Save Our Forest! by Nøra Dåsnes (2024)
The author-illustrator, Nøra Dånes, of this graphic novel is Norwegian. The original text has been translated to English. This is a story of Bao and her friends, who love to play in the forest near their school. One day they learn that their school plans to cut down the trees and build a parking lot. These young gals are definitely in middle school, because there is a lot of talk about crushes, but the real drama involves CIVICS! Oh, my heart. Bao doesn’t want to lose her beloved forest, but she is more enraged at the hypocrisy of her school and community leaders. They CLAIM to care about the climate crisis, but then opt to tear down trees, which protect our climate, in favor of more parking options for cars, which hurt our climate. She tries to negotiate with the school board and city representatives and fails. In desperation, she starts a protest. Finally, she gets her fellow friends and classmates to partake in the protest and uses social media to amplify their cause. They save the forest!
Heart: Bao struggles to get her fellow students to care about her initiative and take action. This is a REAL struggle, I can attest from my gun violence prevention advocacy. Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children - a fact that is unacceptable to me. One thing I have learned advocating for gun safety laws in Illinois is that it truly is a very small group of concerned citizens who show up and push for change. When I started this advocacy, Illinois was #7 in the country for gun safety laws. We are now #3. We are not a massive group of people showing up, having conversations with our state lawmakers. I have witnessed firsthand that a small handful of people can make a big change.
Head: We live in a country quite devoid of civics knowledge. As a former social studies teacher, I find this utterly depressing. Take a moment to read this article from The Brookings Institute, “The need for civic education in 21st century school.” My key takeaways from the article were:
1 in 4 Americans cannot name the 3 branches of U.S. gov. Ouch.
Horace Mann shaped the creation of our public school system, arguing that a democracy (Republic) cannot be sustained by, “the republic that rests upon no better foundations than ignorance, selfishness, and passion.”
Civics education is lacking - we need 1. Civics knowledge/skills 2. Civics values/dispositions 3. Civics behaviors
There are a variety of ways suggested at the end of the article to engage kids in civics learning. In my opinion, there are a whole host of fun, rewarding ways this could shake out.