There is no doubt that we live in hard times. Bad news fills our feeds every day, with more continually on the way. The U.S. federal government continues to dismantle environmental protections. The world continues on a path to dismally miss the 1.5°C mark set by the Paris Climate Agreement. The New York Times Magazine recently published an article about the tepid atmosphere of climate action internationally, at the present.
What does it mean to teach in this moment, when hopelessness and despair abounds?
Audrey Hepburn once said that “to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” In the same way, to teach young people is to believe in tomorrow - and to have hope that the tomorrow we create will be better than today.
Zoe Weil, President of the Institute for Humane Education, recently wrote about the necessity of teaching students in such a way to build their capacity for hope and envisioning a positive future. When speaking to a group of students, she “asked them to raise their hands if they thought that the… future that I described – where we’d, by and large, built a peaceful, healthy planet – was likely in their lifetimes. Only a small number raised their hands. And so the rest of my presentation was devoted to trying to change their minds enough so that they would have the necessary hope to take action, because without action, all of our collective despair is surely warranted.”
And if we look for it, there are stories of resistance and positive change to promote. Even this week, members of the EPA fought against the deregulation of polluters. The High Seas Treaty is set to create unprecedented protections for ocean life. And leaders across the world are assuming leadership of the climate emergency in the wake of U.S. backstepping.
So while there are reasons to despair, there are also reasons to hope. And if there is to be any hope in the future, it will be cultivated, in part, by teachers and students in their classrooms. The students we teach, regardless of their age, will be a vital part of any solution to the problems we face. But how can they solve these problems if they do not understand them? How can they solve them if they have no hope they can be solved?
We therefore call on every educator, regardless of who you are or what you teach, to practice building hope in your students. Teach them the truth about environmental justice, climate change, and the work that is being done to address them. Teach them what is necessary for us to solve these problems. And teach them, not only to hope that change will come, but to be part of that change.
We hope that the resources provided by the NC Environmental Justice Committee this year can help you do that.
