Good news from Mississippi:
MEMA [Mississippi Emergency Management Agency] would like to begin a pilot program in several schools that would weave the teaching of disaster preparedness into the normal curriculum.
For example, the program could be similar to the fire services successful campaign about fire prevention, Latham said.
“There’s probably not a child in this country who doesn’t know what ‘stop, drop and roll’ means,” he said.
And children are eager to spark discussions about safety in their homes.
“Adults have trouble learning anything new,” Latham said. “They don’t want to sit down at the dinner table and talk about evacuations and disaster supply kits, and those are the kinds of things we need to start talking about.”
I’ll admit I was once skeptical that these sorts of efforts made a difference, but too many parents have shared stories with me of being put in awkward situations by their kids’ questions about environmental and emergency management issues for me to doubt that kids push change.