I found it very interesting, as I returned from a trip to Germany, to read the issues of the Dispatch that I had missed while traveling and came across an article about the concerns with the green garbage cans in downtown Columbus. Just a few days earlier, I had been walking the streets of Hann-Münden, a very picturesque little German town, and noticed the green garbage cans on the street outside houses. What surprised me was that while they were identical in design to ours in Columbus, they were one quarter the size. I laughingly told my German friends there with me about how big ours are compared to theirs and then learned that even with these tiny cans, trash pickup only occurs once every two weeks.
Why do I offer this anecdote? Only to note that thinking outside the box is how we do our best work solving problems. As a language teacher, this is a concept that is front and center in my classroom and why I think everyone should travel widely, learning about the culture along the way, as well as learn a language – which literally changes the way you think about things. Sometimes the best ideas are outside our normal experience.
Smaller cans might not solve our garbage can crisis here in Columbus, but thinking about it as a possibility and what else it would take to make using smaller cans workable for us here is a valuable exercise (recycling is a serious thing in Germany, for instance.) Who knows what ideas might pop out of such brainstorming?
Lori LeVar Pierce
World Language Teacher, MSMS
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
