Earth Day!

People all over the world celebrate Earth Day on April 22. This day began to promote awareness of air and water pollution in 1970. On this day around 20 million Americans participated in rallies coast to coast in streets, parks, and auditoriums to encourage others to live in a way that we will have a healthy sustainable environment. Groups that all have been fighting for our planet realized that if they could come together their message would be much louder. These groups have been protesting against polluting factors and power plants, toxic dumps, loss of wilderness, extinction of wildlife, oil spills and much more hazardous issues going on in our world. Protests against the deterioration of the environment went from a few, to hundreds, to thousands. This movement was extremely successful and it actually led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts. Earth Day only continues and it is important that we keep this movement alive. This is our home and we must take care of it. It is necessary to teach our students about this day in history because it is something that will always be important to our society. As social studies teachers it is important to prepare our students for the world and how to make conscious decisions about our planet. I know as a future teacher I will teach my students about the history of Earth Day and I will make sure to do something fun and exciting for this day each year. I remember in elementary school my second grade teacher took us to the park and we all planted a tree on Earth Day. I would love to do something similar with my future students because they will be engaged but also doing something great for the environment. I want to make sure my students are aware of what is going on in the world and know they can make a difference.