Intergenerational Activism in Arlington Public Schools

By Ellie Cowan, Kayla Peale, Ada Rolfes, and Lani Soh

On February 3, 2021, several members of Yorktown High School’s For a Strawless Sea Club visited Arlington Traditional School’s Green Lunch Bunch via Microsoft Teams. These two student organizations met to support each other's goals and to give the latter advice for how they can engage more students and families in their pursuit of sustainability. “The older kids are here to help you younger kids out,” Ms. Nelson, the Green Lunch Bunch teacher sponsor, explained to kick-start the meeting.

First, the older kids. For a Strawless Sea Club gave a brief presentation about their past, present, and future: founded in 2018, a group of teens from Yorktown High School came together to address a common concern - reducing plastic pollution. For the past three years, they have worked tirelessly towards this goal by hosting weekly meetings, stream cleanups, bake sales, and educational stands at farmers markets. Today, their main initiative is improving the waste system at Yorktown by creating an educational campaign and building a four-part waste bin for cafeterias.

Next, the younger kids. Students from the Green Lunch Bunch asked questions that were both heavy on their minds and spontaneous, inspired by the presentation. However, the root of their questions remained the same: how do you engage a student body to be sustainable virtually?

The Green Lunch Bunch is run by fifth graders at Arlington Traditional School with a passion for the environment. Every other week they send out “Green Tips” to the student body to educate and inform their school about pressing issues. Although the club consists of just a few motivated kids, the meeting was open to the entire fifth grade and there was an impressive amount of attendees.

This meeting between teens and children, and meetings similar to it all around the globe, are of utmost importance. Intergenerational activism is imperative for all of our efforts to come to fruition and make real change. And perhaps counterintuitively, change doesn’t start at the top; conversely, it starts at the bottom with the youngest citizens of the world. Both For a Strawless Sea and Green Lunch Bunch are ensuring that their respective schools play their part, and this is especially difficult given the virtual platform. However, children are notorious for their ability to adapt, and as stated by For a Strawless Sea Club Manager, Lani Soh, “this meeting represents unification and reflects boldness in an effort to make environmental change, even during the hardest of times”.