Growing new habits

On a hot, sticky August day, children at Hepingmen Kindergarten in Beijing's Xuanwu district are delighted to have their handcraft class.

Wang Ying, a young teacher wearing a white shirt with a juicy cherries design, is encouraging her students aged from 3 to 5 to make toys with discarded plastic bottles, paper boxes, disposable tableware, old newspapers and other trash.

Using their imagination, the children have made articles ranging from toy trains, baby dolls and wind chimes to robots and delicate dishes in only 30 minutes.

It's not just creative play, but also an environmental education based on the children's ages, says Han Pinghua, director of Hepingmen Kindergarten.

Students aged 3 and under are taught good daily habits, such as no littering and no wasting food or water, says Han.

Ma Liping, one of Hepingmen's teachers, says children aged 3 and over are asked to collect used bottles and boxes at home and bring them to the class.

Ma says they are taught to put beans and small pieces of colored paper into them. Tied with silk ribbons around the bottlenecks, old bottles are transformed into colorful musical instruments and exercise tools.

In the morning, children exercise with the bottles as well as used, rolled-up newspapers. Han says the activities are simple and a first step for the pupils to acquire the habit of resource-conservation.

Teaching kids this way is a good method for them to become habitual recyclers and not litter. And the "playing" lessons are far more effective than tedious lectures, Han says.

The mother of Zhou Jingyi, a 5-year-old girl, delightedly says after going to the kindergarten, her daughter started collecting drink bottles and cans and always asking her to decorate them so they can exercise together.

Children derive pleasure from the collection process and they feel satisfied and honored because of teachers' encouragement and praise, Han says.

Simple recycled handicrafts are a more effective learning tool than hi-tech facilities or expensive toys, says Han.

At Hepingmen Kindergarten, kids between 4 and 5 are being taught environmental protection are through taking care of plants and animals.

Children have "plant concerns" in their classrooms as they watch them grow and gain knowledge by keeping diaries by drawing pictures and writing simply phrases.

After paper-cutting class, students are required to collect paper scraps which teachers donate to papermaking businesses that are cooperating with the school to exchange recycled paper.

When children are drawing on the new recycled paper, they will gradually realize that their environmental protection can bear fruits, says Wu Jing, a teacher at Hepingmen Kindergarten.

Kids aged 5 and over are able to understand more complex issues, so they can learn about air and water pollution, excessive deforestation and desertification.

But, a teacher Zhao Xinmei says: "Children still cannot fully understand why they have to save water or power, so we take every opportunity to inform them why they have to save resources and what will happen if the resources are used up."

Once the water supply was cut off for hours and children found there was nothing flowing out when they turned on the tap for hand washing. At that time, they began to know the importance of water.

When sandstorms struck Beijing and children had to stay inside the classroom, teachers used the time to teach them about desertification and the causes of sandstorms and how to avoid them.

As a senior educator, Han emphasizes that children cannot understand very complicated or abstract concepts, so that educators have to start with issues close to their life and externalize them by telling stories, nursery rhymes, playing children's dramas and cartoons.

Habits become second nature, and children can benefit from environmental education at an early age throughout their entire life, Han says.

Actually, Chinese people started recycling and saving natural resources in 1960s when the country was not rich enough. Many Chinese used to recycle toothpaste tubes, glass bottles, batteries and many other things.

However, with the development of economy, people gradually forgot those good habits with some of them regarding them as excessively frugal.

"We'd better restore our traditional habits in a bid to build up a resource-conserving, environment-friendly society, while children's impacts on their parents even the whole society cannot be ignored during the process," Han says.

(China Daily 08/18/2008 page4)