FINAL SCENE

The Glades Generation

By Kristen Desmond LeFevre

Sometimes, you’ve got to start with what you don’t know—or in the case of the Everglades Foundation’s Literacy Program, what most Floridian school children don’t know. Program Director Jennifer Diaz and her team set out to learn what Florida kids know about

their home environment, and the results were alarming. “Most of the South Florida students we met did not

know that their water comes from the Everglades,” Diaz says. “How are they going to protect what they don’t know or care about?”

The answer: they can’t, or won’t. (Or both.) That's a problem, Diaz says, because the key to long-term sustainability and protection of the Everglades rests on the next generation understanding the vast ecological and economic value of Florida's famed river of grass.

Enter the Everglades Literacy Program. Established in 2013, it puts science-backed resources and environmental experiences into the hands of school teachers. “The teachers are driving the cultural change. We need to teach students about their environment so they can care about it,” Diaz says.

The program has caught on from kindergartens to high schools statewide: More than 3,700 teachers have taught the curriculum to 100,000 students. From professional development resources and lesson plans for teachers, to presentations, science nights, and field tris that get students’ feet wet (literally, in some cases), the program is making a difference in how children view Florida’s fragile ecosystem. “It’s our greatest hope that our resources plus the hands-on work that the teachers are doing in their classrooms will create the next generation of South Florida conservation stewards,” Diaz says. (evergladesliteracy.org)