Max Gladwell

Max Gladwell launches new blog aimed at the issues of health in education environments.

MaxSchoolBus.com is “the nexus of health and education.” It is our second blog project, and it will cover a broad range of health issues as they relate to educational environments…such as riding school buses.

Prior to Max Gladwell, we worked on the Citizen’s School Bus initiative, which enjoyed support from Julia Roberts, in an effort to broaden awareness about the health risks of riding diesel-powered school buses. In short, diesel emissions cause asthma and cancer, and these emissions accumulate in concentrated levels inside school buses. The solution is quite simple: switch to biodiesel, which can be used in 95% of today’s school buses. It’s simply a matter of switching fuel suppliers. We also worked on legislation with California State Senator Dean Florez, though the Governor refused to sign it.

Despite the health issues, which are easily addressed with alternatives, school buses are integral to our education infrastructure. We need more school buses. They are the safest and most efficient way to transport kids to and from school. They also shuttle kids to sports and field trips, which are essential to a rounded education. So one of our missions is to address this issue by covering the topic and working on innovative solutions that will involve schools, parents, and the private sector. However, this is just the start.

For us, the school bus serves as an excellent metaphor. By integrating renewable fuels like biodiesel, together with new plug-in hybrids, the bus becomes a teacher. At the high school level, kids can even refine their own fuel from waste vegetable oil recovered from the cafeteria. The school bus becomes a symbol of change…a transport to a healthier and more sustainable future.

This same philosophy of facilitating healthier and greener learning environments while providing valuable lessons can extend throughout all aspects of our education system, from public to private and from the football team to the science team. Just as we should take a holistic approach to learning, we should take the same approach to healthy education environments. They go hand in hand. That’s the nexus of MaxSchoolBus.com.

So to paraphrase Ken Kesey, you’re either on the bus or off the bus. Which is it going to be?

Related Posts

• Reflections on the Decade II: Biofuel Boom and Bust
• 10 Ways to Change the World Through Social Media
• SEO White Paper: The Do-It-Yourself Options
• Who Do We Think We Are? A Max Gladwell Introspective
• Social Networking Bridges the Digital Divide