‘Teach the Future is a student organisation campaigning for climate education,’ says King. ‘It was founded in 2019 by a group of secondary school students aged 12 to 16 who weren’t happy with how climate changes and nature were being left out of their education.’
The organisation was quickly joined by two of the UK’s biggest sustainability charities and their launch was covered by national television. ‘We wrote the first bill ever to be written by students which, if it is passed, will come into law. Since then, we’ve gone from strength to strength.’
As if being at the sharp end of the climate crisis wasn’t stressful enough, young people also feel they are expected to fix it and save the world. And yet schools are not equipping students to find solutions. ‘Education around the climate crisis is very much siloed into geography or science lessons,’ says King. ‘Whereas in reality, climate change will affect everything and is caused by a much broader selection of factors which are also political and social. It’s not just scientists and geographers that are going to have to deal with it and come up with solutions.’
Climate education that focuses solely on the problems has heightened anxiety among school students. ‘We’re learning about all these bad things that are happening but we aren’t given any hope of how we can solve this,’ explains King. ‘So the main thing that’s missing is a focus on solutions and integrating climate education across all of the subjects.’
Teach the Future wants subjects like English, history and maths to have a greater focus on nature. ‘In English, we should be trying to connect writing activities to nature to rebuild that relationship between students and nature. Because in the UK, which is very urbanized, they no longer have that connection to nature.’
Students involved with Teach the Future feel a sense of agency and empowerment which had been absent until now. ‘What we’re looking to do is to build a future generation of adults who understand climate change and the importance of sustainability. The benefits of that are a healthy planet, a more just society,’ King concludes.
