If I Were in Charge of the World

I work at an elementary school in a 1st/2nd grade class with witty, hilarious, loving and very smart students. I am always surprised with the amount of knowledge they have already gained in their short 6-7 years of life, and this past week is no exception. Their assignment was to come up with two rules they would enforce if they were in charge of the world. Of course there was a splattering of silly and fun responses, but there were also many caring and responsible responses that surprised me. And I asked myself why? Maybe because these kids have been celebrating Earth Day since they were born. Or because they know why and what to recycle and are aware of where there trash ends up and try not to waste. Or it could be because they cherish the planet and they sincerely want to make it healthier.

Here are some of their responses (in all of their uncorrected glory):

If I were in charge of the world people can't hurt animals and people would also have to reduce, reuse, and recycle to keep our planet clean.
If I were in charge of the world no one would cut off a tree and every kid would be allowed to keep Lego people in their pockets. (my personal favorite :)
If I were in charge of the world everyone has to have one tree on their property or they will get taxed more and only kids under 35 will be allowed to be president.
If I were in charge of the world I would protect all animals so that they won't go extinct and everyone would have to have a recycle bin so we can save more trees.
If I were in charge of the world I will not let anybody chop down trees and I wish that every child in the world will be allowed to put a trampoline in their living rooms!
If I were in charge of the world I would say no one can litter so animals don't die because of environmental stress and I would say you had to be 1 year old to drive.

Later that afternoon I was helping a group of girls with their work and they informed me that they were going to start a new club to help save the Earth. They would have gardening, trash pick-up, cooking and playing with animals workshops. They then asked me if I would like to come and teach a workshop. "I love gardening, can I teach that one?" I asked. "Well, M is doing gardening, I'm doing cooking and N is doing animals. So can you do trash pick-up?" she responded. Figures...

Anyways, I wanted to share these funny and cute tidbits because I find it sort of fascinating that kids this young are already aware of global warming, pollution and recycling. When I was in elementary school the only time I can remember talking about recycling was to raise money to visit the Exploratorium in San Francisco. "Recycle Your Way to the Exploratorium" was our motto (Lila and I even made a little jingle to sing along with it). We recycled to make money, not to reuse and recycle metals. Kids these days are environmentally smart; they are going to begin their lives making wise decisions to keep our planet healthy and clean. Teaching them about being "green" early in life will instill in them the knowledge they will use throughout their lives to make healthy and environmentally friendly choices towards our planet.

So stop cutting off trees!

P.S. I received a note today from a student that said I was the best aide in the history of history. Wow, that one is hard to live up to.