Frightening children about climate change

Eco-Schools Scotland, part of the Keep Scotland Beautiful charity, introduces itself:

Eco-Schools is an international initiative designed to encourage whole school action on sustainable development education issues. It is an environmental management tool, a learning resource and a recognised award scheme. It empowers young people to take action towards an economically, socially and environmentally just world...

Over 98% of Scotland's local authority schools now participate in the initiative, as well as many more independent and early years establishments.

http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/sustainable-development-education/eco-schools

`CLIMATE CONTROL: Brainwashing in Schools` discusses eco-activism in more negative terms:

We find instances of eco-activism being given a free rein within schools and at the events schools encourage their pupils to attend. In every case of concern, the slant is on scares, on raising fears, followed by the promotion of detailed guidance on how pupils should live, as well as on what they should think. In some instances, we find encouragement to create ‘little political activists’ in schools by creating a burden of responsibility for action on their part to ‘save the planet’, not least by putting pressure on their parents.

The National Curriculum has recently been reviewed by the government, but the proposed changes seem unlikely to prevent such practices. Surveys show that many children are upset and frightened by what they are told is happening to the climate.

http://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2014/04/Education-reducedportrait-5.pdf

Some teachers appreciate that climate change, and what policy makers should do about it, is still a contested issue amongst scientists. Is climate change driven by the sun or is it more likely to be the consequence of the build-up of greenhouse gases? That is a simple question which at the moment has not been resolved but the question is totally ignored by those in charge of the education of children. 

Instead, schools are encouraged to use resources from charities which ensure that children are alarmed from the earliest age about an impending global catastrophe.

A compassionate teacher who has blogged about the issue explains how children`s fears about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were allayed by providing them with more information. Never having been taught that carbon dioxide is actually essential for photosynthesis and is an important building block for life, these facts brought great relief to the children.

It seems important that climate change is taught in schools, but surely it must be taught in context. To teach it to primary school children, who are still incapable of grasping the underlying science, is pedagogically ignorant and therefore negligent. At the very least, climate change should be taught as a secondary science unit, after students have learnt basic biology, chemistry and physics. Only then do they have a chance of accurately assessing the issue, and only then can they receive a safe, healthy psychological upbringing.

How not to teach climate change

Apart from the impoverishment of their education, it is abusive to instill fear into vulnerable children that the planet upon which all life depends is under great threat. Even if it were true, which many reports suggest not, children are actually powerless to do anything about it. Since wellbeing is at the heart of Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) and Curriculum for Excellence - this should not be happening in Scotland. 

See Climate change reconsidered II