From France to Italy, there are calls to revise school curricula: “It is unthinkable not to make students understand the scientific foundations of how the climate is changing.”
"We, scientists, teachers, citizens and parents of yesterday, today and tomorrow, believe that secondary school curricula do not give sufficient weight to conveying the scientific foundations essential to understanding issues of paramount importance such as climate change and the reduction of biodiversity. Nor do they explain in an acceptable way what the causes and solutions are that can enable us to act to combat these phenomena."
The appeal was presented and signed in France by 350 public figures, among whom stand out Valérie Masson-Delmotte, researcher and co-chair of one of the Ipcc's working groups, Gilles Bœuf, professor at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, Laurence Tubiana, executive director of the European Climate Foundation, and Pascal Canfin, former minister and executive director of WWF France.
The letter explains that today's secondary school students represent the "Anthropocene generation". That is, the first to have grown up in an era "in which scientific knowledge makes it possible to assert that human activities are significantly affecting the balances of our planet." It is for this reason that "not giving them the keys to understanding the evolution of the climate and of biodiversity would be disastrous."
And yet, in classrooms the space devoted to these topics remains to this day "entirely marginal", if not "almost nonexistent" at certain stages of young people's school careers. In particular, according to the signatories of the letter, "the science curriculum insists on the way in which science has been built and has progressed, which is excellent for ensuring a general culture. But in practice nothing is said about recent sciences, which have emerged over the last four decades, and in particular about the modern sciences of climate."
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The appeal also refers to a recent change to the curricula of French secondary schools, which according to the 350 experts actually moves in the opposite direction: "Teaching related to sustainable development appears less valued than it was previously. And yet, the integration of social, economic and environmental dimensions is crucial for citizens, businesses and the community in the era of ecological and solidarity-based transition."
In other words, young people need to be told what "the multiple interactions are between poverty, inequality, climate risks and the collapse of biodiversity." Especially "at a time steeped in 'fake news', much of which spreads false information on precisely these environmental issues."
That these are topics increasingly dear to the younger generations is demonstrated by the student strikes for the climate, which have been organised around the world for months. The movement born from the young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has involved millions of people and promises to grow further in the future.
On the occasion of 15 March, the global climate strike day, climate change took centre stage in many school lessons in Bergamo and its province, thanks to a project promoted by parent associations and committees which, with the support of the Lombard municipality, rolled it out across all the city's schools.
For Fridays for Future, a brochure on climate change was distributed to all students, teaching materials were prepared for teachers so they could use them in class, and L'Eco di Bergamo, the local daily newspaper, published a four-page special on the topic aimed at young people (anyone interested can request the teaching materials by emailing [email protected]).
Thanks to the involvement of teachers, hundreds of pieces of work were produced over the course of the week. This had a knock-on effect on families too, who, through their children, were made more aware of the need to protect the climate.
