By: Ben Halee

I don’t have particularly fond memories of my public education. As a young kid in the early 2000s, I mostly remember being cooped up in a classroom for the majority of the day, watching teachers struggle to work Smart Boards as the first wave of touchscreen technology rolled out. 

But what I do remember fondly are my educational experiences in nature, learning about the environment. I recall taking classes outside, where eager PhD students taught us about the local ecosystem. I remember my fifth grade school trip to the mountains, and I remember touring an atmospheric lab, where scientists in long white coats spent hours showing wide-eyed seventh graders all sorts of pictures of the sun, the planets, and our solar system.

Why, then, were these experiences such a small part of my public education? 

In 2019, Italy became the first country in the world to incorporate thirty-three hours per year of environmental education, including climate change, into their national curriculum. By contrast, in the US, adaptation of increased environmental education has been slow and sporadic. Fourteen states currently operate without teaching about anthropogenic climate change in their schools, and of the thirty-six that do, the quality and level of implementation varies widely from district to district. 

As America rejoins the Paris Climate Accord, and enters a post-Trumpian world where climate change denial no longer inhabits the highest levels of our government, we must take this opportunity to integrate environmental education holistically into the common core curriculum. The American school system has long been slow to adapt in many metrics, but introducing environmental education nationally may be the critical first step in providing 21st century students what America has always promised – an adequate public education.  

In 2017, Stanford researchers analyzed 119 peer-reviewed studies, spanning two decades, on the impact of environmental education in K-12 public schools. Their main finding was simple: including environmental education in the curriculum unequivocally benefits students. 

Their analysis found that students performed better across a wide variety of subjects, including science, math, ecology, biology, and writing. The study also found that students who had access to environmental education in grade school adopted more environmentally-friendly behavior, increased their civic engagement, and performed better on measurements of critical thinking and analytical skills. 

These results are not surprising, as teaching about the environment is a great way to teach about multiple subjects at the same time. In learning about a particular environment, its biology, ecology, history, and significance all come into the conversation. And by engaging students in new environments, the educational experience becomes more about facilitation than dictation, and encourages students to engage all of their senses. As one middle school teacher in Hawaii said, introducing environmental programs to the curriculum “has kind of completed the whole package.” 

Looking down the road, consider that green energy is among the fastest growing job sectors in the US. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, wind technology and maintenance is the leader in anticipated job growth over the next decade, while solar system installation ranks third. Teaching kids about the environment in grade school will surely increase a wide variety of their skills, but it will also prepare them for the real-world job market. 

Public schools are often mocked by their alumni (myself included) on their inadequate practice of preparing students to succeed come actual life. It seems to make sense, then, to teach them applicable, marketable skills they can use in industries that will soon be at the forefront of the economy. 

Teaching such a curriculum in public schools will also increase early interest in the topic, potentially leading to solutions for climate change (such as carbon capture technology) being developed even faster. By thinking to the future, the public school system can prepare students to solve the problems of today and tomorrow. Never underestimate what you might find at a middle school science fair - especially when they teach the right things. 

That being said, the implementation of such a curriculum won’t come without roadblocks, and access must be equal, something the public school system has long been unable to provide. However, if the central issue of accepting the importance of environmental education is addressed, then the school system can at least begin to look at reforming common core standards. As one environmental educator said of their own experience, “watching 25 young minds start to make their own discoveries... you just sit back and watch the magic work.”