Are your children being taught that a climate apocalypse is inevitable? If they arenât, they might be soon.
Itâs been a year since New Jersey became
the first state
to require that climate change be taught in nearly all grades and subjects. Since then, organizations such as the
New Jersey Climate Education Hub
have distributed instructional materials that include subjects such as
environmental racism
,
youth climate action
(categorized as âClimate Heroes #2â), and
emotive art
representing how climate change makes us feel. Itâs not just New Jersey, either â states such as
California
,
Illinois
, and
New Mexico
have adopted or are considering similar programs.
THE BIDEN BORDER CRISIS RAGES ON
Iâm not here to argue about the science behind anthropogenic (human-driven) climate change. Thatâs its own battle. But even if you, like me, affirm that anthropogenic climate change is something we should be worried about, thereâs still a right way and a wrong way to teach our children about climate science. Climate change as a scientific concept may belong in the classroom, but climate activism does not.
By activism, I mean foisting a collective
mindset shift
on students. This is the whole point of school climate change programs. They donât want students merely to learn the scientific facts behind climate change; they want students to
do something
about it.
Itâs not acceptable for schools to use children to reengineer their parents socially, but thatâs exactly what climate activists would have schools do.
Conservatives
and
fathers
are the primary targets, since they are the demographics perceived as being most resistant to climate activism. These efforts have become more stringent in light of
recent research
that suggests that conservatives prefer tradition and the established order. (Conservatives want to conserve things? Who knew!)
Even ostensibly centrist organizations such as the Brookings Institution have fallen victim to this movement. A 2020 Brookings
report
lamented that âentrenched political ideology among adults is a major barrier to shifting public opinion on climate change and thus wide scale behavioral change toward climate action.â Brookings even argued that schools should avoid using the term âclimate changeâ so as not to offend parentsâ âhighly resistant political ideologies.â
Itâd be one thing if climate activism in schools was just another passing educational fad that would come and go without doing too much damage. Unfortunately, all the talk about impending climate disaster is shaping the next generation of Americansâ mental health, as well as how they view their place in the world.
A 2021
survey
published in the Lancet found that 46% of Americans aged 16-25 are âveryâ or âextremelyâ worried about climate change. Even more alarming is that for many respondents, this worry was so extreme that it negatively affected their ability to
function
in day-to-day life. Many young Americans are also
choosing
not to have children since they cannot bear to bring others into a world that already terrifies them.
Younger children are also affected by climate anxiety. A 2022
review article
noted that children under 18 already feel hopeless and pessimistic about the planetâs future. Many now believe that the world will end during their lifetime. By including climate hysteria in school curricula, states and school districts would only reinforce this anxiety, and perhaps condemn an entire generation to a fear-driven stasis.
Thereâs nothing intrinsically wrong with teaching children about climate change. Children should know the facts â how climate models work, the differences between climate and weather, and how the Earthâs climate has changed throughout history. But schools should not be trying to turn children into
Just Stop Oil
proxies. The next generation of Americans deserves better than becoming political pawns at the expense of their welfare and education.
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Garion Frankel is a Ph.D. student in pre-K-12 education administration at Texas A&M University. He is a Young Voices contributor and was previously an education journalist.
