Teach the Kids Not to Litter?

Good for you guys!
Yes the city does street sweeping during the warmer months but in many community's litter is out of control. Educating children is a start and should be part of school... I know it was when I was a kid... remember the crying Indian campaign.

But the city also has to hold landlords and homeowners responsible for the area in front of there property's. To many time community members have complained to me and others that the city does not clean there side walks of litter.

news flash it is the people that live in the households responsibility to pick up the litter in front of there house.

How about picking up the political trash at city Hall.

woohoo b2 representing.

I actually think the schools do have it a little backwards. I think it's great how much they do to improve the structures, and to improve the scores, but I really think you start with hearts & minds. Teach kids not to litter, teach kids to respect themselves & their communities, and they will do better. That's the way I see it at least--

I totally agree, CHR. (As usual)

I can imagine how hard getting kids to put trash in the proper place can be when the adults in their lives casually toss garbage out their car windows all the time. Twice, I have even seen NHPD cops toss coffee cups into the street out of their patrol cars. I am no tree hugging hippy but even I thought that was out of line.

Why do we continue to make it the schools responsibility for everything that children do well or don't do well? Why aren't parents ever put on the hot seat and made responsible for what their children do and how they behave? And to the comment about the old PSA with the Indian crying, that was just that, a Public Service Announcemnt, meaning we are ALL responsible for the issue of littering...not the public school system.

it's phenomenal how many people throw junk out of their cars in NH. there ought to be campaigns leveled at everyone...

Last summer I was on my front porch when I saw a guy walk by and throw the box of Chinese food he was eating on my lawn. I called out to him and he kept walking so I picked up the box and followed him home. He went up on a porch so I asked if that was where he lived. When he said yes, I threw the box on his grass and went back home. When he yelled at me I said, "See. It sucks when someone litters in front of your house, doesn't it." Now when he walks by and I see him he waves and speaks.

I was at the meeting and I don't believe Ms. Manning was saying that the schools should be 'responsible.' She was just suggesting that since we have the kids as a captured audience it might be a good opportunity to teach them not to litter. She or someone else stated that often kids can teach parents. I've seen kids get on their parents for smoking, drinking too much or even in one case I know of a 7 year old that got his parents to become vegan because he learned about it in school.

I don't litter. I don't even throw my cigarette butts on the ground (yes I still smoke.. what of it!) And I HATE having to clean up other's litter in front of my house but you know what? I do it because it is my house and that is part of the cost of living in a city. So I have a choice. I can whine about it and live in a dirty neighborhood or I can clean it up. And I'll keep telling my neighbors to do the same.

Dearest "power" hate will not help! re frame .....litter and the throwaway culture can be addressed only as a piece of the larger picture of ownership and responsibility. We, the people that live here, own this place, as we have responsibility for our own happiness. Kids do what they are taught....and that does not start in school. Home is the best school and is the core of good education....Basic instruction on litter and recycling won't hurt.

Anon,

The reason the schools get held responsible is because 1) they get the largest share of the city's budget. 2) they claim to be experts 3) their employees are disproportionately represented amongst the highest payed in the city, and 4) they are arrogant, extremely lazy - "I get 120K and wont work more than 40 hrs a week." - lazy, incompetent, disgustingly stupid, bloated synchophants who, for the most part, have not worked an honest day in their lives our completed their own disertations.

That's why they get blamed - to answer your question.

As a young man I used to walk the beat in the Ansonia projects. Some people who lived there used to just open their windows and throw the garbage out. It was not unusual to see styrofoam containers with chicken bones in them flying through the air from the top floors and stuff. That's how they rolled. As the years went by I saw a lot of the kids who were 5, 10 and 15 years old back then in court, in the new haven register police blotter, and even the obituary. Not many kids ever make it out of that cycle because their parents suck. Let the teachers tell the kids not to litter all they want, it won't make much of a difference if they go home to a craphole with a loser for a head of household.

I strongly urge you limosuine liberals to walk around down there at peak littering times (with your "CHANGE" shirt on of course) on friday or saturday night around 10 pm, , and hand out anti-littering info to the masses that are congregating.

It is certainly discouraging to see the type of behavior that leads to a cycle of disrespect of self and surroundings. I live next to a New Haven school and I see parents dropping chicken containers out their car windows when they pick up their children, and then they cross their child in the middle of the block, or call them to cross on their own. Now I ask you, who is going to teach the parents? The answer is the children. My daughter came home from school to announce that cigarette smoking was going to cause her to have lung disease and kill her parents. She made the campaign a part of our lives. We quit. The same goes for buckling up. New Haven public schools had time to incorporate important social issues into the curriculum in the 1980s when they had less money, teachers, disintegrating schools and fewer administrators. Responsibility for one's actions should be the cornerstone of education. Perhaps if we didn't have such a clueless Superintendent of our schools we could get somewhere. Does anyone have any idea what Mayo's accomplishments have been to date? Me either.

Crystal Manning, David Streever, and others are right. Teach the children in school not to litter. Go for their hearts and minds. It will work if the schools reward their good behavior.

I know that many parts of our science curriculum address the issue of littering/recycling and general stewardship of our environment including third grade recycling, 4th, 6th and 9th grade units on water pollution, and a whole ninth grade project on landfills and trash.
Our social development curriculum is all about making responsible choices.
So the answer is that we are teaching the facts, and some of the consequences of behaviors that will lead children to making good decisions.
-Richard Therrien
-NHPS Science Supervisor

the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program taught in my elementary and junior high schools here in Connecticut worked for me! I turned down cigarettes when I was a youngster, even though it was by a "cool" kid I was starting to be friends with.

I turned down alcohol until I was old enough to buy it, and I felt my decisions were MINE, not my friends'.

Giving children and young adults the information to lead responsible, informed lives is the goal of our educational system. Giving children and young adults a baseline for behavior starts in the classroom, and can end in the principal's office of the child cannot conform to that baseline. Teaching children not to litter is a life-lesson not unlike teaching how to share, how to listen, and how to write.

Respect for one another is shown when an individual respects his/her environment. When someone litters, not only do they show they don't care about their environment, but they also show that they don't care for the enjoyment of the environment by those around.

This is a social problem that can be curbed by instruction in the schools. Earth Day is a great day for environmental curriculum, but isn't Every day Earth Day?