Hi All,

3 things. . .

1. Climate Silence is Norm in Educational Sector: I realize most people don't have first-hand experience with the strong social norm in the educational sector of silence about Congressional climate neglect. Here are some insights I have learned simply because I've asked a lot of educational leaders and institutions to speak about national climate inaction:

There exists a "polite silence" about many aspects of climate change from across the educational sector. For example, in June, 2018, my fifteen-year-old son, Kai, and I met with a long-time staffer of the California School Boards Association (CSBA) in Sacramento. I asked him/her if the CSBA measured climate change impacts on California schools or California school kids. The CSBA staffer laughed ironically, clearly frustrated. He/she said something along the lines of, We don't and if we did, we would not be able to call it that. We'd have to call it 'air quality' or something like that. The words "climate change" are considered too controversial, too political around here. I have spoken with other people connected with top-level educational organizations in California who were not the least bit surprised by this conversation. To them, the climate self-censorship and climate-semantic tiptoeing in the educational sector seems widespread. Based on conversations I have had with high level employees at the the National School Boards Association, it seems like the NSBA is also not yet ready to speak openly and clearly about climate change and the national climate inaction, even though this inaction contributes to conditions which expose hundreds of thousands or millions of American students to harm and risk of trauma each year. It seems safe to assume that if the CSBA and the NSBA cannot speak openly and directly about climate change, then nearly every other state school boards association also cannot. I have seen this same pattern of "polite climate silence" replicated over and over again across scales of the educational sector---classrooms, schools, school districts, school boards, Superintendents, in state and national education support organizations, independent schools, national independent schools associations, etc. Silence about the Congressional climate neglect which harms our students is the dominant social norm in the educational sector, among educational leaders at every scale. Fortunately, social norms can shift rapidly, especially when there is a pre-existing, shared, but private belief that may not be congruent with the social norm. This is the case with climate change and national climate inaction. Nearly all educational leaders, especially those with a background in environmental education share a pre-existing, but private belief that Congress should act on climate and that decades of national climate inaction has created an unfair burden for students. The social norm for climate silence could flip very quickly.

2. Congress, Act on Climate Day! 

In March of 2019 we are organizing youth-adult teams from school districts and student councils that have passed climate action resolutions to travel to DC and hand-deliver these resolutions to all 535 members of Congress (Reps. and Senators) on a single day. This will be a clear, non-partisan signal that the educational sector wants Congress to act on climate to protect students. After you sign and share this petition widely, please engage your local and county school boards and student councils to pass their own climate action resolution. Then, send a team to join Schools for Climate Action in DC. Click on link above for an overview sheet. 

3. Appeal to the San Mateo County Office of Education: On Wednesday, October 3rd the San Mateo County Office of Education will consider a Commitment to Environmental Sustainability Action Resolution. There is a lot of great language in this resolution and the good people at the San Mateo County Office of Education have done tremendous work ensuring that San Mateo kids and all CA kids have access to high-quality environmental education. However, this resolution does not specifically and directly ask Congress to act on climate change. We requested that they add 1 or 2 lines to strengthen this resolution. 

Thanks for reading!

Please continue to share the petition link and to engage your local school boards. We can flip the social norm for climate silence in the educational sector pretty quickly once we hit a critical mass. The dominant shared, private beliefs are already way out of line with the existing dominant social norms. 

Also, please leave a comment stating your school stakeholder status (especially if you are a student, parent, or teacher). 

Cheers,

Park