A somewhat longer than expected reflection on Climate Week…

To colleagues new old and still to be met… what a whirl of emotional, conceptual, and programmatic connection! We came together to be in each others’ presence, to hear each others’ voices meeting in the same air, to be present for each other while at the same time to lean against and to support eachother in this work. To witness our ups and downs, decades of tremendous work kept alive by crisis and by connection.

We are a kind of interconnected forest.

My main takeaways from the week? Respect… for our connection and our seeking of connection. And also a better awareness of our collective self. A better awareness of the depth and layers of the collective, of who we are together… that intergenerational (@Elissa Teles Munoz, @Emily Fano) collective IS the continuity of action and strength that holds us through this change. These opportunities to braid together our experiences, offer us the how-to to do the same in our own communities.

BUT… just one request to consider.

When we read or write the words ‘climate change education’, if what we mean by education is the teaching and learning that happens in school communities, let us try for a moment replacing it with ‘climate change support for our teachers’. What happens to our statements?

‘We need climate change education’ becomes ‘we need climate change support for our teachers’. Not curriculum, not resources, not checklists, not requirements - support. ‘We need policy that prioritizes climate change education’ becomes ‘we need policy that prioritizes climate change support for teachers.’ And if we then try the word community instead of support… ‘we need CCE’ becomes ‘we need CCE community for our teachers’… What happens to our next steps?

If we do not lift up the second as much as the first, if every time we say ‘we need CCE’ without also saying and meaning ‘we need CCE support for teachers (and schools, unending thanks to @Meredith and ongoing work of her team)’, we are complicit in blurring and ultimately perpetuating the problem. It is on us to demystify that term, CCE. If teachers and schools are essential to the ‘how’ that transforms the lists and resources to the engaged, impactful stewardship by students within their communities, our words must convey this critically transformative value.

If nothing else - seek connection.

We are re-writing, re-shaping the structures of education (yes @Deb Morrison!). Reintegrating teaching and learning spaces with our communities and identities is a real outcome change of tackling climate change together. This includes an understanding that teachers exist INSIDE our communities, not outside. Schools ARE community based organizations! We have been sold a false tale of teachers and schools as structural fixtures, to be talked at and not with, parts of a machinery that churns out hundrends of thousands of identically educated humans each year. We cannot continue to feed this non-existant machine - to paraphrase @Joe Henderson, we can no longer accept putting the burden of all the things we don’t want to do, on the shoulders of teachers.

Climate Week was not just a showcase of disparate doings and still-to-be-dones. It was a showcase of our connected how. Of us as a kind of Pando. As we take our emotions and ideas foward (@Jonathan Stott) into stewardship in our communities, across and into new socio-ecological ecosystems of understanding, we are re-establishing our relationships to the living things around us - and that includes each other. This is what we take from the week, these are the fruits and the seeds we tend.

To colleagues new old and still to be met… I hope to see you again soon!