Third graders at Windsor Park Elementary are asking the same questions many adults across Corpus Christi are still trying to answer — and they are doing it in the classroom.
Students in Mrs. Patton-Elliott's class have been spending time learning about drought conditions, water sources, and the big debates happening across the Coastal Bend.
"Do companies just want their money to get rich, and not care about nature?"
"If people know we're in a drought why do they still use water?"
"What are we going to do?"
Those are just a few of the questions the third graders have been raising.
Claire Stewart, one of the students in the class, has been especially vocal about what she has learned.
"We have not been using our resources in the right way. We've been wasting them," Stewart said.
Stewart also brought up the debate over a desalination proposal that failed to advance through city council.
"We had a plan to desalinate the water but it didn't pass in city council, but it would've worked. So it's not because we don't have enough water, it's because we can't make a decision on what to do," Stewart said.
She also weighed in on the debate over Sinton's water supply.
"They said no, because what if they need the water. What if we use all their water?" Stewart said.
And when the conversation turned to groundwater, she drew on a personal connection.
"People suggesting building wells. Well, my friend Emma has a well. And it's not working anymore because we're taking all the groundwater," Stewart said.
Students can be seen working through the issues together — writing questions on whiteboards, raising their hands, and challenging each other to think deeper about what is happening in their city.
Their teacher says that is exactly the point.
"This doesn't just impact the adults, it doesn't just impact the businesses, it impacts them too," Hannah Patton-Elliott said.
For Stewart, the takeaway is straightforward.
"We're overusing what the Earth is giving us," Stewart said.
Just because she and her classmates are in the third grade, Stewart said, does not mean they do not have real questions and real concerns.
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