Guest blog by Chris Ford, Minsmere Learning Officer
Children skipping school is nothing new. I was a fairly well behaved student (honestly) but even I might have not attended every single lesson I was supposed to. There are many reasons why bunking off school happens and in some cases this can be really damaging to that child’s performance at school and therefore their grades, life chances, future. I don’t wish to belittle that kind of serious issue. However, I imagine for a lot of students it’s a one off, perhaps it is a sort of rite of passage, part of the fabric of growing up.
When we skipped an afternoon of school I was terrified we were going to be caught, we snuck from the school grounds nervously scanning the window for any eagle-eyed teacher that might scupper our plans before scurrying to the local shop buying a Mars bar, wolfing it down and scurrying back to school before the next period. Was it fun? No, terrifying. Was it worth it? No, I was too scared to enjoy the Mars bar and it was straight after lunch so I wasn’t hungry anyway.
The reason I skipped a lesson was just petty rebellion, there was no higher purpose, no vision, no value. I skipped school partly because I thought it might make me seem a bit more cool to my mates and partly because I wanted to see what it was like to do something ‘wrong’.
What’s this got to do with the RSPB you may well ask? Well, thousands of children are skipping school across the country for a much more laudable reason than I did. To make a statement, support a vision, do something with value. School Strike 4 Climate is an international initiative that grew from the school strikes performed by Greta Thunberg in Sweden to protest at the lack of government action on climate change. Monthly National strikes have taken place in the UK since February and are scheduled to continue. You can read more about this in Martin Harper's blog.
RSPB Director of Conservation, Martin Harper, on a climate march in Westminster (photo by Nick Cunard, rspb-images.com)
Should we support this? Or, as some have suggested, speak out against children wasting valuable lesson time? I would argue the fact that children are willing to do something ‘wrong’ for such an important issue speaks volumes, this is not just for petty rebellion or to look cool (although I’m sure this is a motivating factor for some). Climate change is the biggest single threat to wildlife, and human life for that matter. Far bigger than what currently dominates our media streams. Children get this, they care about this, they worry about this too. When the government struggles to muster 10 of its MPs to attend the first parliamentary debate on climate change in over two years is it any wonder that children feel that they’ve got to do something to make adults take note.
The UN published a paper in October 2018 stating that, as it stands, we only have 12 years to turn things around before catastrophic climate chaos sets in. 12 years! That is not long, I have T-shirts in my draw that were bought more than 12 years ago! A child starting school in September won’t have finished their A levels before that timeframe is up. A child at school won’t have the time to wait to go to university, gain experience of the wider world, join a political party, get chosen as a candidate, get voted in, serve as an MP, lobby the government of the day, raise a paper, debate it and get it passed as legislation, ensure it is implemented and wait for the results of that legislation to start to have an impact before 12 years is up. The average age of cabinet ministers is 52!
So, if your child wishes to strike for climate, I say, let them, support them, ensure their school knows why they are doing it, help them catch up any lost lessons. Also, help them write to your local MP, ask them to attend the next parliamentary discussion on climate change, ask them to represent the view that things need to be done, that time is running out. Our children want to make a difference, let them make it now.