Enlightening the Youth of America

Hey all,

Over the University's "spring break" I was privileged enough to be given the opportunity to return to my high school in Ironton, OH to to carry out a segment on Caring for God's Creation with the 7-12 grade Religion Classes. Luckily, my mother is the religion teacher and she allowed me free reign so long as I tied it back to stewardship...aka River Stewards.

Prior to my arrival the students completed a worksheet dealing with their watershed and a preview into water stewardship; they also watched Blue Gold: World Water Wars. This gave them a general sense of a discussion into water resources (as well as scared them a bit). Then, I helped them map where our town obtains its water, how our society cleans our water, why we clean our water, and how the energy is generated. By the end of the discussion, the students were generally confused. Then, they had their "Eureka moment" where they realized, "This system doesn't work."

I also threw in some sustainability facts into the discussion. Mainly, I gave them a worksheet tracking their habits on conserving water, waste, energy, and general environmentally friendly habits. I enjoyed seeing them understand how their habits affected them in other parts of their lives. At the end of the session, I challenge them to choose one habit from each section and to work all month on changing that particular habit. My mother is following up with them in the coming weeks to see if any of their habits have been altered as a result of this.

Overall, this experience was priceless and I look forward to interacting with more students in the future. I believe that by exposing my generation and the generation below me to issues that deal with building a sustainable future, then we will witness great change in our lifetime.

With River Love,
Anthony