CLASSROOM WOES — If the U.S. is going to play a leading role in the long-term struggle to combat climate change, you would think that educating tomorrow's leaders about what's at stake might be a key step toward that goal. But a large majority of American teachers say they lack the time, materials and expertise to provide instruction on climate change. When it comes to confidence that they have sufficient tools and support from school boards and parents to incorporate teaching on sustainable development, educators in this country lag far behind their peers in India, Canada, Brazil and France, according to a new report from the Smithsonian Science Education Center and Gallup. And it’s not because of a lack of interest. Eight in 10 U.S. teachers said teaching about sustainability is important — on par with their international peers — but only 20 percent said they get the time needed to teach about it. More than half said topics such as clean energy, responsible consumption, and climate action receive too little attention. Just 31 percent of U.S. teachers said clean energy, for instance, is a dedicated part of curriculum, compared with 78 percent in Brazil. It’s just another obstacle for U.S. K-12 teachers, who are also coping with developmental delays resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic on top of the fact that classrooms in some parts of the country have become ground zero in a culture war that has increasingly focused on sustainability issues. Texas officials advocated for textbooks that emphasize the positive aspects of fossil fuels. Ohio lawmakers are considering a measure that would require colleges and universities to teach “both sides” of climate change. Schools in Florida and Oklahoma could use content from PragerU, a conservative group partially funded by the fossil fuel industry. Meanwhile, a few states have moved to beef up their sustainability and climate-related curriculums. New Jersey became the first state in 2020 to mandate climate change education in its learning standards, followed by Connecticut. Bills in California and New York this session that would require those states to do the same did not advance. Unlike in the U.S., where views on the need to address climate change vary from state to state and from one presidential administration to the next, the other countries in the Smithsonian/Gallup report make education policy at the federal level, which isn’t going to happen here. “In the U.S., the states make that determination around standards or curriculum,” said Carol O’Donnell, the director of the Smithsonian Science Education Center. “So it's much more difficult to see widespread implementation of something throughout a country that's as big as the U.S. when each state is responsible for what happens within that state. Whereas in places like Brazil and India, they have each put in place policies that specifically reference sustainable development.” So what can be done? The report pointed to some remedies that teachers believed could bolster classroom instruction in sustainable development topics. More than half of U.S. teachers also said field trips and hands-on materials would help them teach about sustainability. More than six in 10 U.S. teachers said in the Smithsonian-Gallup report that they would benefit from professional development on a wide range of issues, like clean energy and clean water. Those are topics that teachers and administrators said were less likely to clearly align with their district goals.
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