Issues > July/August 2006 (#115) > The Top 10 Green Schools in the U.S.: 2006

The Top 10 Green Schools in the U.S.: 2006

The pressure is on for kids to achieve high marks from a very early age, with college choices and future salaries hanging in the balance. But many schools are failing to prepare children on two fronts—by not providing them healthy environments in which to do their best, and by neglecting to integrate the environment into their curriculum, particularly in terms of outdoors learning and using the natural world as a teaching tool. A healthy school building is no small matter when nationwide asthma attacks result in 14 million missed school days each year and exposure to peanuts and tree nuts can prove fatal. Beyond eliminating allergens and chemical contaminants, schools need to better the conditions in which kids perform, offering more daylight (shown to boost test scores when glare and noise are eliminated), providing healthy meals, and cycling out stale air.

At the same time, parents, teachers and administrators are asking themselves if our model for teaching is so good, why are the people graduating from our premiere educational institutions making such shortsighted decisions about the world? By preparing children to take responsibility for the wellbeing of the natural world, schools provide our best opportunity in the long run to solve problems such as global warming. The green schools in this year's survey ensure students are grounded in the fundamentals and expand children's relationships to the wider, natural world. Whether it be maintaining lo'i in Hawaii, stocking salmon in a Northwest stream, or mapping the depths of Wisconsin lakes, these schools help build a child's sense of place in the world that goes beyond their SAT scores.

Healthy Minds in Healthy Schools
The indoor environment is critical when it comes both to improving academic performance and maintaining students' health. Whether at school or at home, children face cancer risks from breathing hazardous volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) that are every bit as serious as those incurred from breathing second hand smoke, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives (in press). Formaldehyde, which can offgas from plywood and pressboard furnishings, and 1,4-dichlorobenzene, found in mothballs and deodorizers, posed the greatest cancer risks, according to measurements from air samplers worn by teens in New York and Los Angeles. But by adhering to green construction standards, such as those of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), schools can remove the worst offenders from the classroom. Formaldehyde emitting particle boards, for example, can be replaced by no-VOC wheatboard. Mold reduction and use of green cleaning products will improve indoor air quality and help eliminate triggers for asthmatic attacks.

PAGE 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12  NEXT