Green curriculum

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How to teach a green curriculum and encourage environmentalism

Climate change is something that children and young people are very aware of. Eco-anxiety – the psychological impact of the climate crisis and fear of the future – affects enormous numbers of children and young people. At the same time, school students are getting involved.

Climate change is something that children and young people are very aware of. Eco-anxiety – the psychological impact of the climate crisis and fear of the future – affects enormous numbers of children and young people. At the same time, school students are getting involved in climate activism. Greta Thunberg is a figurehead of Fridays for Future. This movement encourages students to strike in order to raise awareness of environmental destruction and demand change from governments and corporations. But climate activism doesn’t have to take place outside school hours. There’s a powerful argument for including environmentalism within the curriculum. After all, our students are already living through the effects of climate change. They’re seeing real events unfold before their eyes, from deforestation to flooding, forest fires and the extinction of many species. It’s our responsibility as educators to give them the knowledge, skills and motivation they’ll need to help solve the climate-related problems which they will inevitably face in their adult lives.

How to green your curriculum

Children and young people need access to the natural world to thrive. There are enormous cognitive benefits to spending time outdoors. So, it’s important to teach your students how to respect, bond with and protect our natural spaces. Sustainability is a key principle for the Anthropocene age, and it should be at the centre of our curriculum. However, it’s important to teach our students about the climate crisis in a way that empowers them, rather than increasing their ecological anxiety. Green Heart Education is a primer on transformative education for sustainability. It offers concrete ideas you can put into practice here and now. You’ll find a sustainability focus for each age group that is developmentally appropriate. So, whether you teach at a pre-school, primary or secondary level, you can teach students about these difficult topics.

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#green curriculum and encourage environmentalism

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