NY Times: Teaching Green
The New York Times
Teaching Green, Beyond Recycling
By MIREYA NAVARRO and SINDYA N. BHANOO
Published: January 10, 2010
Jose Chirino, a 10th grader in Brooklyn with shoulder-length hair and a thin mustache, says flatly that his high school was his last choice.
“They’re experimenting on us,” he said, recalling his first impression of the Green School in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which laces an environmental theme into most of its coursework.
Jennifer Auceda, 17, was similarly wary, given that she wanted to be a singer and never saw herself as a “science person.”
“I thought it was going to be about the inside of trees,” she said.
But the two reluctant recruits, who had both failed to get into the high schools they favored, said they were won over after realizing that the school casts a wide net.
Rather than simply covering predictable topics like recycling and tree planting, they say, it has alerted them to problems like sooty air and negative media representations of their neighborhoods.
“Green is not just the environment,” Jennifer said. “It’s politics, government, social justice.”
“We do a lot of things other schools are not doing,” said Jose, 15. “I feel like we’re doing something important.”
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