Despair Not By Sandra Steingraber Analysis

Education Will Change Our Behavior Imagine a blond hair kid with big teeth and enormous glasses that seem to engulf his entire face, sitting crossed legged surrounded by other kids on a carpet. Those children were learning about African Natives and how some of those people lived in poverty, coupled by malnutrition and the epidemic HIV virus that plagued the country. The year was 1987 and that blond haired kid was me. Thinking about it now I can still remember the details as I sat in awe, listening to what our teacher was describing to us. For me this description was surreal. How can anyone be subject to such neglect but yet continue to live their life unaware of their diminished freedoms. Now at thirty five years old, I have a greater …show more content…
Solutions are created by action and action is learned behavior. In her work “Despair Not” Sandra Steingraber list problems surrounding childhood diseases. One of the views she presses upon is the notion that parents recognize disconnects between these labeled problems and the action along with the awareness that is needed to correct. She goes on to describe a learned helplessness from the knowledge of the problem to the action needed to rectify. Understanding her dilemma I can elaborate on my view of the paralysis that she portrays. The obstacle is that people are just not knowledgeable enough on the problems and potential solutions to act. This is the main reason education is so important to develop changing behaviors. Let’s continue by looking at various positive outcomes that can be accelerated with education, which is the ultimate goal to a sustainable …show more content…
Increased education for resource, water, energy, renewable and non-renewable usage can help maintain balance for these critical resources. Education that aims to inform the population will promote awareness of resource use, enabling a change in consumption patterns. Additionally, if changes are made to the consumption of these resources they would rely less on the products and resources from other nations which will limit environmental impacts from the use of these resources, thereby creating a sustainable future globally. Other aspects that education can help influence, is population control, technology, and communication. Sex education especially for women and teenagers has the ability to ensure that we maintain a balanced population growth. Population growth contributes to ecological footprints that each individual has on our environment. Furthermore, it is no doubt that education is at the forefront of technological advances. Technology and innovative ideas will add to sustainable development for future generations. The innovative use of renewable resources such as solar, wind, water, and geothermic energy to the technological developments of agriculture that can help regulate the use of chemicals and pesticides will hold huge benefits in our sustainable development. Even increasing organic farming is beneficial to increasing the environment’s