Students “Warrior Up” for Climate Justice
Students “Warrior Up” for Climate Justice
By Bill Bigelow
Students “Warrior Up” for Climate Justice was published in the Fall 2018 issue of Rethinking Schools. Bigelow, writer for the column of “Earth, Justice, and our Classrooms” focuses this edition’s column on a school in Oregon called Madison High School. Madison has a class, called “Citizen Chemistry for All,” in which over 300 students at Madison High School in Oregon are enrolled. The essential question the students need to answer by the end of this class is, “Why are human changes to the Earth’s carbon cycles at the heart of climate destabilization?” This is a really unique approach to studying climate change, and chemistry and Madison’s teachers explain they want to “support students in building a bridge between the personal and the planetary.” At the end of the year, there is a two-day “Climate Justice Fair,” where the students demonstrate their learning by representing “communities which are engaging as ‘climate warriors,’ providing critical analysis of their work and/or proposing additional needed activism.”
I think this innovative chemistry course is so cool. First, it ties into our reading of Finn, who argues that the best way to teach students of working-class families is to teach powerful literacy and use current events to get students involved in local an even national politics. When I was in Hartford, I interviewed for a teaching position at a school whose focus was social justice, and this reminds me of that. I wish Hope had some sort of focus, or mission statement for their school. I think it would just bring whole new energy and purpose to the school. I feel like most of the students do not see the point in coming to school let alone doing well in school. My favorite part about Madison’s program was that at the end the students have to share out what other people in the community and in the world are doing to help the environment. It serves to make sure the students not only learn about how they personally can save the environment (recycling, turning off the lights, using a reusable water bottle, etc.) but also how they can make change across a community or even across the nation by writing ideas for policy change and lobbying/protesting to see their ideas followed through. And I know the perfect person we could learn about first! Alex Lin is a 16-year-old boy from Rhode Island, and he has helped change the way Rhode Island manages its waste. He lobbied the Rhode Island state legislature to stop the dumping of electronics and was successful. He also created a program to refurbish the e-waste and send it to developing countries to develop computer literacy there! He is only 16 and he did all this, my students need to see how powerful at affecting change they can be even at their age.
I think it would be so awesome if I could do something like this at Hope. I am not sure how I could fit this into my biology class right now since I know we have to teach students the material that will be on the RICAS exam, but maybe it could be an elective? I have no idea how to implement a new class, or even if I could. I know that our schedule is changing next year. Right now we have block periods and next year we are going to have 6 periods a day and have a waterfall schedule or something… so they do need more teachers to be teaching electives -I know because they asked me to teach physiology. But I would much rather teach a class on climate change and what we need to do collectively about it. I am already really passionate about saving the environment, for example, I drastically decreased my meat consumption because I learned how bad the meat and dairy industry is for the environment! I would have to learn a lot more about policy and it would take a lot of planning, but it could be something that is really worthwhile because it would get the students to learn about what social justice leaders are doing right now to solve the problem and they can learn about the impact they can have politically.
By Bill Bigelow
(Picture from Big Education Ape, a blog that is written by Mike Simpson who is also a teacher passionate about social issues in education. )
Students “Warrior Up” for Climate Justice was published in the Fall 2018 issue of Rethinking Schools. Bigelow, writer for the column of “Earth, Justice, and our Classrooms” focuses this edition’s column on a school in Oregon called Madison High School. Madison has a class, called “Citizen Chemistry for All,” in which over 300 students at Madison High School in Oregon are enrolled. The essential question the students need to answer by the end of this class is, “Why are human changes to the Earth’s carbon cycles at the heart of climate destabilization?” This is a really unique approach to studying climate change, and chemistry and Madison’s teachers explain they want to “support students in building a bridge between the personal and the planetary.” At the end of the year, there is a two-day “Climate Justice Fair,” where the students demonstrate their learning by representing “communities which are engaging as ‘climate warriors,’ providing critical analysis of their work and/or proposing additional needed activism.”
I think this innovative chemistry course is so cool. First, it ties into our reading of Finn, who argues that the best way to teach students of working-class families is to teach powerful literacy and use current events to get students involved in local an even national politics. When I was in Hartford, I interviewed for a teaching position at a school whose focus was social justice, and this reminds me of that. I wish Hope had some sort of focus, or mission statement for their school. I think it would just bring whole new energy and purpose to the school. I feel like most of the students do not see the point in coming to school let alone doing well in school. My favorite part about Madison’s program was that at the end the students have to share out what other people in the community and in the world are doing to help the environment. It serves to make sure the students not only learn about how they personally can save the environment (recycling, turning off the lights, using a reusable water bottle, etc.) but also how they can make change across a community or even across the nation by writing ideas for policy change and lobbying/protesting to see their ideas followed through. And I know the perfect person we could learn about first! Alex Lin is a 16-year-old boy from Rhode Island, and he has helped change the way Rhode Island manages its waste. He lobbied the Rhode Island state legislature to stop the dumping of electronics and was successful. He also created a program to refurbish the e-waste and send it to developing countries to develop computer literacy there! He is only 16 and he did all this, my students need to see how powerful at affecting change they can be even at their age.
I think it would be so awesome if I could do something like this at Hope. I am not sure how I could fit this into my biology class right now since I know we have to teach students the material that will be on the RICAS exam, but maybe it could be an elective? I have no idea how to implement a new class, or even if I could. I know that our schedule is changing next year. Right now we have block periods and next year we are going to have 6 periods a day and have a waterfall schedule or something… so they do need more teachers to be teaching electives -I know because they asked me to teach physiology. But I would much rather teach a class on climate change and what we need to do collectively about it. I am already really passionate about saving the environment, for example, I drastically decreased my meat consumption because I learned how bad the meat and dairy industry is for the environment! I would have to learn a lot more about policy and it would take a lot of planning, but it could be something that is really worthwhile because it would get the students to learn about what social justice leaders are doing right now to solve the problem and they can learn about the impact they can have politically.
I encourage you into looking at the schedule for next year and see what you are able to do. Clearly you are passionate about what you would like to teach, so bring it up to whoever is in charge and see what they say. It never hurts to ask, the worse they can say is 'no'. And when you said you have reduced your meat and dairy consumption, it reminded me of why I became vegan. Originally it was mainly due to just wanting a better idea of what I was putting into my body but then I heard about its impact on the environment and it solidified the decision for me.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck in regards to next year! You just might be teaching climate change next year! It definitely can tie into biology in terms of the ecosystem and the correlations between the two etc.
Haley, I love how personal and reflective your blog posts are! I agree, taking this approach to science would help to create a bridge between "classroom science" and real world science. To think our students could be part of a change for the better in Rhode island would be inspiring to them and our school. I hope that with the upcoming schedule change something like this will be accessible to our students. Bringing education to real world issues is the next step to create a more influential and thoughtful generation of learners.
ReplyDeleteI did not know about Alex Lin at all! Great youth empowerment story. And I hope that you will be able to do some Climate Change teaching. One of our faculty is working right now on shifting the science practicum course so that it focuses on how to teach climate change. Let me know if you want me to connect you with him!
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