“Well Then I Guess You’re Right at Home Here": How a Field Trip About Recycling Taught a Much Bigger Lesson

At Legacy Christian, some of the most meaningful learning happens when students step beyond the classroom and into the community. In this guest post, our 3rd and 4th Grade teacher, Miss Genzink, shares the story of a FLEX project that began with a government unit and a field trip to Comprenew but became something much deeper. What started as a lesson in advocacy, stewardship, and electronics recycling turned into a powerful reminder of what true belonging can look like when we intentionally build communities that celebrate every person’s God-given gifts.

As part of a school that uses the Teaching for Transformation framework to integrate faith across our curriculum, teachers are asked to think about creating FLEX projects (Formational Learning Experiences) for our students each year. These are experiences that tie into our curriculum that are designed to have a long-term impact on our students, taking learning beyond the classroom and interacting with an audience outside of our immediate school community. This year, I decided to create my FLEX around my 3rd & 4th grade government unit - asking students to think about how they can speak up to make a positive change in their community. As I thought about local businesses we could partner with, I knew Comprenew would be a great partner that could challenge us to educate our community to be justice seekers and earth keepers through electronics recycling. And because I knew the President of Comprenew, Scott VanderKooy, through my church Council work, I knew that he would clearly model for my students how they could use their interests in technology and business to glorify God through their own careers some day.

The 3rd and 4th Graders during their tour of Comprenew.

I stopped Scott after church one morning to ask if Comprenew ever partnered with schools, particularly elementary schools. He said that they hadn’t often partnered with younger students before, but quickly offered to connect me with their Program Director, Emily, and gave us the go ahead to come up with something awesome for the 3rd & 4th graders at Legacy. (Getting such a quick and enthusiastic yes to these outside the box ideas is a teacher’s dream come true!) Emily and I talked about my educational goals for my students, as well as some ideas for ways that we could educate our community and advocate for increased electronics recycling at Legacy. Our first step, we decided, would be to set up a tour of the Comprenew Headquarters for all 45 of our 3rd & 4th grade students. Emily created three stations that would help our students understand all the pieces that make up a computer, tour the Comprenew facility to see the many steps involved with recycling the technology that gets brought in, and an educational video that helped us understand the social justice implications for bringing electronics recycling to West Michigan rather than outsourcing that work to developing nations. It was amazing to see the thread of justice seeking woven so thoroughly through the work done at Comprenew. These throughlines of being Justice Seekers and Earth Keepers were the ones that I expected to see during our field trip.

But as we walked through the facility for our tour, I witnessed an unexpected throughline woven into the electronics sorting process - specifically the equipment disassembly process. As Scott led our students through this area of the facility, he shared that the entire team who worked on disassembling devices was made up of people with autism. I quickly shifted my gaze to one of my 3rd grade students, Ezra, who also has autism, and saw his face light up. He immediately put his hand in the air and told Scott, “I have autism.” Without missing a beat, Scott looked at Ezra and said, “Well then I guess you’re right at home here.” He proceeded to encourage Ezra by celebrating the ways that God made brains like his way better for this job than most people’s brains and shared his gratitude for such a special set of skills. Ezra smiled proudly as he looked around the room and saw people just like him being desired, celebrated, and thriving. As we discussed this aspect of Comprenew’s work after our field trip, my students pointed out how this intentionality in their hiring processes connected to the throughlines of Community Building and Image Reflecting - creating a space for everyone to belong by using their God-given gifts.

As I reflected on this brief, but powerful, kingdom moment, I was deeply moved by the incredible and unexpected ways that God can use us when we orient ourselves toward justice. So often, we become comfortable with our lives, our routines, and our structures staying the way they have always been. Because these things work for many of us, we fail to step outside of ourselves and walk a mile in a different set of shoes. But by shifting our orientation towards justice, towards an others-centered approach to doing things, we can begin to create communities where we are intentional about celebrating everyone’s gifts and designing spaces that center around not just meeting needs, but celebrating true belonging. As schools and churches continue to take steps toward creating spaces that are inclusive for everyone, imagine how powerful it would be if we could welcome everyone into our spaces and be able to say, “Well then, I guess you’re right at home here.”