SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA – An ambitious
documentary, “Growing Greener Schools,” shows that across the country
education is being transformed by educators who are committed to a
green school based curriculum. In this first national look at the
burgeoning movement, the program traces the impact of green initiatives
from elite neighborhood schools to inner city schools and finds
increased test scores and more proficient learning.

Growing Greener Schools, airing on PBS World at 7 PM (EST, 4 PM PST),
Sunday, April 25 and in PBS markets nationally during Earth Day week
this coming April, shows that students benefit from a wide range of
factors. These can range from more exposure to natural day lighting,
fresh lunches or an eco-friendly school campus.. These successful
programs are driven by community leadership, dedicated school
administrators, teachers, parents and even local businesses. The
results, where the transformation has taken place, are profound,
especially in the face of a national consensus that our public schools
are failing.

“America’s schools will be critical to the development of a new green
economy as students choose career pathways from high school to post
secondary education and into innovative new careers,” said Arne Duncan
U.S. Secretary of Education. “Green schools provide unique opportunities
for students to live and learn in ways that can ensure their success
today and help the next generation prosper.” Veteran filmmakers Dale
Bell and Harry Wiland, co-founders of the Media&Policy Center in
Santa Monica, California, have captured a provocative and inspiring
look that showcases schools, community organizations, academic,
engineering and architectural innovators who are leading the way in
greening our schools. Their work on the production spanned more than
two years.

The documentary (http://www.growinggreenerschools.org/)
explores academic outcomes and shows that, particularly for inner city
schools, self-esteem, learning and test scores dramatically improve.
Shifting pedagogical methods can be a challenge. In one segment at
an inner-city school in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Patuxent Elementary
School Principal Judy Dent describes how terrified some of her teachers
were at the notion of being near bugs or getting their hands dirty in
soil. But she says when they saw her and her management staff in the
dirt with the children, change began. “Often times our children are
contained inside walls,” she says. “But when children are allowed to
explore the outdoors, they have the opportunity to not only develop
their work habits, they see another part of what’s within them to help
them grow. Just children touching the soil, what joy we find in their
little souls, in their little eyes when they talk to us about what they
are doing each day outside. So our children need the exposure for
interacting with soil, the sunshine, to see what it takes to preserve
this Earth.”

Across the nation, in Lawndale, California, in another racially and
ethnically mixed underserved community, a total green curriculum has
completely engaged everyone at the Environmental Charter High School
where student Cindy Linares relates that being exposed to a green
curriculum changed her life. “I’m not as selfish as I was before. When
you learn about the global issues that are happening around you, it
really opens your eyes to see the world does not revolve around you, it
doesn’t revolve around your high school.”

Charter founder Alison Suffet-Diaz says “When you walk across campus
and you see students studying during their free time or while they’re
at lunch or engaged in debate about real life issues, I sit back and
look at what I created and I can’t help shed a tear.” She is proud that
the school environment she helped create has resulted in sending 95%
of its students to colleges and universities.

Mr. Bell and Mr. Wiland intend their programs to inspire community
action. They weave into each of their PBS projects an impressive array
of action steps to insure that their reports open up avenues of
community involvement long after their programs air. In that model, they
explore academia and architectural concepts and existing in-school
programs so that “Growing Greener Schools” is also a primer for those
who want to get involved with the green schools initiative in their own
communities. For active involvement, they encourage those interested
to visit www.growinggreenerschools.org,
their new website devoted to national community support for green
schools.

The program is derived from a longer DVD developed by the Center for
PBS Distribution and was funded by a grant from Siemens, a global
leader in green technologies and sustainable infrastructure. The
educational DVD comes complete with a down-loadable 175 page Handbook,
instructional, interactive games and a Curriculum Guide for teachers
and community activists.

MPC is unique in its approach to traditional “documentary”
programming. In addition to including actions steps in all its shows,
the Center reaches out to dozens of local community organizations,
stages Town Hall meetings and provides a wide range of support materials
which are designed to build community action around the issues the
Center addresses.

“The Center is the antidote to the ‘vast wasteland,’” says Mr. Bell.
“In a sea of empty reality shows, our programs seek to bring a new
reality to communities by inspiring and leading.”

“We believe that television can be more than passive,” says Mr.
Wiland. “Good TV can educate and lead. The audience which sees
‘Growing Greener Schools’ will not only learn why green schools matter
to millions of children, their parents and their teachers, they’ll learn
how to make green schools happen.”

Mr. Bell and Mr. Wiland, co-founders of MPC, are veteran film makers
who, between them, have won an Academy Award (for Woodstock), five
Emmys, one Peabody, two Christophers and two Cine Golden Eagles. They
are both Ashoka Fellows, recognized as social entrepreneurs who use
media effectively and creatively to inspire citizen action.