Change current societal norms in Singapore on the issue of sustainability- the young

Change current societal norms in Singapore on the issue of sustainability- the young

In order to change the behavior of the newer generations, the young Singaporeans should develop environmentally friendly and sustainable practices from a young age. This will create societal norms of being sustainable creating a pressure on the young to develop awareness on sustainability and therefore grow into responsible adults who care about the environment.

The method of teaching in government led schools need to be built upon to include learning about the environment and to teach practices that can help save the environment. There are a number of ways that this can be done. Some of them being using the outdoors for learning, learning through solid experiences and real life projects and the involvement of parents and communities. Students in school can be tasked to plant trees around the school which will teach them the value of each tree that has been cut down by man kind. By planting trees students will become more accustomed to the need for a greener environment that integrates nature with infrastructure. Trees produce oxygen that gives us life. This idea should become one of the key foundation of knowledge that a child should learn and thus embrace nature and value it to a greater degree. Children should not have the option to take for granted nature and thus should not seek to exploit nature as our forefathers have done as they now have the knowledge of the true value of the ecosystem and the greenery that surround us. Other mini projects that can be done by the young are mini-projects such as litter-less lunches, responsible cleaning, vegetable garden, native plant regeneration, environmental aesthetics, efficient use of natural resources, frog ponds and butterfly gardens and reusing/recycling. Therefore, sustainability should be ingrained in every child from a young age through the tweaking of the education system.

Teachers should be trained in sustainable living and the situation that the would is in with things like climate change and global warming taking into effect. The teachers in Singaporean schools need to be taught through workshops and even in training to become a teacher, to be more aware on the predicament that the earth is facing and the measures that we need to take in order to mitigate the effects of it. This will enable the educators themselves to more adequately address sustainability issues and make ‘alive’ the values and principles of sustainability in activities with children. The arrangement of high quality training is one of the priority policy concerns that should be considered. Educators must be empowered for sustainability through pre-service and in-service training. It would not do to have educators that don’t believe in sustainability teaching sustainability to young children. Thus it is imperative to teach teachers how to teach sustainability to the youth of the future generations. By doing so the societal norms of the future generations will be ones of protecting the environment and living sustainability.

References:

Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson and Yoshie Kaga (2008) The contribution of early childhood education to a sustainable society (2008)

Retrieved from:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001593/159355E.pdf