How can you inspire climate optimism in your students?

I think this is a really important post Molly Sinnott , and a really important conversation for teachers to have when heading into the Climate Project, or really any unit about a modern world problem.  There was an article published in Edutopia years ago that stuck with me, about encouraging optimism in the classroom.  It was geared more toward elementary students, and more in line with promoting a growth mindset, however, students' world view is shaped by their self-concept so it makes sense to start with the students themselves.   The article basically advocated helping students reframe and rephrase pessimistic statements into more optimistic ones by modeling, providing sentence stems, etc.

I'm wondering now if that's something I should include at the start of a unit on Climate Change.

Great question, Molly Sinnott . I think that Climate issues, as well as many other environmental problems, weigh heavily on our young people. I believe this is partly because young people do have an unbridled capacity for caring. I also think that our youngest community members also experience a greater feeling of helplessness because they can't yet vote, they haven't grown into their own voices yet, and oftentimes are not taken seriously by the adult world. 

So what can we, as educators, do to help? 

I agree with Julianne Horowitz 's suggestions about modeling and reframing. those are powerful teaching tools. I would add to those ideas opportunities for students to learn and practice civil discourse and the development of the power of their voices. I have done civic action projects with my students for many years. Once students get a taste of the power they can actually command, there's nothing quite the same to help them feel optimistic.

I have heard that the revisions of the Climate Project have more, and more accessible, avenues for student action. That has me waiting on the edge of my seat to dig in!

 Same here Donnetta Elsasser !

This is a great article Julianne Horowitz and I think really highlights that a sense of agency and power is something that's applicable to learning about climate change, but can also be carried with them to other subjects and their broader lives.

Julianne,

When you use the Climate Project course, is it something you add to the end of your schoolyear plans, or do you work it into an earlier time during the year?

In the last few days I've asked some students that took the Climate Project with me to go back in their minds and tell me what they were thinking before and during the course. The response was telling... 

One student told me that she only came in with a "vague idea" of what Cilmate Change is and that seeking solutions was "the fun part." Another student said she came in hoping to find solutions and that the class wouldn't be "all a giving up attitude." A third, finally, said that she was just hoping to "find out more about what Climate Change actually is "... - and how she can "play a role" in making a change...  

My take away from taking the course and these conversations is this - we as adults sometimes project onto young people. We're maybe anxious about the fate of our planet and the climate crisis - and we expect or assume our students are as well. But many of our students are eager to jump in and have not taken on the anxiety and despair that we expect. In reflection, I wonder if the challenge facing us us less an issue of how we inspire optimism and more how we empower students to keep the optimism that they're already walking in with. For this reason I'm so excited for the roll-out of the new curriculum and hope I am lucky enough to get a chance to teach it! 

This is beautifully written, and so true.  Let’s learn from them!

Thanks for the compliment Julianne Horowitz  Looking forward to talking live about all of this with Molly Sinnott on Saturday. 

Your word choice, Adam Esrig , "empower students to keep optimism" rings so true!

In fact, I think that sentiment should apply not only to climate education, but ALL of education. What Senior in high school has the same optimism about learning as they did when they were in kindergarten? Some, yes. But most with only a fraction of that initial excitement.

Adam Esrig I chatted with some of my students that completed the climate project with me and they actually had some concerning, yet honest, comments.

1) Science, English and HSS teachers all talk about it so they start to tune out and get bored.  Message I heard: we need cross curricular collaboration!!

2) Because of social media they get inundated with the negative, and on top of it they are less able to make daily lifestyle changes as they feel their parents dictate routines.  However, they thought a slow progression of change was a best option.

3) Of the content areas at my school, they felt that the OER climate curriculum actually worked towards valuable solutions which did help them believe they could make a positive impact. Yeah!  

I look forward to listening to the students and having a conversation with my coworkers about how we can better address climate change and action on our school site!