“Why DO People distroy Animal Habitat?”

That’s what it says on the top of a picture LuLu drew today. She presented it to me with lots of pent up fervor about how animal habitats were being destroyed at an alarming rate and that as industries polluted waters and fish died, it also made the birds sick.

She went on to tell me all about the plastic rings of the six-pack containers choking birds and how people knock down all the trees. When I asked her what show she had been watching, she replied that she was reading about the birds and the water pollution in a book. SHE WAS READING ABOUT THEM IN A BOOK!

It is a science book that a teacher friend had given us that is full of environmental activities for her grade level. But it’s mostly a teacher’s guide, so the fact that it held her interest enough for her to read it is enough to make me excited.

“It’s really awful that people are either too interested in making money or too lazy to care about hurting animals,” she went on, “it’s even bad for people to leave their cigarette butts in the cul-de-sac because the get washed down the sewer when it rains.”

I’m sure the book didn’t say that “cigarette butts in our cul-de-sac” were environmental hazards, so not only had she read the material, but she digested it and was now doing her own interpreting about what could harm the environment. Her activism also makes me smile.

I explained that to her and then explained what activism was. I also told her that I was so happy she’d read a book about these issues. She beamed with pride (an expression I don’t see nearly often enough).

And I’m beaming with pride too. It was nice to see something about LuLu match her chronological age. Eleven and 12-year-olds are prone to this indignation as they start to figure out that grown ups don’t always do the right thing. I distinctly remember my sister at that age telling a man who had hunted bears for sport that he was wrong in his actions and complaining about air pollution as we drove by factories. It was obvious that my parents were both slightly embarrassed and very proud of her speaking up for her convictions.

So I am with LuLu. The tools needed for strong self-advocacy are obviously there.

Photo Credit