Climate change changes students: one story

This week I’m revising my climate change book manuscript. Various chapters are in the hands of some thoughtful and generous readers, helping me hone the text. I’m about to smoosh all of the pieces into a single, staggering Word doc and fire it at my thoughtful and generous editor.

And yet the world keeps giving me more to write about on this topic! A few days ago the very fine Hechinger Report published a piece about the impact of the climate crisis on K-12 students. Caroline Preston focuses on American schools and kids hit by fire, heat, and floods. This obviously matters for our higher education purposes, as some of them will become traditional-age undergraduates, then adult learners.

Let me pull out some of the key themes, while you just go and read the article.

First, as climate damages grow in frequency and scope, larger numbers of students will come to colleges and universities with that experience. This will inform their academic experience, including knowledge of such events and potential trauma.

Second, threats to schools can increase the amount of delayed, rescheduled, relocated, and online learning students experience. This in turn can inform their expectations of post-secondary learning. For example,

Two schools that were devastated in the Camp Fire reopened…