The Lorax and the Students Who Get The Point
The students in Mr. Wells’ fourth grade class in Brookline, Massachusetts love The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. They love the story, and they especially love the book’s message that if we don’t start prioritizing the environment, the consequences will be disastrous.
So they were super excited to learn that Universal Studios made The Lorax into a blockbuster animated movie (it comes out in March on Dr. Seuss’ birthday).But when the kids went to the movie’s website, they were crestfallen to see it had no environmental education at all. Nothing about pollution, nothing about trees, just information on how to buy tickets.
“The website is more about making money than helping the planet, and that’s exactly what the book says not to do,” says Georgia, who is 10.
So Mr. Wells’ kids decided to take matters into their own hands — they started a petition on Change.org asking Universal to include environmental education on The Lorax movie website. Click here to sign their petition now.
“This movie can show the world we should not take our sky, water, trees, and animals for granted,” the kids say in their petition. “We’re encouraging Universal to make an improved Lorax movie website that Dr. Seuss would be proud of.”
For his part, Mr. Wells is pretty proud of his students already. “As a teacher, I want to help kids know they have a voice and that, like the Lorax, they should speak up and act if there’s a problem in their world,” he says.
If Universal executives see that their target audience feels strongly about the inclusion of environmental education in The Lorax website and other promotional materials, they’ll make it happen. Mr. Wells’ class asked that we include their favorite quote from The Lorax in this email: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing’s going to get better, it’s not.”
Thanks for being a change-maker,
- Corinne and the Change.org team
