Lil Dicky loves the Earth. Photo: Screengrab/Youtube
Most people agree today climate change is a real thing, regardless of political divides or other personal beliefs. The contentious part of the topic seems to come first, in whether or not a person believes humankind is responsible for global changes, and second, how we should “deal” with it.
According to a recent poll by NPR, more than 80 percent of parents in the United States — regardless of political affiliations — believe it should be a part of the curriculum for kids in school now, a generation that will face these growing consequences in the future. Two-thirds of Republicans and nine out of 10 Democrats in the NPR-Ipsos poll agree the subject should be taught in school, while a separate poll showed that 86 percent of teachers agree it should be taught in school as well.
What’s probably most revealing about the NPR poll, though, is that while most people are apparently on the same page of teaching kids about climate change, few people are actually doing it. Of the just over 1,000 adults and more than 500 teachers surveyed, only 45 percent of parents and just 42 percent of teachers talk to or teach their children or students about climate change’s effects on our environment, economy, and society. While an overwhelming majority of educators are in favor of teaching students about climate change, “two-thirds of teachers told us ‘It’s not my subject area,'” said NPR‘s Anya Kamenetz. Seventeen percent of teachers said they don’t have the appropriate materials for teaching about climate change as well as not knowing enough about the subject to feel comfortable teaching it, and just four percent said they don’t teach it at all simply because it’s not allowed in their particular school. Kamenetz also added that some teachers avoid the subject in their classroom because they’re worried about “parent push back.”
Meanwhile, of the teachers in the poll who do cover climate change, an overwhelming amount feel they have the resources needed to answer students’questions about climate change (77 percent), and that their school encourages them to discuss it in the classroom (64 percent). Of those same teachers, 70 percent believe there should be new laws requiring the topic to be covered in school. Currently, only 19 states have adopted what’s called Next Generation Science Standards, an approach to K-12 curriculum that does include teaching students about human-caused climate change as early as middle school.
“We did talk to teachers who work in areas around the country where a big chunk of families might be climate (change) deniers,” Kamenetz adds, “Or maybe they work in the fossil fuel industry, so it’s a sensitive subject.”
