I tutor environmental science and ecology, and am a pretty active environmentalist. It seems like a lot of the students I tutor are also concerned with the environment, and it suddenly became clear that even though I was "talking the talk" during session, I wasn't "walking the walk."
I mean, I would talk to them about ecology, the effects of ozone layer depletion, ocean pollution, etc., and yet I was driving my SUV to tutoring sessions, and wasting paper like crazy during tutoring.
It dawned on me that if I were talking so much about ecology and the environment, I should really be trying to live as an example.
So, I started walking to the closer sessions, and carpooling to the sessions that were further away from my home. I also began taking my laptop to tutoring sessions so that I could show a screen printout for concepts rather than printing out reams of paper. I also made it a point to email graphs and visual concepts to my students so that they would have a study sheet without me having to print it out.
When I did require printouts, I made sure to use an eco-friendly font that required less ink to print, I made sure to print on both sides of the paper, and I always made a point to recycle the used paper.
I know it may be some small steps in the grand scheme of things, but just being able to be true to my tutoring word was important to me, and I'm glad that I made the changes.
Just some food for thought from a new tutor who loves the planet!
Jacob, SC
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