{"id":75038,"date":"2012-12-20T17:30:46","date_gmt":"2012-12-20T08:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=feature&p=31534"},"modified":"2017-06-13T12:52:06","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T03:52:06","slug":"whippersnappers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/whippersnappers\/","title":{"rendered":"Whippersnappers Are Saving The World!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you can\u2019t fix the environment, please stop breaking it!\u201d<\/strong> Severn said to the world leaders at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. She was only twelve years old.<\/p>\n

Page 65 of the Sunshine English Textbook for second-year, public JHS Students paraphrases one Ms. Severn Cullis-Suzuki, known better, perhaps as \u201cThe Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes.\u201d How did she earn such an eminent moniker? She dared to browbeat every adult on Earth for six minutes, and forty seconds! Google her. Have a listen. I dare, YOU!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The people who put together the textbooks, here in Japan, are on the right educational track. Ms. Cullis-Suzuki is a choice, modern heroine to include in our children\u2019s reading for plenty of great reasons.<\/p>\n

She formed the Environmental Children\u2019s Organization, ECO, at the age of nine. She hit the world stage with this speech gone viral-video, at twelve. She was an intelligent, confident, plain spoken, and perhaps most importantly tuned-in, and turned-on to science, girl. She is a \u201cgo getter\u201d and as such, she is exactly the role-model I want my kid to emulate. Don\u2019t you? The Board of Education does. That\u2019s why she\u2019s in the book!<\/p>\n

However, there are two bits of irony here which raise my proverbial dodesho eyebrow. First is that this role-model is Canadian. Yes, she is ethnically half Japanese, and this is an English textbook, but I must ask; where are the Japanese teenage role-models? I know they exist. Why not include some in the textbooks? I want my kid to be proud that he is Japanese. Kids are smart. They know what we are saying. Can we expect our children to develop the confidence to boldly lecture the big, scary world of adults, if we have given them no role models with which they identify?<\/p>\n

The second bit of irony is that Severn\u2019s poignant 1992 message directly addresses adults. So I have pulled it out of our children\u2019s textbooks, to EChO it here, now, again. <\/p>\n

You see, JHS students walk to school, rain or shine. They don\u2019t use a drop of gas, not even oil for a bicycle chain. They wear no make-up. Their hairstyles are simple. They possess a basic uniform wardrobe. They rely on paper, and pencils, not fancy electronic gizmos. They have a simple chair, and desk. They recycle all their garbage.<\/p>\n

They even reuse functional, but aging structures propped up with earthquake proofing, which have minimal landscaping, fluorescent lights, and mostly manila paint. They clean with brooms, water, newspaper, cloth, and very few detergents. They play on sand playgrounds which require no sprinklers, or fertilizers. Message-boards have no cork. Solar panels are on the roofs. Getting the idea?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Students tolerate summer\u2019s heat, and humidity sans air conditioning with few lucky exceptions, and only recently, enjoy ceiling fans. Likewise, the winter cold is endured relying only upon warm clothes, and the heat of each other to warm their classrooms. There is no central heating. No hot water, or paper-towels are used.<\/p>\n

They eat a diet largely of rice, and vegetables. Liver is on the lunch menu, fairly regularly. You don\u2019t eat liver. Do you? I didn\u2019t think so. They drink tea, or water from a thermos. Nope, not supporting any fast food businesses, or plastic bottle vendors here. Lunch is catered in reusable containers, and served on trays with metal utensils; no napkins; no paper plates.<\/p>\n

I am NOT complaining about, or criticizing the school system. Honorably, our children are taught to lead a highly responsible lifestyle. In fact, Fukuoka\u2019s Junior High School students are environmental messiahs, saving the world from impending disaster, one day at a time. These kids deserve every adult\u2019s deepest respect, fervent gratitude, and cooperative support in their daily efforts to save our dear Earth.<\/p>\n

So the next time we are idling a huge, fuel-burning SUV\u2019s engine, or enjoying air conditioning, or a heater, or burning up gasoline waiting in line at the McDonald\u2019s drive-through within walking distance of our house, or trotting around a balmy shopping mall in the dead of winter, or sitting on a toasty bus, train, taxi, or toilet seat, or reclining in a comfy, leather office chair, let us take a moment to think of our precious, little angels. Let us ask ourselves, are we adults doing all we can to save our progeny from their plight? After all, it is us who are supposed to be our children\u2019s heroes, and heroines, isn\u2019t it? Dodesho?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nText and illustrations by Matt Simpson, USA, Nice Guy\/Teacher<\/p>\n

Originally published in Fukuoka Now Magazine (fn169<\/a>, Jan. 2013)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speak out!<\/strong>
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\nPitch your idea: www.fukuoka-now.com\/dodesho-write<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

age 65 of the Sunshine English Textbook for second-year, public JHS Students paraphrases one Ms. Severn Cullis-Suzuki, known better, perhaps as \u201cThe Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes.\u201d How did she earn such an eminent moniker? She dared to browbeat every adult on Earth for six minutes, and forty seconds! Google her. Have a listen. I dare, YOU!<\/p>\n

by Matt Simpson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"31534","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4914],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-others","location-fukuoka-city","location-fukuoka-prefecture","en-US"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/fn169-Dodesho-Girl.jpg?fit=445%2C589&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99241,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75038\/revisions\/99241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}