The world is growing smaller in size with every passing day. As more and more people choose to have children, the resources and accommodations the Earth provides are slowly shrinking in number. As the younger generation becomes leaders for the future, it is important they be required to educate themselves about the environment.

As seniors in high school, students are presented with the opportunity to choose from a multitude of science classes. Like most things concerning high school decisions, aspiring students choose their classes based on what would most benefit their college application. For this reason, more students find themselves signing up for physics, chemistry or biology courses. Environmental science has only recently been adapted to the Plano West curriculum. Colleges are still unsure of what the class entails and therefore it holds less weight on a resume in comparison to its counterparts. Most colleges require a higher standard of this class, only allowing the AP credit to transfer if a student scores a five on the examination.

While it is important for students to have the option to explore their interests, it is equally important to understand how their ecological footprint will affect the next generation. The world maintains a limited amount of resources and with every generation, the resources become more scarce and mistreated.

Each year one American can produce over 3,825 pounds of hazardous waste, and over 80% of this waste, put in landfills, can be recycled and simply is not. In addition, the Earth is losing 33.8 million acres of tropical rainforest every year, an area the size of New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Connecticut combined.

As the school district finds it important to require students to have basic knowledge about economics, government, history, English and mathematics, it should be just as important to understand the solution to the increasing problem of environmental denigration. As the world moves forward into the future it is important to remember nothing is relevant without a place to house the human race.