Lessons in catastrophe
Children are eager to know more about climate change, but there’s a risk that too much could make them anxious. Marty Sharpe reports.
How do you teach young people about the most existential threat to humankind in a way that shows how serious the situation is, without scaring them witless and making them feel it’s hopeless?
Those of us of a certain age will well remember being a child living with the threat of nuclear war and global devastation. It’s not something you ever forget.
The idiocy that was
‘‘mutually assured destruction’’ was confounding for children, who struggled to see how their elders could be so stupid.
The omnipresent threat of nuclear war also had the effect of making children – and many of their elders – feel quite helpless.
The parallels to the climate crisis are often remarked upon, as is children’s nature to see hope and solutions, where parents might feel despair and ennui.
While climate change is not part of the national curriculum, many teachers and schools take it upon themselves to teach the subject. It’s not an easy one to teach, and can have a profound impact.
Victoria University psychology professor Marc Wilson says children are no different to adults insofar as they are all different and their reactions will differ.
‘‘Those reactions range through enthusiasm to get cracking and fix the planet, through ambivalence and apathy, to unhappiness. But I think it’s also the case that, as with many things, it’s not the teaching, but how we’re teaching.’’
He and his colleagues are hearing anecdotally from people working with teens that ‘‘climate fatalism’’ is playing out in therapy.
‘‘It’s also the case that the school teachers we work with want to know what we know about this. Much of the research my Youth Wellbeing Study team do focuses on adolescent mental health and wellbeing, and there’s not much in New Zealand (yet) about climate anxiety and wellbeing, so that’s one of the things we’re going to do next – to have a look at this and see what is going on,’’ Wilson says.
‘‘International research, however, suggests that young folks tend to be less fatalistic than their elders, and more likely to consider climate change as a solvable challenge. But they also tend to see it as more of a challenge for the future.
‘‘On the one hand, this represents a problem in terms of engaging people in action, but it’s also been suggested that it’s a not unreasonable way of ‘problem-focused coping’.’’
At what age is a child ready to learn about climate change? Again, it will depend on the child, Wilson says.
‘‘I think the answer to this is that kids are never too young, but we need to talk to them about this in a manner that is consistent with where they’re at in terms of ability to understand. I’m not sure I’d be starting with explaining the carbon cycle, for
example. Start with things young people can directly experience, and that’s nature.
‘‘It’s also the case that how we teach is vital. On the one hand, educational experts on this topic say we should be honest with children about climate change. We obviously want to avoid freaking them out – so we need to talk about climate change in a way that inspires hope, that encourages young people to think about and take action.
‘‘I hope it’s obvious, but it’s probably a good idea to steer clear of graphic images of destruction and misery. I think teachers also need to remember – and I’m sure they do – that when youngsters leave their classrooms they go home to parents who may not, in this case, agree that there is an issue. It’s important to avoid implying that people who don’t think there’s a problem are idiots.’’
Earth and Space Science Educators chairwoman Jenny Pollock, who has 20 years’ experience of teaching science, says the biggest challenge for teachers is the complexity of the issue.
‘‘It is not a simple issue like the depletion of the ozone layer, with a simple cause – CFCs – with a relatively easy fix. Even plastic pollution, even though the problem is vast, is easy for students to get, and for them to at least imagine a solution.
‘‘Climate change has so many aspects because all aspects of the Earth System – geosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and cryosphere (ice) – are interrelated and they interact in ways that we are still understanding.
‘‘I was always very sensitive about the effect on students. NZ has had its fair share of natural disasters recently, and we are being made aware of the dangers posed by the impending Alpine Fault rupture and the Hikurangi Margin mega-tsunami. We need to be teaching resilience somehow.
‘‘I personally think that climate change has to be dealt with sensitively at primary and intermediate school level. It’s a hard topic for that level – what do you say to young kids anyway?
‘‘Better to teach and reinforce very good environmental awareness and skills at that age, I think. Also, if you teach certain things at too young an age, the students can be tired of it by the time you are really able to develop understanding of such a complex topic.’’
Heidi Mardon is chief executive of the Toimata Foundation, which runs Enviroschools, an ‘‘action-based education programme where young people plan, design and implement sustainability projects and become catalysts for change in their families, and communities’’.
‘‘The overall approach we take is to stop focusing on this ever-increasing list of problems,’’ she says. ‘‘It’s depressing, and when you’re down you don’t learn.
‘‘And it’s not what school’s about. Learning is about exploring our own creativity and potential and being able to see our potential in the context of community. Who am I, or anyone else, to say there is not a way out of this for young people.
‘‘From our perspective, kids of all ages should be supported to connect with their world, how they can contribute, and be taught how to be confident to take action. So when they get to their teens and see the sort of serious stuff they need to deal with, they actually have some confidence and connection to do something, rather than just panic and scream that it’s someone else’s problem.
‘‘It’s critical that children are not told it’s too late to do anything.’’
Taking some sort of action is important, not least because it makes children (and adults) feel empowered, Mardon says.
‘‘The problem with focusing on climate change is that it’s created a plethora of scientists with slightly different views. There are less climate change deniers, for sure, but now there is this range. Some [are] saying technology will get us out, others say 10 years and we’re stuffed.
‘‘There’s a lot of perspectives. Every individual needs their own, and needs to believe in the potential of new thinking and new ways of being. Otherwise we may as well not go to school, may as well not do anything.
‘‘Climate change is a symptom of a whole bunch of stuff that we’re not doing very well. And it’s just one symptom. Micro-plastics in the ocean, loss of biodiversity, and water pollution are other symptoms.
‘‘But if you get away from them and back to the roots of how we live, that’s where the potential is in education, I reckon. It’s about how do we live in ways where those things don’t happen.
‘‘The last thing we want is to have adults telling kids another thing they have to do. Why should kids have to go and pick up the rubbish that adults have thrown down? That’s not education.
‘‘Our philosophy is about children and young people connecting with their own uniqueness.
‘‘We can all see that young people are worried, and as they get older I’m not sure that they want to be ‘taught’ climate change as much as they want to be involved in solutions and see adults also involved . . . Effective education is when we are learning and take action together.
‘‘We have been told that Toimata programmes have heart, and that’s why people enjoy being part of it, they feel it’s meaningful – it’s not just an intellectual exercise, it’s not just a search for a technological solution, it’s a personal journey, a community journey and for many a spiritual journey. For many of us this is also a journey of aroha – aroha for ourselves, each other and the planet.
‘‘I know we don’t talk often about these things in education, but we think they are really important . . . having a head, hands and heart approach that honours and nurtures the whole child, the whole person.’’
Because schools are not required to teach climate change, the level of knowledge in students varies greatly, and often comes down to their own interest levels.
Layla Christison, a year 11 student at Napier’s William Colenso College, is perhaps typical in that she would like more taught and at a younger age.
‘‘In order to combat the problem, you just have to accept what it is and that you’re a part of it . . . I think science in general needs to be taught right from a young age in order to fully understand what it is and the consequences that it’s going to have,’’ she says.
‘‘It’s definitely important that it gets taught straight away, and then get into the kind of more scary stuff as students get older and can understand it. And teach it so that it’s manageable, that makes sense.’’