 A growing number of materials aimed at children and their educators reveals one very apparent trend: a call to activism.
For instance, a textbook titled "Your Health" and published by Prentice-Hall, encourages children to "consider joining an environmental group." A publication titled "Kid Heroes of the Environment", publication of The Earth Works Group, praises children for conducting petition drives, organizing letter-writing campaigns to political leaders, and boycotting businesses.
On Earth Day event I got from the Alley Foundation a MOST ADORABLE color copy of the booklet titled "CRY OUT: An Illustrated Guide To What You Can Do To Save The Earth." This booklet tells the children: "You have probably heard about "ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION" but then wondered what you, as an individual, could possibly do about such a large world-wide problem that seems to be overwhelming at times. 
"But you CAN do something, no matter who you are."Unless you take action NOW, the beautiful forests where you go hiking, the beaches where you swim in clean water, the clear morning when you take a breath of sweet-smelling air could all become things of the past. "This booklet will give you an idea of some of the many things you can do. "If Everyone on Earth did just these few things, we could change the decline in less than a year. "It starts with YOU. "EARTH NEEDS YOUR HELP!" A Special Message from Tom Cruise to You KidsWhat are "Aerosol" and "formaldehyde"? What are "Biodegradable", "Deforestation" and all these other special terms the grown-ups talk about when addressing the ecology issue? Kids do NOT necessarily know them; they may not even fully grasp the meaning of "ecology".This booklet is wonderfully illustrated in vivid color by Scott E. Sutton, which makes it so easy to understand for any age. What I specially liked about it, is the illustrated glossary of special terms. TOM CRUISE talks directly to the kids and explains why this glossary is so important:  "Sometimes as a student I had a hard time learning certain subjects. I discovered the difficulty was not fully understanding basic words and their definitions. When I began using a dictionary and defining words, it was like magic! All of a sudden, I could understand and grasp those subjects. The future health of our environment will largely be in your hands. It's too important a subject not to understand. Below you will find definitions for some of the basic words used in this booklet. Learn them. Afterall, you ARE the future. You CAN make a difference. CRY OUT!"
--Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise's message is followed by a glossary with 22 ecology-related words, each beautifully illustrated and defined. You will find this glossary on page 6 of the downloadable booklet, see below.
Free DownloadsLike Tom Cruise said, the children are the future. I'd like to see this booklet in the hands of every child in the world. It is free to distribute on a non-profit basis, if reproduced without alterations and omissions. It's good for every country on Earth, so use it freely wherever you are. If you want it translated to languages other than English, get a written permission from: WE CRY OUT, P.O. Box 15308, Beverly Hills, CA 90290, phone (213)WE CRY OUT [213-932-7968].Please print good COLOR copies of this booklet, or get printed copies from the Alley Foundation, and distribute them to kids in your family, school and community, as well as to local businesses, local government and organizations. Below is a link to download a colorful electronic copy of this booklet that I've re-created from my own copy, and optimized it for high quality printing from your home computer or at a press shop. It is in "Adobe Acrobat" format, so you will need a free software called "Adobe Reader" to read or print it. Don't have this software yet? Download it free now:
click here to download Adobe ReaderNote: These are large downloads that will take over 3 hours with a slow connection, but are quite worth it due to the high quality of printout and graphics. If you are having problems with the download or printing, ask for paper copies at the address/phone given above, or contact me (Ozzie).
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"Planet Earth is a truly amazing place to live. And to date, it is the ONLY planet on which we CAN live! To me that is a really good reason to take care of it and to clean it up."
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