No Poverty + Quality Education =
Responsible Consumption and Production
The increase in human population followed by the rapid industrialization and urbanization is expanding extreme poverty around the world. It is widely accepted that education can be considered the great equalizer, creating new opportunities for jobs, resources, and skills for families. Yet, among the many causes of global poverty, is the very lack of education. This crisis is aggravated by the depletion of the natural environment in developing countries, arising from the condition of poverty or negative effects of the very process of development (Sahu & Ghildayal, 2007). Breaking the negative spiral by enabling learners to bring about changes for a more just, peaceful and sustainable world, is key. The Garden Project does this by providing quality education, starting in the early years, to support a child’s development of social, emotional, cognitive and communication skills, in addition to knowledge and abilities (i.e., human assets) to change their consumption patterns and connect them to their communities. The use of low-cost, organic and perishable materials, such as seeds, soil, fruit or vegetables, or re-purposed items from the recycled bin, reorients education so that everyone, regardless of geography or economic conditions, has the opportunity to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that contribute to a sustainable future.
Paper Reduction. The Garden Project also addresses the problem of paper consumption in schools. For example, currently in the United States more than 34 billion sheets of paper are consumed in schools every single year. Going completely paperless isn’t a viable solution as there is an inherent value for children to use paper to develop fine motor skills. However, drastically reducing paper usage is. This is done by making the use of paper and documentation process more meaningful with the student journals. These journals are printed on 100% recycled thick paper, so children can use them in their explorations of natural materials like leaves, mud and seeds. The spiral bind makes it especially easy for the younger group to use.
Quality Primary Education. It is this quality primary education that will contribute to eradicate poverty and support more responsible consumption and production, as children are more likely to develop these assets as they get older, and use these abilities and skills to earn higher incomes or further develop other basic assets. This will prompt the current school paradigm to shift from an extractive economy determined to dominate nature, to that of learning how to live within our means at both a local and global level, based on the principles of sustainability.