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Posts Tagged ‘children’
Building the Case: Greening Our Schools
June 4th, 2010
Going to school at Howard High was pretty good. The building was built in 1969 and in fairly good shape for a building now in its 40′s; almost every classroom had a window and the library had skylights, but the temperature controls weren’t quite right and often window blinds were shut tight. I didn’t particularly enjoy the building, but it wasn’t bad and could have been much worse.
The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) says the average American spends 90% of their day indoors. Often little thought is put into how the built environment impacts our daily routine. As a socially minded architecture student, I think good buildings should enhance our daily lives and not only be available to those with a fist full of cash. I start to wonder if it really is that unrealistic to build green schools in rural areas.
Currently there are numerous schools being housed in what appear to be tin sheds or leftover trailers. When I hear that “green” schools improve the health of teachers and students, raise test scores and decrease student absences, I ask myself why our schools aren’t doing more to help our students.
The USGBC defines green schools as, “… a school building or facility that creates a healthy environment that is conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money.”
According to Air Quality Sciences, Inc, Turner Construction, and the USGBC-Green Schools, there are many reasons why schools should be built using “green” practices.
- While average green schools cost $3/square foot more than traditional schools, many are built for the same initial cost. Look at Fossil Ridge High School as an example.
- Green schools see a $12/square foot return based on lower energy and water use, improved teacher retention and lower health care costs.
- The proportion of Americans with asthma increased 75% from 1980-1994, and children five years and younger with asthma increased by 160%.
- Carnegie Mellon reports that increased indoor air quality found in green buildings reduced asthma an average of 38.5%.
- Two Illinois school districts found that after adding cost-effective indoor air quality improvements, student attendance rose by 5%.
- A 15% reduction in absenteeism was a benefit of green schools in Washington State.
- Standardized test scores increase up to 9 percentile points when comparing students in above standard and substandard school buildings.
- Students in daylit schools progressed 20% faster in math and 26% faster in reading than their peers in non daylit schools.
- Student performance increases 5-10% when they have views out of windows.
In our rural school districts, it can be hard to find enough money for textbooks, let alone a new building. But when given the opportunity, are we providing our students and teachers with the best possible opportunities to succeed?
If the statistics I found are correct, this means our decision to build schools goes far beyond financial or environmental factors.
Stay tuned next week for a post looking at different case studies about rural “green” schools.
Photo: Howard High School in Howard, SD
Tags: children, education, green building, Rural
Posted in education, Quality of Life, Rural, Rural Life, Uncategorized | Comments (0)
When to begin investing in human capital?
May 5th, 2009
“Pay now or pay later.” That’s the advice Suzanne Morse issued in a recent post in which she advocated for greater support of early childhood education. Morris, President of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, connects her readers to research that suggests a 16% return on investment for early childhood education.
I realize that many of our readers won’t expect early childhood education to fit into the purview of ReImagine Rural, but it does. Let me explain.
First, there’s the theory of human capital (which I wrote about last week) that argues investing in education and training is vital to developing local economies.
Second, quality child care and education is vital for communities interested in a people attraction strategy. (That’s what led us to create a licensed child care center in Howard before we began focusing on job creation strategies.)
I could go on, but I’ll leave that to Morse who provides links to several other resources that further explain how investing in early childhood education brings benefit to a community’s economic and social development. They are well worth your review.
Connecting back to my post from last week about the importance of investing in human capital; I can’t help but wonder if the process for training rural children to leave begins in the early childhood stage or if it’s a phenomenon that doesn’t take shape until later in life (see post here for more).
Photo Note: Sam Brown, President of Knight & Carver Wind Group, visits with children at the Children’s Care Corner. Having quality childcare in Howard, SD helped influence Knight & Carver Wind Group to locate in the community, and Knight & Carver has supported the center through donations.
Tags: children, early childhood education, human capital
Posted in Community Development, In the News, Rural, Youth | Comments (2)
Cafe au Play – A Third Place with children
February 4th, 2009
Not all coffee houses that set out to become third places succeed. Here’s one, however, that I think has great potential.
The Café au Play plan excites me. Too often businesses attempt to achieve the features of third places, but exclude children. Not only does this defeat the “leveling” functions of third places, but it also deprives our children of an opportunity to learn how to act and interact with adults.
That doesn’t mean that Café au Play has a free ride to success. Lots of adults visit third places to avoid kids. I suspect the venture’s success will rest on its ability to create positive social interaction between adults and children – the opposite of a McDonald’s Playland where kids often run wild while parents relax and eat.
Tags: Cafe au Play, children, coffee shop, third places
Posted in Community Development, In the News, Quality of Life, Rural, Uncategorized | Comments (4)