Climate Change Education is Essential

For every age group

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

The Canberra Times finally convinced me to buy a membership so I could read ‘*Is climate education in primary schools doing more harm than good?’ *This is a question I can answer with confidence. No. It’s not.

Climate change education is essential.

For the planet. For humanity. For children.

The Unreliable Research

Doherty’s article discusses research conducted by the Institute of Public Affairs. Why wouldn’t the IPA want young people to be informed about climate change? Could it be because they’re funded, in large part, by mining, logging, and oil?

The IPA recommended waiting until secondary school to approach climate change. Given their long history of science denial, I imagine their next move will be eliminating it from the curriculum at every age.

While the IPA’s advice is questionable at best, it’s true that young people are increasingly worried about the earth. I believe this because I read it in a guide created by the Australian Psychological Society, an actual credible source.

Teachers, social media, and David Attenborough are not to blame.

Climate change itself is.

This is a reality that we all face, not just the polar bears. Hiding reality from children won’t change it and won’t help them cope.

As an educator, I’m not comfortable taking advice from the likes of the IPA.

Children Have Rights

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child is based on four principles, one of which is children’s opinions matter. They deserve to be informed about the state of the world so that their opinions can be formed and heard.

It’s not the role of the child to simply go to school, memorise the knowledge enforced on them, then regurgitate it back up.

Implying that climate education can somehow impact on literacy and numeracy is absurd. Science is a legitimate field of learning too.

Children should be taught to think critically, and problem solve. They have a right to see and know the world, and to a complete education.

A Complete Education

How do you teach children emotional regulation and resilience if they’re never allowed to be upset about anything?

How can they be supported through their worries, if adults shelter them every difficult reality?

It’s time for us to let go of the stereotypical image of the moping teenager, only worried about the earth, and not the real-world problems.

It’s time to teach them about climate science in age appropriate, emotionally aware ways.

I work in early childhood education and I’m not afraid to talk about climate science with the children. I do this with sensitivity. I listen. I follow the children’s interests.

For example, some of the children in my class love sharks. Naturally, this has extended into larger conversations about the Ocean.

This was an opportunity for us to play the online game Spot the Difference, created by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

The children were tasked with spotting plastic bags amongst a field of jellyfish. We talked about how plastic bags make it into the ocean, the meaning of pollution, and what we can do to keep plastic out of the sea.

Did I say, “climate change is coming for us all, it’s causing widespread natural disasters and will lead to a catastrophic loss of human life?” No.

I did say, “sometimes animals eat the plastic bags by mistake and they get sick. It makes me feel worried and sad. It helps me to take a break and have a big drink of water.”

As children get older and their interests develop, it will become appropriate to tell them the extent of plastic pollution in the ocean and its devastating impact on the earth. Hopefully, this will make them upset, because it’s upsetting.

It’s the responsibility of teachers, educators, and families to show children the truth, and teach them how to respond.

If we’re lucky, this education will stick and future generations will do better than we have.

We’ll see more women and more people of colour in STEM.

We’ll see wildlife protected and emissions lowered.

The children just might inherit a planet worth keeping.

But not if the billionaire mining heiress Gina Rinehart gets her way.

The opinions above are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.