Noah
got the idea from an eco-village in Israel. “They had a compost system, a
garden and an educational part too,” the junior at Eugene Lang said. Those
three divisions are what make up Noah Strousse’s independent project—a program
at The Green School that educates students about ecology and composting.
The
Green School, a 384-student high school in Brooklyn’s East Williamsburg, is “an
academy for environmental careers.” The school statement on their theme says, “We are called The Green School because we
are interested in growth and in creating a more balanced and sustainable world.”
But according to Noah the students are not designated to this high school based
upon any interest in ecology or sustainability.
His
project is built in the corner of the schoolyard, in one of the only patches of
grass in the school—and the neighborhood. There’s a garden that is “about 20 to
30 feet” He laughed and said that he has volunteer help from “four of the
nerdiest (students) you could imagine.” Other than those few kids, he says that
most kids look at him with “general confusion” and they ask why Eric Clapton is
playing with their trash.

The
grant “like $970 after taxes” from the Spencer Foundation—which is a charity
that “invests in education research for the purpose of making education
research better,” according to their website. He’s currently building the base
of the garden with help from a couple of students and community volunteers. He
cites the importance of composting and New York’s general ignorance towards
sustainability as reasons for his young project. “It’s really hard to find
opportunities (to compost). It’s so easy but no one does it.”
The
plan is not to overhaul the educational system, only to integrate ecology into
the existing curriculum. “When the teacher talks about water, maybe they can
talk about New York tap water. When they talk about the sun, maybe talk about
using solar energy in Manhattan.” When asked what the main reasons composting
is not popular in New York City, Noah gave three reasons. “People don’t know
how, no one really has the space, and it’s the most consumerist city in
America. You’re just used to buying things and throwing them out.”
“I’m
hypocritical too,” he said as we walked through Astor Place. We passed by a
construction zone with a recently demolished building. Outside the construction
walls someone had spraypainted, imagine a park here. “We all try to do the right thing,”
Noah continued, “but then we do something else.”
No comments:
Post a Comment