Title:
Getting Schools Not Just to Go Green but Teach It,
Too
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
Charter schools operate with public money but
without many of the rules that govern traditional
public schools. In the United States the rules for
charter schools differ from state to state. But in
general these schools have greater freedom to decide
what to teach and how to teach it. A charter school
might be independent or connected to the local
public school system. It might be started by
teachers, parents, community groups or, in some
cases, a profit-making business.
The "charter" is a performance contract. It
establishes the goals of the school and other
details like how student performance will be
measured. Forty-seven million students attend
traditional public schools. But more than a million
students attend charter schools.
And now a group of charter schools have formed the
Green Charter Schools Network. The idea is to have
environmentally friendly school buildings but to
also go further than that.
The schools teach students to become involved in
community issues that affect them and the
environment. For example, young children grow crops
in a school garden and learn about healthy eating.
Older students help recycle waste from the
cafeteria. And local schools share what they grow in
community gardens with people in need.
Jim McGrath is president of the Green Charter
Schools Network. He says there are about two hundred
"green" charter schools across the United States.
He says the plan is to also include traditional
public schools as well as private schools. He says
every action we make has an effect on the earth. And
we all need to be change agents so that we do not
destruct our natural resources for future
generations.
The Green Charter Schools Network holds its first
national conference this October in Minnesota. It
will include companies and organizations like Waste
Management and the United States Green Building
Council. Supporters of green schools say their goal
is to expand the movement across the country.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report.
Is your school doing anything special to "go green"?
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
