I recently asked a bunch of 10-year-olds: would they rather drive a lamborgini or a digger? The response was instant and unanimous for the digger. And I agree with them. On the Waterstories instensive course we called it digger smile, it was clear when someone had just had their lesson.
Armed With this knowledge, we can now harness one of the most powerful forces in the universe - child labour. There is nothing like it, a bunch of motovated and self organizing young people, bursting with energy.
I beleive water cycle restoration is an innate behaviour in humans, just as with beavers. When my children were young, if we came across a stream the first thing they would do is start looking for rocks to build a dam with.
In the UK there is a theme park called Diggerland so there is a precendent for this. With qualified instructors and safety proceedures it is not unreasonable to let children operate an excavator.
At our water cycle restoration youth camps, participation is optional. Young people earn points creating water retention features by hand, learning by interacting with their environment. The points translate into time on the digger, once they have developed the basic skills (in about 20 minutes) they can do real work on the project.
Interested in one of our camps? Complete the form below and we will email when registration opens.