School from Plastic Bottles

The other night on television there was an inspiring story about a Peace Corps worker in Guatemala who helped a poor village to build a small school out of plastic bottles. It was hailed as a wonderful, innovative way to recycle and utilize the one resource the village was not lacking - trash. What an awesome, inspiring idea!

The problem is that we cannot use this inspiration to spring into similar action here in the United States. Although we also have an abundance of trash, and plenty of poor communities that need schools and housing, we have an equal abundance of laws and codes that prohibit us from trying something new. Can anyone find a town in Florida that will allow a cob house to be built? Can a plastic bottle school be built in Kentucky? Where can an average person try insulating their home by building and stuccoing walls of straw bales? For that matter, can a couple, having purchased or inherited a piece of land, even build a home with their own hands anymore? The building codes in most American states are so extensive that people cannot build a dog house or a child's tree fort without submitting expensive and extensive architectural drawings and purchasing a building permit.

If someone in the United States has an idea to solve the homelessness problem, or build a school for underprivileged children, they better have some extensive financial backing to assist the upstream swim through bureacratic red tape. This is true even with a contractor's license or years of handyman or building experience. Basically, even if a person knows what they're doing, creativity is squelched. The issue of liability has a stranglehold on our creativity. Code officials have their hands so full monitoring typical everyday construction, they have little patience for something that isn't already tested and proven beyond all possible litigation. Regular citizens are no longer allowed to assume personal liability for new inventions or creations. Apparently we figure it is better to have no school than a plastic bottle school that might not witstand earthquake, hurricane and tornados.

Since, in the name of safety, we have taken away the privilege of making a mistake, we inadvertently create more homelessness. It is illegal to even attempt to build a roof over your own head. In Guatemala they have a lot of substandard housing, but at least they are permitted to weave corn stalks together into walls, and cover the whole thing with a tarp to stay dry. In this nation most of the truly poor cannot afford the permits necessary to begin the process, let alone the materials and land to build upon. If they built with whatever materials they find, their structures are illegal and ordered dismantled.

The issues of safety and liability also impact the education of the next generation. Gone are the days when children could mess about in the backyard and find out how to build a tree house or a go cart. The adventurous youth who finds out about gravity and structural integrity by falling through his tree house can be taken away from his 'negligent' parents by the state. Keep them safely inside where they can vicariously watch the creativity of others, but don't let them go outside and risk hurting themselves. Let them all learn computer if they are so fortunate as to have one in their home.

Creative adults are just about shut down before they begin, because someone will drive by and ask about that strange structure in their backyard and the fines will start to come in the mail. So, then the question is this, what is the point of showing these programs on television. Why inspire people with innovative and fantastic ideas if they will actually be fined if they try one of them? Maybe the purpose is to inspire people to move to Guatemala!