A story in The Guardian on line today has this:
'The latest draft guidelines
for children in key stages 1 to 3 have no mention of climate change under
geography teaching and a single reference to how carbon dioxide produced by
humans impacts on the climate in the chemistry section. There is also no reference
to sustainable development, only to the "efficacy of recycling",
again as a chemistry subject.'
The report
is in The Guardian, and so of course comments from those keen to promote climate
alarm are quoted below the above paragraph.
For such people, this is bad news.
But for others like me, and of course like all the children and their
teachers, this is good news.
Under-14s
are too young for the physics and maths and the politics of this invented
crisis, and for the cruelty of the gloom and doom and destructiveness which can
so readily be delivered alongside.
And of
course, while this is only a draft for discussion:
'The proposed changes, which
are still under consultation by the Department for Education (DfE), were
broadly welcomed by other groups, including the Geographical Association which
represents more than 6,000 geography teachers, and the Royal Geographical Society.'
Note added 19 March. The original title of this post said 'England & Wales', but I see from the consultation document that only England is relevant here. I was unable to use strikethrough to amend the title, and so I have reluctantly just deleted '& Wales'.
Note added 10 May. What was all the fuss about? According to Pauline Latham, a Conservative MP who writes on her blog 'I have been contacted about the inclusion of
climate change in the curriculum. Unfortunately, Early Day Motion 1208
has now lapsed as the Parliamentary Session has ended. I would,
however, like to take this opportunity to assure you that the Government
is not and does not have any plans to remove climate change from the
National Curriculum.
The new draft national curriculum will in fact give pupils a deeper
understanding of all climate issues. Climate change is specifically
mentioned in the science curriculum, and both climate and weather
feature throughout the geography curriculum. Nowhere is this clearer
than the science curriculum for 11- to 14-year-olds, which states that
pupils should learn about the
‘production of carbon dioxide by human activity and the impact on climate’.
This is at least as extensive, and certainly more precise, than the
current science curriculum for that age group, which says only that
‘human activity and natural processes can lead to changes in the environment’.' http://www.paulinelatham.co.uk/content/climate-change-curriculum