store "Mercatopoli" that sells second hand items, to read passages about the restoration, reuse and recycle, reuse for the snack food not consumed during the lunch, etc. The parents of the students will also be involved in workshops as well as work of restoration of old objects in the school, to be sold during the year in the flea markets of the city centre, in the exchange of used textbooks, maintenance and renovation of school buildings and restoration and sale of used games.

The “Primo Circolo Solofra” (Avellino province, South Italy) instead made a real ecological week where the most important element was the involvment not only of students, engaged in "Operation Empty Garbage Bin", but also of their families. Parents had to agree to accompany their children to school on foot throughout the Week and to organize at home information meetings with relatives and friends to spread some good waste prevention practises to play in the week.

The schools have become a source of prevention messages addressed to the whole community through not extemporaneous actions, but integrated in educational activities, in continuity with previous years and with the cooperation of families and other local actors. The academic world has shown that the EWWR in these three years has succeeded in its main communication objective: to make the waste reduction a common practice, a lifestyle and not only a sporadically activity as teacher Anna Maria Dreoni of Scarperia claim: «The school has always had an eye for environmental education, adhering to initiatives and projects that, broadly speaking, had the intent to educate pupils to feel good in their environment. We think that in the first cycle is the fundamental task of the school teachers to educate children to the economical use of objects and their affairs and hence resources. EWWR offers us the opportunity to tell our children that we are in a broader horizon, which at the same time in which they reflect and carry of the laboratories, there are millions of children and young people across Europe who think the same problems and perform activities similar to theirs».

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