If someone had suggested two weeks ago that my family would be under the same roof, day-in, day-out without a break, I would have balked, to put it mildly. At that time I was busy lining up activities for my sons this summer, concerned that even a week without programming would lead to strife and chaos. Now we’re nine days into remote learning, with no end in sight and uncertainty about whether summer plans will ultimately be canceled too. It’s hard to know who in our family is most dismayed by the situation. My six-year-old twins call the coronavirus “the meanest bad guy ever” and my nine-year-old had only two words when he learned about an extra month of home school: “Ooh, SNAP!” 

But if, for a moment, we can look beyond the challenges and tragedy inflicted by this pandemic, we may see silver linings in this unique time.  For years I’ve been wanting to emphasize two concepts that get little attention in public schools: Education for Sustainability (EfS) and Civics. (By Civics, I mean a focus on how each student can help our democracy grow and thrive.) Now that we’re embarking on the Distance Learning model, here’s my chance! 

If you are similarly inclined, I humbly propose a few activities to share that you may wish to try out as well. I know my family is lucky to have a backyard, adults with time to work with our kids, and my years of public school teaching experience.  But these are suggestions that I think many families can try, and they have gotten a stamp of approval from my three active boys. All my ideas are based on concepts I believe we cannot overemphasize, especially now, when the health of our planet, our people and our democracy urgently need restoring.

For those who worry, as I do, that our schools don’t build Education for Sustainability (EfS) into every student’s day, being homebound offers a chance to practice sustainable behaviors, and just as importantly, explain them to our kids. Last weekend my children cleaned out closets and toys, organized bookshelves, and created donation bags to be given away once the virus has passed. Speaking of books, we’ve been reading all sorts of picture books about trash (All That Trash by Megan McCarthy), nature (Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne), and sustainability (Sydney & Simon Go Green by Paul Reynolds), to name a few. This website has a good list of books on such topics.

Other ways we’ve been trying to walk the walk at home: we’ve stirred up our compost tumbler with the boys' help, and inspected the decomposing muck to see which scraps we could identify.  We’ve been cooking around the clock instead of eating out, and tonight we’ll order take-out to support a local restaurant that—like so many in our midst—is struggling to stay in business. Last night we talked over dinner about why we put Tofurkey on homemade pizza instead of chicken or pork sausage; our boys have begun paying attention to meals that contain meat versus a substitute protein that leaves a smaller carbon footprint. 

We're devising ways to explore EfS more directly: my oldest son wants to weigh our family’s garbage bags as well as our recycling output and turn it into a math project. I also plan to show him the excellent video created by the Alliance for Climate Education, as well as documentaries such as Landfill Harmonic, about Paraguayan kids living in a slum on a landfill, who create an orchestra from recycled materials. He may be a bit young still for “The True Cost”, a Netflix documentary about the world of Fast Fashion, but with older students it could spark excellent discussions.

In the rare moments I can process all this, I’ve been thinking about the long-term effects of sheltering in place. I know I’m not the only parent who has recently seen extraordinary flashes of creativity in our children; it makes me realize we should have been carving out more unscheduled time all along. My sons have been drawing more, pretending more, dancing more, and even composing rhythms to be played with chopsticks on staircase railings, kitchen pots, toy bins, and other random items lying around the house. Will we all internalize the value of unstructured playtime and come out of the pandemic with new appreciation for creative pursuits that require neither material goods nor carbon-emitting drives in our cars? 

Besides Education for Sustainability, I've looked for ways to support civics education - easily lost in our schools' packed curriculum - and a close cousin of sustainability education. If our kids learn how to be healthy contributors to democracy (civics), that includes learning how to support sustainable practices. Active, healthy engagement in our communities is all about bettering our environment for each other and future generations.

This time of hardship for so many is an opportunity to practice empathy by considering the wellbeing of the whole community.  In my own town there have been countless bags of groceries donated to needy neighbors, efforts from local artists to entertain kids at no cost online, and facemasks being sewn by those with the knowhow. As for small businesses in distress, such as those restaurants, residents are buying gift certificates to be used in the future. My older son and I have discussed equity disparities when it comes to remote schooling, and I see ideas popping up such as www.coved.org, which virtually connect students in need of academic support with homebound adults who serve as mentors. 

A more direct Civics lesson in our house this week involved the Census. My husband and oldest son pulled out our pocket Constitution and found the part about counting all residents; then they looked at political maps to understand how the population of each state and county determines the numbers and geographical distribution of political representatives. Finally they filled out the online Census 2020 form together. (That part took only ten minutes.) The experience spawned some interesting and timely conversation.

These ideas are not meant to guilt-trip those who are hard-pressed to get deliverables to bosses and meals on the table. Please read them instead as an overture to a conversation: how can those of us who’ve been considering these topics for awhile help others incorporate sustainability and civics in their new homeschool settings too? 

At this exceptionally topsy-turvy juncture, when so many routines are upended and parents are seeking different, workable ways to function with children home, we have a chance to bring topics close to our hearts into daily conversations. If sustainability and our civic roles as community builders can become part of our home curricula, this pandemic will have done something positive. And anything positive at this time is surely welcome. 

Julia Sommer is a board member of CivicStory, a former teacher and instructional coach, and a Green Team representative in her children’s school district.