To teachers of students from preschool to post-doctorate, here’s a multi-disciplinary topic — litter.
It could be explored in Language Arts through interviews and essays. Math teachers could assign graphs and pie or bar charts on types of litter. Art teachers could ask students to create posters encouraging people to pick up after themselves.
How about field trips to gather litter?
Things I’ve seen littered: a dishwasher, a toilet, a bathtub with vinyl sides and an upholstered chair.
In short stretch, I gathered four grocery bags filled to overflowing with alcohol and fast food containers, cigarette packs, butts and lottery tickets. These are the most common items.
The Gazette’s “A Look Back” last month recounted an item under its 50 Years Ago section that said a Smith College professor “joined the chorus of protest against the growing accumulation of beer cans, chewing gum, candy wrappers … dumped on lawns and city streets. Daniel Aaron, a professor of English, called for an education program in the schools.”
Fifty years later, I believe the problem is worse.
Teachers and parents, get on the no-litter bandwagon.
Katharine Roberts
Southampton