Third graders at Public School 103 in the north Bronx sat on a rug last month while their teacher, Kristy Neumeister, led a book discussion.
The book, “Rain School,” is about children who live in a rural region of Chad, a country in central Africa. Every year, their school must be rebuilt because storms wash it away.
“And what’s causing all these rains and storms and floods?” asked Ms. Neumeister.
“Carbon,” said Aiden, a serious-looking 8-year-old.
Ms. Neumeister was one of 39 elementary school teachers from across the city who participated in a four-day training session in the summer called “Integrating Climate Education in N.Y.C. Public Schools.” Its goal was to make the teachers familiar with the topic, so they can work climate change into their lesson plans.
Education of individuals is not the solution to systemic issues.
Education of individuals is the only way to have an educated populace.
Which is great if an educated populace is your goal. But my goal is to stop raising global average temperatures etc. Those things don’t directly correlate (at best it may change some votes once the educated become voters, but politicians aren’t super reliable either even when they do get in). I’m not saying I prefer ignorance, I am saying solutions that directly address the problems are the things that actually have a chance at working in a useful timeframe.
I actually think it is the longterm solution. If we had more people educated on the issue, we wouldn’t have such a hard time getting support for shortterm actions we need right now.
Counterpoint: nutrition labels have done nothing for obesity in the US aside from shift responsibility from food manufacturers to individuals. Same with environmental stuff, you can educate people as much as you want but if the people with power have no desire to change (e.g. legislatures and corporations) then education doesn’t really do anything. And they find ways to take over education with propaganda, like carbon footprints. I’m not saying ignorance is preferable, I’m saying education is not sufficient so there are better things to focus on in terms of solutions.
Agreed, education is only part of the solution.