The Benefits of Being a Glam Hippie

The top twenty reasons are:

1) Sparkles are never out of the question and thrift store carry an abundance.

2) Eco-friendly makeup. There aint nothing wrong with eyeliner while rocking flowers in your hair.

3) Fair Trade Foodie: so much unique delicious gourmet sustainable food! Coffee, chocolate, gogi berries, blood oranges, kombucha!

4) Second hand chic.

5) Face painting.

6) Flowy anything.

7) Backpacking in a dress makes peeing much easier. You also look much cuter.

8) Confusing conservative men.

9) Special Brownies.

10) Swagg hippie boys, surfers, farmers, mountain men.

11) Being a mellow mountain maiden and handling my business when in the outdoors.

12) Gardening in a skirt. No need to bust out the carharts, it's going to be okay.

13) Sleeping in hammocks. When. Ever. Possible.

14) Giant turquoise jewelry.

15) Collecting Navajo rugs.

16) Bringing your own cup to a kegger.

17) Mountain Cocktail attire.

18) Getting props for not showering.

19) Skinny dipping instead.

20) Getting to that whole other level mannnnnnnnnnnnnnnn......

Community Sustaining Schools

As a Teach For America Alumni, I have spent many hours discussing strategies, making phone calls, and getting out in the neighborhood to encourage community engagement in my school. We were very successful, during an inservice, when we walked the community in teams of three and talked to a minimum of two families. The following week at back to school night we had record parent attendance.   This was amazing, but, I feel that this discussion of community involvement in schools does not go deep enough. This is only scratching the surface of potential interconnectedness of schools and a community.

Schools are a major support of the local economy. I say the more community members we have that are economically tied to the school or district in a positive way the more likely we are to have positive family involvement. Educational establishments hire both high and low skilled workers to complete their mission. Instead of outsourcing our needs to large companies from out-of-town, educational establishments should strive to look within the community to meet their needs. Let me give you an example:

The school I worked at had in-house prepared lunches, which gave the institution a homelike feel to add to our rich sense of family. These meals lovingly created by the cafeteria staff, in some schools, has been replaced by microwave "prison" food. In fact, many school cafeterias use the same food distributers as correctional facilitates. Perhaps this is another joint in the school to jail pipeline, but I digress. 

Why not have community members be the food distributors? 

My students had goats in their yards, they went hunting, and I know some even had gardens. We could greatly increase the sustainability of the entire community by eating local. It could start as a gardening experiment, after-school program, or simply tell already involved parents that they can earn, say, $2 per pound for radishes. Potential benefits would include a reduced carbon foot print, increasing the number of local jobs, providing fresh and (hopefully) organic vegetables, creating investment in healthy eating, and making the school system truly sustainable. 

Sustainability is composed of three components; Economic, environmental, and social sustainability. When we consider institutions, such as a school, they are truly the backbone of the community and thus should be leading by example. By being equitable economically, being responsible environmentally and socially accountable.

The economic sustainability of the school system, most basically, lies in providing equitable wages and high rates of return (a good education). It is the economic responsability of a school to provide community memebers which are well informed, able to balance a check book, and be productive members of society. Those who are providing the educational services, from administration to general labor, should be compensated fairly to do their job well.

This is social accountability; treat your employees fairly and provide a great service to your local community. Being socially sustainable means schools should invest in teachers who will provide an excellent education. This is not just test scores, but cultivation of the habit of life-long learning. Teachers who instill, what Duncan Andrade calls, The Pedagogy of Hope in their students. An education which includes analyzing the world and society will create ideas and leaders to make it an even better place. 

Environmental responsibility in school is lacking. Schools should be leading the way, setting the example of green building practices. Not because they're "green" per say but because it's economically viable. It is time that all schools were fitted with solar panels, making them energy independent. In fact, connect the school to the neighborhood street lights and let it pay a service to the community it serves. School roofs should supply the water that keeps the football field green, compost from the cafeteria should enrich the student garden, the recycling of bottles, cans and paper could fund the investment in more resource saving technology, like low flow toilets. Schools should lead by example.

Lets deeply ingrain the education of our children into our livelihoods, make it the center of the village where together we rear the next generation of our community. When we can accomplish that, for the greater good, then we will have truly sustainable schools. Listen, I don't care if you're not a "breeder". The kids in your community are you're responsibility too, invest in the people who're going to inherit this crazy place!