SEI
  • Home
  • Programs
  • Stories
  • About Us
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Our Team
    • Media
    • Get Involved
    • Careers
    • Partners
    • Our Board
    • Our History
    • Contact
  • Give

Stories

Empowering Youth Climate Activists in K-5 Classrooms

1/20/2021

1 Comment

 
By George Spencer
Picture
From my work in schools, I hear the argument over and over that K-5 students cannot hear about climate change, environmental and social justice, or the reality of our world because it "is not age appropriate" or in line with the standards. It comes from everyone: teachers, parents, school administrators. And I get it, it is tough to bring up these incredibly complex and dynamic challenges to young people, especially when we are likely struggling with them ourselves. It can feel overwhelming to plunge into a conversation where we do not have the answers. I wonder, though, if our students and kids don't understand reality, what type of adults are we raising them to become?
​

What if it was okay for us to not always have the answer in the classroom? For us to say: “I’m not sure; let me look into that,” and actually follow up to address their question, introducing them to experts who are already working to address these issues. What if we told our students and our kids, what is actually happening, not to disempower, but to listen and hear what comes up for them? So often, young students, especially, surprise me with their creativity, ingenuity, and imagination.
In an interview with STAND.earth, adrienne maree brown told us that "we’re living inside the imagination of someone else.” She describes how conditions of police brutality, systemic racism, and environmental injustice are products of collective imagining, thoughts that have become reality and shaped the world with destruction and violence. I’d argue that the same can be said for the climate crisis. The global degradation of our planet is a result of generations of imagining that unrestricted growth of economies is more important than sustaining our planet’s ecosystems, which we are a part of. Any solutions that we do bring into existence will come similarly, from imagining.

Who better to lead us in this path of imagining than youth, who have the strongest and most uninhibited creativity and imagination.

What if we made space in our classrooms to say what is really happening, not shielding them from the truth? What if we heard their ideas, not just to humor them, but to learn ourselves from the imaginative ways they can think to address the current challenges of society? What if we said yes to the discomfort of having these hard conversations in the classroom, knowing that the creativity, problem solving, and solutions that come from them will be the most important imaginations of the next generation? Isn’t that how we will create leaders who are ready to meet these challenges as they grow up and become adults?
1 Comment
Susan Guise
3/19/2021 12:58:12 pm

Are children these days thinking and problem solving free of adult pressure to do it their way?

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    The SEI Team

    Environmental education and workforce development experts share stories from the field

    Archives

    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020

    Categories

    All
    Board Spotlight
    Career Pathways
    Climate Corps
    Education Resources
    Energize Careers
    Energize Colleges
    Energize Schools
    Fellow Spotlight
    School Of Environmental Leadership
    School Sustainability
    Youth Action

    RSS Feed

Get Involved

Mission

Careers

Give

Picture
Picture

Contact Us

Phone: (415) 507-2181

​Email:
sei@seiinc.org

​SEI Headquarters

100 Smith Ranch Road, Suite 124
San Rafael, CA 94903

Additional Locations

Greater New York
Los Angeles
North Carolina
​Oregon

​Sacramento
San Diego
Seattle

Connect

Subscribe to the SEI quarterly newsletter to get involved and receive updates
subscribe

SEI is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
Strategic Energy Innovations © ​2022.   Privacy Policy   Terms of Use
  • Home
  • Programs
  • Stories
  • About Us
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Our Team
    • Media
    • Get Involved
    • Careers
    • Partners
    • Our Board
    • Our History
    • Contact
  • Give