No. 19 // Ask the Question

After a cross-country move, we started touring the local schools to figure out where our daughters would attend. Being new to the area, we knew this was going to be a process. After touring many campuses that felt good but not entirely right, we found ourselves on the grounds of a school that had everything going for it - a perfect balance of arts and academics situated in a beautiful park-like setting with lush green swaths of grass for running, big shady trees for climbing and a small stream trickling through which was inhabited by fish the students were raising in biology. So perfectly manicured and without a dandelion in sight, I wondered if this were too good to be true and so I asked the question, “does the school use any chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides on campus?”.

Followed by a long pause, the friendly and otherwise very knowledgable admissions director said she wasn’t sure but would look into the matter. It seemed she hadn’t gotten this question before. And a few days later, as promised, she returned back with an answer - one I somewhat expected but was not hoping for. She listed the use of products containing dicamba and glyphosate, among other toxic offenders.

Disappointed, I responded back that several of the products they used are known to be carcinogenic and "persistent", meaning they do not easily breakdown in the environment, remaining toxic to humans and wildlife for many years. While always disheartening to see homeowners and institutions place aesthetic priority over the well-being of people and the environment, it’s all the more devastating when that institution is a school.

Though, what happened next surprised me. I received an email back from the admissions director stating that she would bring my feedback to the attention of administration team. Following up a few months later, they’d switched to an all organic method of grounds maintenance. A win.

No one at this school was deliberately meaning to cause harm with the use of these chemicals. Though not an excuse, I do believe they were simply doing what they’ve always done, using what worked to ‘get the job done’. And this is precisely why it is so important to ask the question. With so many good fights to fight, it’s sometimes hard to believe that, as individuals, we can, with a simple question, make a meaningful impact. Yes, there’s lots of hard work to be done, but sometimes the biggest thing you will do is simply ask the question, raise new awareness and help others to see the change they, perhaps unknowingly, have just been waiting to make. //