Are schools failing to teach students the realities of climate change?

Most schools only teach the science of climate change. Green School gives the skills needed to live in a warming world. Eco-Business asked Green School’s Leslie Medema how to be real with children about climate change without scaring them.

Green School students visit a school in Bali, Indonesia

Are schools preparing students for the climate crisis? And even if they are, how do you teach children about the realities of climate change without instilling a sense of dread about the future?

In 2008, a school was born in the jungles of Bali, Indonesia, that broke from the conventions of tranditional education by teaching young people in a natural setting, to give them a deeper connection with a natural world that is alien to so many students these days.

Green School, which now also has a campus in New Zealand and is soon to open another in South Africa, teaches students regular subjects like mathematics, history and literature, and it also teaches a broader set of skills that will be needed to adapt to a future of dwindling resources and apocalyptic extremes.

Green School educates through a holistic, community-integrated, entrepreneurial learning programme that readies young people for an uncertain future, and aims to create a future generation of what its founders, John and Cynthia Hardy, have called “green leaders.” 

We want to make it real.

Leslie Medema on teaching climate change

Leslie Medema, Green School, head of learning

Leslie Medema, Green School, head of learning

Joining the Eco-Business Podcast to talk about how Green School teaches young people about climate change is Leslie Medema, Green School’s head of learning. 

Tune in as we talk about:

  • A day in the life at Green School
  • How does discipline work at Green School?
  • How to teach kids about climate change without scaring them
  • Explaining the “real side” of climate change
  • The school of the future
  • Preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet

Production by Benjamin Wong

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