A couple of weeks back, I was in my classroom with a few of my Year 7 students when one asked what our plan for PSHE was. I went into our staff shared area and pulled up the centrally prepared slides for the next week, and as they loaded, that same pupil saw the title and said, “We are so having a debate about that.” We’d had a few debates by this point, so perhaps I should have expected it, but I’ve also seen endless stories about how the kids today are all climate change alarmists, struggling from the clinically diagnosable ‘climate anxiety’, so to hear a pupil say they wanted a debate about climate change with a tone that implied their implicit disagreement with what they assumed would be in the centrally planned slides was undeniably exciting.
I had a flick through the slides, and it was exactly as you might expect: doom and gloom on every single slide; no wonder the kids are so terrified. I decided to prepare my own climate change PSHE over that weekend, splitting it into three lessons:
- Climate change in context — discussing 500 million years of changing temperatures and atmospheric composition, including how two thirds of that time was supposedly too hot for ice to form in the arctic, the ice ages, the younger dryas, and as much climatological history I could squeeze in;
- The good news — highlighting the speed and efficiency with which humans have adapted to climate-related disasters, ensuring that it was abundantly clear that this speed was undoubtably outpacing any increases in said disasters, but then also presenting the data around those disasters which shows no clear signal of increase in the last 100 years; and
- The energy debate — how renewables are not solving any claimed problem of rising atmospheric CO2 levels, but are causing untold (literally in the mainstream media) environmental damage, and that investment in nuclear, which is demonstrably safe, energy-dense, and cost-effective, is being neglected for the ostensibly virtuous and Green energy sources.
Once this was all prepped, I went to my Head of Year and asked if I would be able to lead the climate change sessions with an alternative perspective. I explained that the pupils had an appetite for a debate on the topic, and that it would be important to provide an insight into the opposition apocalypse-sceptic view for that to be an effective and informed debate. He told me to run with it and that if I ever wanted to modify the PSHE content to “make my tutor sessions my own” then I should go ahead. And go ahead I did.
My sessions started on that Tuesday, and the debate, motioned as ‘Climate change is a serious problem that requires serious and immediate attention’, was scheduled for the following Wednesday, a PSHE session that this head of year would attend. I won’t waste much time going through the sessions, just to say that the way in which the pupils responded, listened, focused, and engaged was fantastic.
As was the debate itself: both sides conducted themselves admirably and presented excellent, well thought out, and evidenced cases; with the best speech, in my opinion, coming from the proposers of the motion. However, overall, it was decided in a blind vote that the sceptics had delivered the most convincing argument, taking the debate 15-7.
Of course, this is a small sample size, but I do believe two valuable messages come out of this story: the first, that not all children happily lap up the proposed narratives (there’s also been a request to debate the benefits of the covid jabs); and second, not all PSHE in school has to be promoting those narratives. And so I will leave you with two pleas: don’t underestimate our country’s young — they are very much prepared to think for themselves; and, if there are any other teachers reading this, have more confidence to not just parrot the PSHE content you’re told to from central teams, because, if the kids can think for themselves, surely you can too.
The author is a teacher at a large comprehensive who would prefer to remain anonymous.
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It is clear that most people are basing their views of climate on a limited and clearly biased set of information.
I can’t work out whether our rulers are complicit or ignorant.
BOTH————Most would struggle explaining the alleged climate change to 5 year olds, which reveals that they are also complicit in forcing an agenda on people they mostly have no clue about. If you ask most in authority the very basics about the climate like eg How much CO2 is in the atmosphere, and how much comes from humans, they will not be able to answer. They don’t need to answer because they have sub contracted that to their “scientists” who in turn tell them everything they want to hear and ignore everything they don’t want to hear so the UN lackeys can then say “We are listening to the science and must act”
Neither – evil.
Both. Ignorant AND complicit.
Well done! What a positive action – and with corresponding outcome. I hope this sort of activity can be extended to all schools.
I note Thunderpants arrest setup reported here.
I bought a copy last year of “Climate at a Glance for teachers and students”
I still recall a lesson delivered by an excellent teacher about 45 years ago (shout out to Mr Bell!) where he pulled apart the climate change narrative and the proposed solutions, such as windmills and solar panels. He made a good case that nuclear is a much better option. Nothing has changed since then.
45 years ago? Are you sure? That would be 1977 in the middle of the global cooling nonsense. ———Just wondering if your dates are correct.
Yes the date is correct to within a year or two. I studied Chemistry at ‘A’ Level and I clearly remember that ‘the greenhouse effect’ was on the syllabus as it was one of the few things I revised and it didn’t come up!
Yes I appreciate you remember learning about the so called “Greenhouse Effect”, but back then were you learning about that in the context of the current politicised science, or was it simply “science”? I know there was talk of global cooling back then as temperatures actually fell till about 1976, but I was not aware that global warming was much of a talking point back then.
Encouraging. Thank you.
Great work! Even kids with all their manic distractions can smell propaganda and BS if there’s enough of it in the air. More of that!
Wrong topic but just had to share this as I thought it was fun. Should the Alphabet People be offended by the green man at a pedestrian crossing there are many alternatives available. Germany seems to be leading the way in the imaginative green light stakes, ( ‘Wine Queen’ is speaking to me ) and we have inoffensive, gender neutral Miffy here in the NL, though I’ve yet to see one personally;
https://www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v/2022/de-schallmaier-index-in-steeds-meer-landen-is-het-klassieke-stoplichtmannetje-een-vrouwtje-geworden~v559437/
PSHE is a cancer spreading through our schools courtesy of the DfE and their partners like Stonewall, but as per usual the Tories just wave it through.
Well done. While the forces ranged against us are powerful, resistance is still possible and every individual decision to push back in whatever small way people are able to adds up.
Regarding today’s young, while I think in general that technology and affluence tend to make people apathetic (including adults), I don’t think today’s young are that different to the young of other recent periods, but clearly they are subject to a lot of political propaganda in schools and universities which inevitably has an effect.
Spot on.
What a great initiative by the teacher and kudos to the pupils debating it properly and in a courteous manner. It is a shame it wasn’t recorded as it could have been used as debating lessons for MSM broadcasters and politicians.
During my lifetime, children and young people have rebelled against the establishment and their beliefs and mores. The establishment now is a Blairite mush of left-wing claptrap and I had expected that eventually young people would rebel and challenge “the narrative”. I’ve been waiting years for this to happen and I hope that there are many more children and young people thinking similarly to the ones in this teacher’s school.
Very good point.
‘… and evidenced cases…’
There is NO evidence which supports the claim that climatic conditions have varied or will vary catastrophically in the future outside normal variation.
Review is meteorological data over the last 100 years shows there is no evidence of any trend.
So how could Climagheddonists put forward evidenced cases – no doubt slick, disingenuous arguments mired in falsehood and junk science.
Great that a teacher goes against the grain and gives multiple perspectives and runs a debate.
Tragic that this is not the norm but rather some sort of pioneering effort that goes against the grain.
What have we become that allowing students to debate a topic of importance to society has become a revolutionary act?
What us PSHE?
Physical Social and Health Education. Covers everything from relationships to sex to social justice rubbish.
This is a new one on me. The Netherlands is losing one winter day per year due to global warming. I wonder what ‘Watt’s Up With That?’ would have to say…
https://nltimes.nl/2023/01/27/netherlands-losing-one-winter-day-per-year-due-global-warming-knmi
This is interesting. When debating climate change topics at a large sixth form college, I have had students literally breaking down in tears saying ‘the Earth is dying’
The negative is always much stronger than the positive, and ACC has been sold so hard by the establishment its no wonder kids feel like this. Its a time when they are beginning to enter the adult world of responsibilities. Back when I was their age it was nuclear disarmament* (just get rid of them) and apartheid (we’re 17, we know how to fix that…).
As the years passed, I realised how wrong we were. I even had the chance to go to South Africa and by about half past four on the first day out there, I had to admit I knew nothing at all about apartheid and how to fix it. Such is the path to enlightenment.
*I should also say that although we knew we had a button, and the Russians had a button, and if either button was pressed we would die in a blinding flash, no-one was blaming me for there being a button, and no-one expected me to impoverish myself to fix it, and if I didn’t then we were all going to die. That is the particular evil of the Climate Lobby, making children feel responsible for the lives of the entire human population.
Excellent news. Well done
Between 1977 and 1982, my secondary school biology teacher taught me everything I need to know to know in order to counter the BS around SARS-CoV-2. My Physics teacher taught me everything I need to know to contextualise climate change. It’s warmly reassuring to know that their spirit lives on. You’ve taught your pupils to meet those two imposters, ignorance and (mental) laziness and kick them out of the door.
Not all heroes wear capes.
Great Job!!!
I fully agree with you.
I remember sitting in a lockdown/vaccine debate with some university students quite a while ago and my goodness, they were definitely sceptics!
Any chance of sharing the slide deck ?
Well done you. This needs to be started with younger year groups and especially older ones in secondary school. I wonder if any other teachers have done that.
.
You are an excellent example of what a teacher should be. Hang in there.
These children are Gen X’s children. A significant number of their parents are TERFs and sceptics. My eldest is 12 and I see a real mix of opinions amongst them. Although they do self-censor for an easy life. Indoctrination is highest amongst the millenials, in the main.
What a fantastic teacher.
Thanks for a great, positive article.
I have 5 grandchildren (8 to 13 yo) and they all seem willing to think for themselves – with some encouragement of course! This despite quite heavy indoctrination. The oldest seems well aware of indoctrination and it simply pushes him to a contrarian view.
This tells us all we need to know about freedom of speech:
“The author is a teacher at a large comprehensive who would prefer to remain anonymous.”
Quicker than two shakes of a lambs tail and children will be reporting their parents to the next lockdown thought-police.
It is frightening how quickly children become quislings.
But of course we do not have freedom of speech on DS as my forays into the debate over Clarkson demonstrated. So many used their commenting privileges to down-vote my comments – very little tolerance for any views other than the views they wanted to hear.
And all the while sticking up for Clarkson’s right to shut people up by publishing vile abuse about them and so shut down their freedom of speech.
The irony is so vivid I can taste it.