How My High School Kills Trees

By the end of every school year, nearly every student throws their paper homework, classwork, notes, and other scraps of paper in the trash can, paper shredder, or fire pit. That's a lot of paper being wasted. Now, let's think about how many trees are killed every year simply for the use of irrelevant, unhelpful, schoolwork. Four billion trees are cut down annually just to be used for paper. Throughout my high school years, I have been overloaded with stacks and stacks of useless paper. My Modern Civilizations teacher gave my whole class a massive amount of worksheets and primary documents that were only used for ONE period; sadly, these assignments would never be used again for the rest of the year. I would rather learn from my own electronic device than paper that I will almost instantly throw away. Some high schools have already implemented technology into education such as providing personal uses of digital, interactive, learning. In this way, students would be more engaged and motivated to learn in different and modern methodologies. Ultimately, however, we can save ourselves some oxygen all while save our ecosystems and natural habitats instead of chopping them down for paper that is then thrown away and wasted after one use.

This image depicts the deforestation suffered by one of many natural habitats across the world. These trees, chopped down for the uses of paper, are sadly utilized on producing homework assignments that provide no critical thinking or educational benefit towards the future of innovative college students.