Now that my year of "reconnecting" has drawn to a close, I am eagerly looking for ways to expand the project and initiate larger discussions about consumption and consumer disconnect. By dedicating myself to conscious consumption and meeting the amazing people who make everything I buy, I have learned the values inherent in this type of lifestyle I now want to bring these lessons to students in the Brooklyn area. Living in a major commercial environment like New York, our options seem limitless and often our purchases are motivated only by advertising and trends instead of a real understanding of a product, such as where, how, and by whom something was made. These endless options, however, also allow us to make very intentional choices if we decide to.

By being aware of everything we buy in a certain time period, we will start to understand where we have options and where we don’t.
Students will keep a notebook and write down everything they buy throughout the duration of the course. This does not include things bought for them, just purchases they make with their own money. They will record what and where the purchases were made.

In learning where our purchases come from and how they were made, we gain a greater understanding of how we are connected to a world outside our neighborhood.
Each week, students will choose one of their purchases to research. They will create a presentation on the company that made it, where the product was made, and what materials went into it. This could be drawn on a map or some other visual, or could physically incorporate the product or the food.

When we meet the people who make what we consume, we understand how our buying habits effect others, and open our minds to other types of lives, and maybe even career options we never considered.
Throughout the program, local entrepreneurs and manufacturers will come in to talk to students about their business and their products. Field trips to local kitchens, farms, and factories will be attempted as well. Students will be encouraged to initiate this dialog with people they research.

Looking back over what we’ve learned and how we’ve grown will encourage us to continue our work and spread our ideas to others.
The program will culminate in a class-wide visual project of the students’ choosing that will represent their purchases over the term (what, where, when, and how much) to see if they’ve changed, as well as what they’ve discovered by meeting the makers of some of those projects. This could be represented on a map, timeline, diorama, or performance, and will be presented by the class to their parents and school community.

Community building needs input from schools and families.
The potential for learning is tremendous, as someone who has gone through this process can attest to. The program will inevitably touch on health, economics, science, technology, geography, and visual arts. The interdisciplinary, teambuilding, creative and research aspects here are exciting to students and valuable to the community, not to mention the implications for civic engagement and activism.

Download the flyer to share with parents and teachers, and please contact me to begin tailoring the Consume®econnection Project for your school!