Currently the Department
for Education is proposing to remove all explicit references to climate change from the national curriculum guidelines
up to the age of 14. The effect could potentially mislead an entire generation
of children. According to John Ashton author of the article, “the purpose of
education is to prepare us for the challenges we will face in life. Climate
change, and our success or failure in dealing with it, will be a defining
challenge.” The impacts of removing something dynamic as how our climate is
changing could have a damaging outcome on how the new generation responds to
certain situations. We are now in a time where the global response to climate
change will be looked back on as the greatest failure of politics in history. Our
generation has only begun to pull back the levers of power, and the majority of
the world has barely begun to grasp the urgency and intensity of the challenges
ahead. Ashton implies that “we should be stretching every inch of our schools –
as many excellent teachers up and down the country have been doing – to instill
in our children the knowledge and confidence to make them heard.” What is not
mentioned cannot be reflected upon, simply stated. If we don’t bring the issues
to the table the conversation can’t be initiated. The effect would be detrimental
to the idea for learning and debate about climate change in schools at a time
when it needs to be discussed further. At a minimal level, climate change and
its human consequences should remain explicit in the new geography curriculum.
Governmental
heads across the major economies have talked about their commitment in dealing
with climate change while the our economic habits continue to bind us ever more
closely into a high-carbon future If anyone has a right to be informed about
what is at stake at this level, it is the children of today. The sociological
perspective of this global problem is communication is now being silenced. At
the expense of most global problems discussed in class such as race, war and crime
the first part is having the conversation to what can be done to minimize or resolve
these issues and not teaching them is not an option.
Christopher Roberts
22 March 2013
16:00
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