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Middle School Students Explore the Global Importance of Sanitation
Where does our waste actually go? How do the underlying systems of public infrastructure around the world support, or fail to support, human health and dignity? This week, our Middle School students explored these questions with sanitation expert Mr. Paynter, discussing a topic most of us would normally avoid: poop, and the global reality of what happens when communities lack access to basic sanitation.
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Students first examined the systemic role sanitation plays in disease prevention, public health, and social safety. To illustrate how quickly unmanaged waste can spread, students tossed brown paper streamers across the gym. Building on this visual representation, Mr. Paynter highlighted the severe issues caused by poor infrastructure, examining how a lack of toilets disproportionately affects impoverished communities in both developed and developing nations, unhoused populations, and young women navigating school attendance without adequate menstrual hygiene resources.
Students first examined the systemic role sanitation plays in disease prevention, public health, and social safety. To illustrate how quickly unmanaged waste can spread, students tossed brown paper streamers across the gym. Building on this visual representation, Mr. Paynter highlighted the severe issues caused by poor infrastructure, examining how a lack of toilets disproportionately affects impoverished communities in both developed and developing nations, unhoused populations, and young women navigating school attendance without adequate menstrual hygiene resources.
Mr. Paynter taught us that over 3 billion people globally still lack access to safe sanitation services. Even within the United States, an estimated 2 million individuals live without reliable access to indoor plumbing: A metric we learned the federal government officially stopped tracking in 2016. Mr. Paynter also showed the students the structure of a functional latrine, demonstrating the mechanics of non-plumbed sanitation systems utilized across the developing world. He further connected environmental stewardship with modern plumbing, showing us how advanced waste management mitigates environmental contamination, protects watersheds during extreme climate events, and can even facilitate the purification of wastewater into potable drinking water.
Though he’s an English teacher now, Mr. Paynter is uniquely qualified to lead this discussion. Before joining our faculty, Mr. Paynter spent 25 years working in more than 20 countries, including four years living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Throughout his career, he worked with organizations such as the World Bank, UNICEF, and charity: water, educating mothers, fathers, children, and government officials about the importance of water, sanitation, and hygiene.
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