Science I'm ashamed. High schools are no longer teaching kids about climate change or politics?

I was talking to my kids about their general apathy regarding climate change or politics.

I've tried many times to engage in discussions about these things with them but they actively avoid it.

Apparently teachers are afraid to broach these subjects because students react very aggressively.

What the hell are we sending our kids to school for if they can't even teach them to apply logic to (or even discuss) important topics with the students?

 

We didn’t really talk about either of those things when I went to school. Until college and then that’s all they talked about.

 

Climate change is so politicized nowadays I'm sure they don't want to touch the subject. They already have parents up their asses thinking their child is an angel even if they are a shithead.

You are indoctrinating my child!!!!

 

Yeah but poli sci didn’t really get into political issues. More so just how our system works.

 

Gosh. I feel like my high school talked about it all the time.. even in grade school I had classes who made "global warming" a decent portion of the curriculum.

It was definitely enough to get across how important of a topic it was...

 

Climate change is a political topic because the steps to recover from it will not happen without a shift in economic politics away from capitalism.

If teachers can’t state this well-established fact without getting threatening calls from parents, they will avoid it.

School is about creating workers who perform well in the current and future economic paradigms. Worrying about our decaying infrastructure and climate catastrophes and impending civil and world wars won’t make you a better worker so why teach them? “Too political” is such a fucking dog whistle (not from you SPC, just in general) for “not conducive to capitalism”.

And honestly, if the solution isn’t going to come anyway why bother? It’s hard not to be nihilistic about it. How can I hold out hope for a better tomorrow when it’s obvious the people with the power to do anything significant would rather press the boot to our necks instead?

COVID isn’t over for the rich but it must be for the poor because they get fired if they wear a mask. The rich will be fine because they’re buying safe land and building bunkers and surviving. We will all die to keep them alive.

I was taught about climate change in high school. It didn’t help the climate or me. I’m just depressed and hoping my kids won’t be of draft age when the wars come.

 

Can't teach anything that makes white people uncomfortable.

 

Sure but we never talked about abortion or gay rights or guns or illegal immigration...... mostly we were just worried about the Russians.

 

Nah, not really at all. I don't remember ever talking about what was going on in politics..... until college.

 

Must be different in different school districts. My daughter had at least 3 weeks of it this past fall.

 

We did as well.

 

My high school biology teacher didn't teach evolution. That is equivalent to teaching chemistry without the periodic table.

 

Interesting. My Catholic HS had no issues whatsoever teaching us about Darwin and evolution. This was sophomore Biology class in 1970. We also had major discussions on abortion. No surprise on which side the school’s administration took, but they were very open minded enough to have us discuss the issue from all sides. That’s why it’s called an “education “. I guess I should feel fortunate…..