The road to climate change starts at school
Teachers can help lead their students to green future, writes Gareth Thomson.
When it comes to climate leadership and energy efficiency in Alberta, I have a simple request for our leaders in government and schools: please don’t forget about our children.
The view from 30,000 feet is pretty good, with the Notley government promising that 2017 will bring useful things like a price on carbon, and an agency that will help us reach that low-hanging fruit of climate mitigation called “energy efficiency.”
However, I’ve been a teacher and environmental educator for over 25 years in this province, and I have to report that when it comes to education about climate, environment, and energy, we’re not there yet.
Sure, there are a few, inspiring bright lights.
James Stuart teaches at St. Richard Elementary school in Edmonton, where his Grade 5 students have become solar photovoltaic experts: they’ve learned about Alberta’s energy systems, built electrical circuits, partnered with community groups, and organized Green Energy fairs to share their learning.
In Calgary, teacher Adam Robb mashed together social studies and career and technology studies to create a new course at Lord Shaughnessy High School that has seen his students study climate change, propose major solar installations to its own board, and optimize their schools environmental performance. His students recently spoke at Pembina’s Climate Summit and the school won the Greenest School in Canada Award.
I’ve noticed some great leadership by trustees, too. In a recent blog post, Edmonton public school board chairman Michael Janz asks the question “What if EPSB was powered by 100 per cent renewable energy?”
Calgary Board of Education trustee Julie Hrdlicka also wrote about her district’s leadership and its important “ask” of the Alberta School Boards Association: to promote and share best practices in environmental learning, and advocate on behalf of school boards for supporting renewable energy and ensuring students’ access to environmental education.
Inspiring stuff — but these are the exceptions, not the rule. Alberta’s 670,000 K-12 students rely on their 40,000 teachers to guide their learning; teachers are key, and they need support.
What does this look like? School boards can help by supporting and prioritizing teachers’ professional learning, and setting policy that weaves together education and infrastructure toward climate leadership.
There are dozens of things school boards can do to simultaneously reduce their use of carbon fuels and deliver on their education mission.
For example, conservation of energy can be tricky to teach, dealing as it does with the invisible flow of electrons and other occult mysteries. So what if Alberta schools made energy visible, using circuit meters or putting a webcam on the meter that is locked away in some corner of the school, and encouraged students to reduce their consumption of electricity and natural gas?
Our government can help our children, too. Some school boards in B.C. avoid paying their carbon taxes if they agree to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and offer “educational opportunities for students, in partnership with their parents, that promote sustainability and climate action both at school and at home.”
Our government needs to provide incentives for school board leadership in some way. And let us not forget the powerful tool called curriculum, with its potential to revitalize Alberta’s classrooms in this area.
I’ll say it again: when it comes to climate leadership and energy efficiency in Alberta, please don’t forget the children. Students should learn to think critically about climate change and other issues; if they decide to act on this front they can help schools save money, pay less carbon tax and inspire the community to move toward a low carbon future. These same students will gain valuable 21st century and workplace skills in the process.
Let me give the final word to Stephanie Zawaduk, a Grade 12 student from Queen Elizabeth High School in Edmonton: “Climate change can be intimidating and overwhelming — but we believe the antidote to despair is action.”