Every April 22nd, the world is supposed to stop and reckon with itself. And maybe somewhere it does. But at Mamaroneck High School, Earth Day seems to pass through the hallways like any other Wednesday. No acknowledgement, no conversation, just the usual rush between periods. The planet is in crisis, and we are worried about the fifth period.
However, that is not to say that Mamaroneck is a school that does not care about the Earth. Anyone who drives down Post Road in the morning has seen the solar panels standing overhead in the parking lot, catching light before most students are even fully awake. That is not a small thing, rather it is the school putting money and intention behind something that really matters. Additionally, the school offers AP Environmental Science, a class full of students who are motivated to learn about the planet and learn the skills necessary to understand the mechanics of climate change. The care is here. The knowledge is here. Earth Day just never seems to highlight it.
Samantha Marsh (’26) has been thinking about that gap for a while: “We have the solar panels, we have kids in APES who are really passionate, and Earth Day just kind of disappears,” she said. “It feels like the perfect chance to connect all of it, and we just don’t take it.” The pieces exist. They just never get introduced to each other.
Leo Robine (’28) believes “people forget that schools don’t have to do any of this. The fact that ours did something real and concrete matters.” MHS’s genuine commitment to the environment deserves acknowledgement. However, right now it’s just sitting in the parking lot on Post Road, doing its job quietly while the rest of the school looks away.
The real issue lies in how the larger school community interacts with these changes. Earth Day is an opportunity to celebrate these achievements, but as Lilah Golden (’27) put it, “I found out it was Earth Day from Instagram. Not from school. And I just think that says something.”
It does say something. Not that MHS doesn’t care, but that caring and communicating are two different things, and the space between them is where Earth Day keeps getting lost. April 22nd should not be breaking news from someone’s feed. It should feel like ours.
Nobody is asking for a revolution. The point is not to turn MHS into something it’s not. The point is that we already did something worth caring about, something that took planning and resources and a decision to think beyond the immediate. Earth Day is just the one day a year that we can not only stop to appreciate the natural beauty of the world around us, but also the important steps our communities have taken to preserve it.
