The School at Columbia
Date: June 29, 2006

Check out the lobby of The School at Columbia University – alive with smiling kids, enthusiastic teachers -- and you’ll notice a large poster high on one wall. Its contents include a mandate to “respect the surroundings,” and speak of “being respectful of our community (people, animals, plants, spaces and things.)”

A student proudly explains to a visitor that he is an author of the poster’s message -- “the Charter,” as he describes it – that all his classmates collaborated on and agreed to uphold at The School’s opening in 2003.

The Charter is proof that from its earliest days, one of The School’s priorities has been weaving the threads of environmental stewardship into its philosophy and integrated curriculum.

Jennifer Lang, a second-grade teacher and a member of Columbia University’s Environmental Stewardship Task Force, coordinates what she describes as a “loosely configured environmental stewardship work group.” It comprises about 15 parents, students and faculty members. Lang says the group seems the most effective way to discover and highlight what The School community feels deeply about in terms of sustainable development, then to set priorities.

Lang’s commitment to continuing environmental sensitivity and responsiveness are personal and professional passions.

She’s convinced that people must understand why changes are desirable, to the point that they make their own long-lasting and sustainable ones. “Habits of mind have to come first,” she says.

“We have a very flexible, mindful faculty, who are willing, driven and community-minded. I don’t foresee resistance” to our ongoing efforts, Lang says.

A visitor walking through The School doesn’t have to look hard to discover what Lang describes as “so many hidden gems because of a thoughtful faculty.”

In Ann Levine’s kindergarten class, 16 children sit in semi-circles at the feet of author Margaret Mittelbach and talk about her book, “Wild New York: A Guide to the Wildlife, Wild Places and Natural Phenomena of New York City.”

On this day, a number of students, Lang’s second-graders among them, are on a field trip to the Storm King Art Center to look at art in nature. Other trips this year include Black Rock Forest, for study of the connections to nature through the science and arts curriculum.

Off-campus community service activities involve animal shelters, parks and community gardens.

A recent and first Earth Day observance produced an environmental “wish list” for The School. Its contents: recycling and less use of disposable items, better conservation/less waste of energy and food, and a paperless environment.

Perhaps most significant about the “wish list” is that its entries build on efforts already under way at The School. Left-over food is being delivered to a Manhattan family shelter, and some fourth-graders have started their own blogs as they ask, “Do we need paper?”

Lang is realistic about the pace of change. “Change below the surface level takes time,” she says. “If you don’t change the attitudes, you’re changing nothing.”

Her greatest hope for the upcoming school year is that “people realize that good practices already exist, that valuable questions are being asked and that we celebrate as a community and move on.”

“Our mission,” Lang says, is to ask “What if?” and “What can you do?”