One of the most important education for human beings is education that concern for the human environment itself. Environmental education should be taught as a lifelong education. Because it is considered very important in life, environmental education must be taught to humans since childhood. This is because environmental education not only as a theoretical but it is an education that is closely related to the attitude and behavior of a person to the environment where he lived.
Teaching a child to care about the environment can not be taken lightly. Environmental education is not easy to teach to small children. Parents and teachers should have a special way of providing environmental education to their students. So the values of care about the environment will be reflected from the attitude and behavior of the child until they are old.
Teaching environmental education needs to be practically taught to children. It can not be taught through theory alone, teachers and parents should teach them through activities in everyday life. One way that teachers and parents can teach is to educate children not to litter that will pollute the environment. Students should be given examples of the behavior of not littering through parents and teachers' behaviors as an their model role. This should also be followed by providing an understanding for them the consequences of littering for nature and human life.
Another thing parents and teachers need to do in educating students is by involving them to plant trees as a reforestation effort. Children should be directly involved either by farming at home or involving them in social activities in greening the environment. With this activity students later as adults will not cut trees illegally and will feel responsible for nature conservation.
Other things that can be taught to children is through positive activities in the family environment. Among them is to educate them not to use water extravagantly, turn off the electricity when not in use, and include them in waste recycling activities. These positive behaviors will be embedded within them and practiced in everyday life. More importantly, each of these activities should be taught together by providing a concrete understanding of the environmental problem, and the impact of the action on the environment. Thus, environmental concerns will be acceptable to children and practiced in their attitudes and behaviors.
