What makes middle school even worse? Climate anxiety. Students have big feelings about climate change. Most teachers don’t know how to help.
What makes middle school even worse? Climate anxiety.
Doomerism abounds for all ages, but it is certainly most harmful for our young people. Solarpunk could be an awesome tool here - giving them tools to envision a future where solutions are realistic and actionable can be very therapeutic. Imagine our kids working on arts and science projects for climate change instead of just being bombarded with only constant negative projections. They need to know the truth, but they also need to be given hope.
"As more students come to school traumatized by living through fires, floods, and other extreme weather, teachers are being asked to do more than educate — they’re also acting as untrained therapists."
"Doomerism" isn't the issue. The issue is that kids are living through real shit and realizing that the adults around them are unable/unwilling to help/protect them when it's needed. Your suggestion to fight "doomerism" is going to appear as a continuation of that and break any remaining trust even further.
Hope can be a useful tool, but within the context of American schools it's more often a tool for gaslighting and control than meaningful change.
I'm editing this to just say, I'd rather not be the person who fights on the internet like this, I would much much rather make friends. So, thank you for taking the time to respond, I appreciate your input!
Doormerism is an issue, especially when it comes from adults who don't know how to help. This is trauma, and this is one tool to tackle that trauma. I'm not saying we tell kids "hey cheer up that should fix it" - I'm saying we use hope as a tool to fight cynical defeatism. Which, I would submit, is all your comment achieves. Do you have an alternative?
I expect the Trump administration to make talking about the negative effects of climate change a criminal offense. That will keep climate change from harming the mental health of children.
2027 teacher: there used to be a city named Miami in south Florida.
2027 student: what happened to it?
Teacher: no one really knows, the NOAA was disbanded in 2025 then in Nov. 2026 Miami just vanished.
This is too close to true with the USDA word ban it's painful.