We all know that one of the major challenges of our time is the planet’s sustainability, and that it is all of our responsibility to work towards a kind of “development that meets the needs of the present without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”, as the Brundtland Report stated back in 1987.
Unfortunately, because of the sheer size of the textile industry, its characteristics and the increasing tendency towards quick fashion, it is one of the sectors that contributes the most to the unsustainability of the system.
The Classroom at the Textile Museum is joining the fight for an environmentally clean, humanly fair and economically viable society. In this case, it is doing so by spreading information and best practices that promote an awareness of sustainability among the younger generations. The goal is to generate changes among students, new attitudes among consumers, and as possible producers in the textile-fashion sector.
With this goal in mind, we have premiered the educational workshop entitled “DON’T LOSE YOUR STRIDE… recycle your t-shirt” targeted at students in the middle and late years of primary school. The proposal particularly connects with the basic competences in the environmental knowledge area which students have to attain by the end primary school.
In the first part of the workshop, the negative effects of the textile industry on the environment are presented, and then the children engage in an individual practice in which they reuse an old t-shirt. As always, we add a guided tour of the galleries to establish a past, present and future bond which brings added value to the children’s experience at our centre. For teachers, we have developed a teaching guide which they can use to both introduce the topic in the classroom and work on it in greater depth after the visit to the museum.
