EDUCATION

THE LORAX LIVES

Tamarack Camps use Dr. Seuss' tale to
teach children about the environment.

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

W

earing a tan cloth
hat and a matching
vest over a pink T-
shirt and jeans, Jeff Metz
looks more like an explorer
than an environmental
activist.
But the 200 third and four-
th grade students at Temple
Israel don't seem to mind.
Instead, they sit in a circle
around Metz as he narrates
Dr. Seuss' story The Lorax.
The rhymes flow off his
tongue quickly and easily,
while on a screen behind
him a slide projector flashes
pictures of the strange-
looking brown barbaloots,
swamee swans and other
characters in the book.
Although the story is
entertaining, Metz, other-
wise known as the
Tamarack Camps director,
has a serious purpose behind
telling it.
"I'm trying to show the
need to care for the envi-
ronment," Metz said after
the program. "The Jewish
tradition strongly urges
respect for the environment.
Judaism makes it a mitzvah
to plant trees."
During the next 45
minutes, Metz will use au-
dience participation, fake
commercials for Tamarack
Camp's television station
WTRE (tree), and gifts to get
the point across.
It's all part of the
Tamarack Camps educa-
tional program given each
year. Two years ago, Metz
began narrating The Lorax
in an effort to teach children
to be more aware of the envi-
ronment. He found it so suc-
cessful he revised it for a
limited run this year.
Metz has been on the road
almost each week since the

beginning of the year to mid-
March using The Lorax and
the holiday of Tu B'Shevat
to teach children about the
environment.
Wanting the children to
become actively involved in

the story, Metz encourages
them to sing "barbaloot,
barbaloot, barbaloot-loot-
loot" when he says "brown
barbaloots" or shout
"timber" when he says
"cho p. "

Then, with a switch of a
hat, Metz becomes the envi-
ronmentally concerned
Lorax who warns of impen-
ding doom when trees are
harvested at an accelerated
rate to make "sneeds." His
prophecy comes true. A town
once clean and beautiful
becomes polluted and
deserted when the last of the
truffala trees is chopped
down.
With another hat switch,
Metz takes time out for a
commercial. He becomes a
salesman selling products
made from trees, while
behind him his wife, Cindi,
who operates the slide pro-
jector, pulls bowling pins,
tennis rackets, paper and
other items made from wood
out of a large wooden trunk.
Before returning to The
Lorax, Metz throws in a bit

Metz hands out
booklets filled with
tips giving planting
advice.

Temple Israel students show their commitment to the environment, taping
leaves to a paper tree.

of Jewish environmental
law, saying a tree must grow
for three years before one
can pick its fruit.
Alternating between
commercials, a game of Jew-
ish "Jeopardy," and The
Lorax, Metz makes his mes-
sage clear — it is the chil-
dren's job to take care of the
environment and to prevent
what happens in The Lorax
from happening to this
world.
Like the child in the book
who is given the last truffala
seed to plant, student
Lauren Lotzoff is left with
the biggest responsibility of
all. Winning a small Norfolk
Pine, Lotzoff promises Metz
she will take good care of the
household plant.
To encourage other
students to remember his

Tamarack Camps director Jeff
Metz explains the importance of
trees while showing students a
tennis racket.

lesson, Metz hands out
booklets filled with tips giv-
ing planting advice and
games about trees. He also
leaves a present for the
school — a drawing of a
leafless tree teachers can
hang up in the school's
hallway. Each student is
asked to put his name on a
paper leaf and tape it to the
tree so that it will be forever
green.
"I really do enjoy it. I feel
like it is of value to the
kids," Metz said about The
Lorax.
Watching the crowds every
Sunday, Cindi said the pro-
grams have been successful
especially with younger
children.
"The kids are not going to
remember if it was just in a
book or a Tu B'Shevat lec-
ture from a teacher," Metz
said. "But they will re-
member it now. The idea is
to present the information in
a new and interesting way."
Metz said he sometimes
meets children who heard
The Lorax two years ago who
can still sing "barbaloot, bar-
baloot, barbaloot-oot-oot" or
remember the Jewish
"Jeopardy" questions he ask-
ed them.
But most of all, "Not one
child walks away without
remembering it is his
responsibility to take care of
trees and that trees are im-
portant to us."

❑

_ THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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