Green Schools Facing Opposition

We covered the green schools movement in the magazine recently and also in this blog. It’s clear that certain environmentally friendly measures (like natural lighting) also make schools better learning environments.

But schools that are trying to implement green initiatives in Southern California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington are facing opposition.

Administrators are worried that some green projects will distract from learning and prove to be expensive, passing fads.

One detractor explains: “Students need very basic skills, and those are so much more important than getting an emotional high because they’ve done something supposedly for the environment…”

We’d argue emotional highs from good deeds are pretty damn important. Anyway, learning to care about your world is a “basic skill.”

The article is at NYTimes.com.