Education is the Answer.

So you’ve decided to pursue a career in speech therapy?

My name is Tyler and I’m a junior in the Communication Science and Disorders program here at Ohio University. I am writing you this to discuss a topic that is not closely related to the field of speech therapy, but with society getting a little “greener” everyday, the issue of environmental sustainability in the field of speech therapy will be arising in the near future. As the future of our society, it is important for new students like you to be informed and aware of the environment and the effect our daily lives have on it.

Now you might be wondering what exactly environmental sustainability entails, so I’ll give you a basic overview. The environment is a fragile entity that we often take advantage of. Everything we do has an effect of the environment. The cars we drive, our homes, even the foods we eat all contribute to the depletion of the beautiful world around us. Environmental sustainability is the issue of minimizing that exhaustion of our resources to ensure the future of the environment. We use an extraordinary amount energy globally and the world simply cannot keep up, so becoming environmentally sustainable is vital to the future of our planet.

How does the profession of speech therapy and environmental sustainability relate? Well, speech therapists often find jobs in a number of different institutions. Schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers are just a few of the many possible places of employment where speech therapists can end up. For this essay though, I’m going to be focusing on schools and what they are doing to become more environmentally friendly.

I recently did some research on a school district just a couple hours up the road from here that is taking steps towards reducing their environmental impact. Newcomerstown Schools in Newcomerstown, Ohio has recently finished a solar project that will greatly improve their energy consumption. The project, which was completely funded by grants not only benefits the school but the entire community as well. Two of Newcomerstown’s school building where equipped with solar panels, which combined produce enough electricity to power roughly 60 homes. The interesting thing about the project is that the power produced doesn’t go directly to the school. The way the project is set up is that all the power goes to the community, and in return the company that installed the panels pays 15% of the schools electricity bill. I think that is a great trade off because everyone benefits from it. Projects like the Newcomerstown School’s solar project give hope to our future. Schools use a tremendous amount of energy and the more effort schools put into becoming environmentally sustainable, the more educated children become on the importance of the issue.

Another great, environmentally friendly project some schools are starting today are student-managed gardens. These gardens give children a chance to get out of the routine classroom setting and learn how to manage a sustainable garden. One middle school in Berkeley, California has a pretty cool system set up. The children not only work in the garden, but they also harvest the crops they have grown and use them to make food. The educational benefits of teaching children how to manage a garden are huge. Those children are learning how to live sustainably, which is something that will only benefit each of them in the future. The Berkeley school is teaching their children a life-long lesson that many people today don’t know the first thing about. In the future when those children have their own homes they will have the skills to start their own garden and live a sustainable and cheaper lifestyle.

So there you have it. Speech therapy might not directly correlate to environmental sustainability, but the places of employment for speech therapists definitely have an impact the environment. As a soon-to-be speech therapist in a school system, I want to see more schools making changes like these to educate children on the importance of environmental sustainability. Children are the future, and if from a young age they are taught to be environmentally aware a greener future is immanent.