Getting to knoooow youuuu....
Let's get to know each other a bit, yeah??
If I'm going to be changing the way your children think about rubbish at home and at day care, you should probably know who I am and why I'm about to do this.
My name is Sam and I work at a tip. I'm also a Mum, an Actor, AND and Librarian.
For those of you who have been following me for a while, you already know that I approach this whole Education for Sustainability (EfS) thing quite differently to others.
I am not an Early Childhood Educator. I am not a Teacher. I am not an Environmental Warrior. Nope. I'm none of those things. What I am, is a Realist. I know the reality of the rubbish we produce and I also know the reality of how we want to deal with it - we don't. We want to be able to throw our rubbish away and not have to think about it again.
If we want to continue to do that, we have to tweak a few thought processes here and there and this is where the realism really comes in....
My message is simple - very few people are going to make radical, sweeping changes to their comfy, comfy lifestyle in order to save the planet; and the great thing is, they don't have to. It's often those huge changes that end up doing more harm than good. They are unsustainable and ultimately inconvenient for most of us, except homesteaders, subsistence dwellers and the odd hipster. Sure, while the idea is still novel, people might put in a huge amount of effort, but after a few weeks, that effort might not feel so novel anymore, and old habits may sneak back in. I have a friend who raises his own crickets for food. He strongly believes the beef industry is unsustainable and environmentally catastrophic and to a certain degree, he's absolutely right. However, I can't see the majority of 21st Century humans giving up a hamburger for crickets, can you? Sure, it's a novel concept, but I think we're a long way off from munching on insects on an every day basis. I have eaten crickets and while they are quite tasty - much like a leggy potato chip, I can't see them taking off any time soon.
What I aim to embed are small, simple changes that are easy to manage and more likely to become inherent:
Easy ways to reduce the amount of rubbish coming out of the home, school, business or Early Learning Centre.
Clever and useful ways to reuse items that would otherwise enter the waste stream.
Well informed recyclers, who know what can be recycled and what can't.
Easy, right? Of course it is! It's a philosophy we all know already - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Because I've spent over five years working in Waste Management, I have deep knowledge of disposal trends and habits and with this knowledge in mind, I created iSEE Programs using the Three R's Principles. My background in children's theatre taught me both the pragmatism and creativity of children and my experience in waste education showed me how they bring both of those qualities together. Give a child a basket of clean recyclables and watch what they do with it. It's incredible!
So that's who I am - I'm the person who wants to work with children to teach them how to change the world, one piece of rubbish at a time.
