We Need a Nationwide Movement for Climate Justice Education: How Can We Get There?
The climate crisis is upon us. It is causing huge stress and anxiety for young people and adults alike. Instead of being paralyzed by these emotions, we need to act to bring about a societal transformation – including in our schools. But where to start?
I wrote Teach for Climate Justice to offer a positive vision for a movement to bring transformative climate justice education into classrooms and schools throughout the US and beyond.
But how can we go from vision to movement? And how can each of us, as an individual educator, student, parent, or community member help bring that about? I know that even suggesting the idea of such a movement can feel daunting. “You must be kidding,” you might be saying. “I’m already overwhelmed. What planet are you living on?”
Well, the planet I’m living on (and the 7.8 billion people living here with me) need such a movement—and much more. But I understand the exasperation.
Fortunately, the process starts with where you are right now. My book shares a vision of climate justice education, and then asks you to consider: How can I play my part? How can I bring this vision into my classroom—and love doing it? It calls you to ask, Where does my deep gladness—my passions, interests, gifts—meet the deep hunger of the world and the needs of my beloved students? It calls you to discover places where the vision speaks to your heart and imagination.
The twenty-three educators featured in this book have found those places for themselves. May Teach for Climate Justice help you find your sweet spots as well, if you haven’t already.
Now imagine that you’re not the only one. Several thousand other educators around the country read Teach for Climate Justice. They learn from it, argue with it, and use it to up their game, bringing joyously transformative climate justice education into their classrooms and schools. They dance creatively around the constraits and barriers they encounter, pushing the possible further than at first it has wanted to go.
Equally important, you and your counterparts around the country don’t hide your lights under a bushel – you let them shine, let them shine, let them shine, as the song goes. Slowly, patiently, you share what you’re doing and why with others in your school community. You might host a Teach for Climate Justice reading circle in your school. (See the Guide in the Resource section of the website.) At the same time, you listen deeply to colleagues, students, parents, and community members as they share their concerns, dreams, and ideas about how to give students a great education. You engage your union and administration in the dialogue. Together, you create a common vision for a school that truly serves the needs of its students, families, educators, and the community. This is organizing in the best sense of the word. Through this process you build solidarity and with it the power to demand the freedom and the resources to give students the education they need and deserve, to shield your school from the book banners and climate deniers, and to be the educator you long to be.
But you don’t stop there. You and like-minded educators across the country begin connecting with each other to share lessons, organizing strategies, triumphs, setbacks, and lessons learned. By being part of an expanding network of educators committed to putting climate justice at the heart of education, you draw strength.
In the fight for social justice, there are movement times and movement-building times. It’s hard to predict exactly when “the longed-for tide of justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme,” in the words of poet Seamus Heaney.
But movements don’t happen by magic. They happen because thousands of “movement builders” set the stage for them. By bringing climate justice education to life in our classrooms, by winning others to the cause, and by creating a national network, we are building toward a movement and helping to shape it when it comes.
I warmly invite you to join us in the adventure!
