Scribble On Both Sides

With an ongoing 30 year debate on nature vs. nurture and which influences children more, we can agree to disagree that both nature and nurture play the leading role in the influences of children. For the topic of ecological intelligence, let’s concentrate on parental influences. No matter how you slice it, your parent’s help you become the person you are today. Children tend to do as their parents do and they come up with their initial routine by what they learned in the home.
If we as parents live our lives with sustainability in mind and make green choices our children will not even know any other way up until they are teenagers. For example: recycling; even as early as a child can scribble. Rather than have them color on one side of the paper, flip it over. Have multiple garbage cans and practice sorting. Try not to waste anything! These are basic little things in life that are usually not given a lot of thought. So many of us are targeting the big ticket items but if we all did our part it would make a huge difference. If a child is taught from the beginning of his/her life to leave the faucet off while brushing their teeth and only turning it on when needed they would be very unlikely to deviate from this process during the rest of their life. For the simple reason of who cares how you brush your teeth?
At this point in our society we realize the need for change but it is a new way of life that will make the greatest impact. When a child is raised in a green home and has a routine of all the little things it takes to keep it green they are learning the way of the future. My point is, our routines are routine. It is as simple as that. We are raised to do things a certain way and it is not over emphasized. Whether it be cleaning the light bulbs bi-monthly to get the most light out of them or turning the lights off as you leave a room. Let’s start our kids off on the right foot and it will be the only foot they know.

Joe Curnes