Michael Gove is concerned about teachers promoting science in schools. Yes, really.
The Daily Mail reports today that education secretary Michael Gove has expressed “concern” about a study which accuses “activist” teaching staff of trying to turn pupils into “foot soldiers of the green movement”.
According to the study carried out by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), a climate change denying think-tank set up by former Tory chancellor Lord Lawson, “eco-activists” in the education system are urging children to use “pester power” to force parents to adopt green lifestyle choices.
“We find instances of eco-activism being given a free rein within schools and at the events schools encourage their pupils to attend,” the report claims.
Gove “read the report with concern”, according to a spokesperson for the education secretary.
“Schools should not teach that a particular political or ideological point of view is right – indeed it is against the law for them to do so,” the spokesperson added.
Unlike most of the content found in the Daily Mail, it’s actually worth taking a closer look at this piece, if for no other reason than to understand just how loopy some on the right have become over the issue of man made climate change.
What exactly is it that the GWPF- and by extension Micheal Gove – are objecting to here?
According to the GWPF, telling kids to “avoid polluting the world”, “recycle” and “reduce their carbon footprint” is “brainwashing” carried out with the express intention of turning children into “foot soldiers of the green movement”.
But hang on a minute. What exactly is objectionable about teaching children to safeguard the environment? If you can avoid doing so, don’t go around polluting the world – it’s hardly revolutionary advice.
And perhaps, when the GWPF talk about “brainwashing”, they ought to consider who is attempting to brainwash who here.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is “extremely likely” that humans have been the principal cause of warming since the 1950s. An analysis of abstracts of 11,944 peer-reviewed scientific papers, published between 1991 and 2011 and written by 29,083 authors, found that 98.4 per cent of authors who took a position endorsed man-made climate change, with just 1.2 per cent rejecting it and 0.4 per cent uncertain.
There is an overwhelming consensus in support of the theory of anthropogenic global warming, in other words.
Unless Michael Gove is a believer in the foolish relativist notion that there is no such thing as objective truth, then he ought to be quite keen on children leaving school with at least a basic understanding of a phenomenon that 98.4 per cent of scientists are convinced is occurring. Instead he appears to prefer the crackpot climate change denialism of the GWPF, an organisation stuffed with what are far too politely referred to as “sceptics”.
Schools should “not teach that a particular political or ideological point of view is right,” Gove says.
Well no. Schools should follow the evidence and act accordingly. Some points of view are backed by an overwhelming amount of empirical evidence and are therefore “right”. Others aren’t. This is why schools teach kids evolution rather than creationism. It’s why they teach astronomy rather than astrology. And it’s why they encourage children to take care of the environment and to think a little about man-made climate change.
It isn’t a “point of view”. It’s the scientific consensus.
James Bloodworth is the editor of Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
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33 Responses to “Michael Gove is concerned about teachers promoting science in schools. Yes, really”
patrick edwards
I don”t think anybody on this site can profess to understand climate science. But like other policy areas in modern societies where the division of labour has become incredibly complex, public policy decisions have to mediate between an incredibly knowledgeable expert opinion and a massively ignorant public one – and I mean the latter term in the nicest possible way and would include myself among this group!
How, I suppose the question is, how can we deal with collective action problems – that politics is meant to be the chief institution with the legitimacy to resolve- when the information and the evidence are not readily understood by citizens nor can be?
ClimateLearner
Not so much Left Foot Forward as Left Foot In It. The article is a dismal display of boorishness based on a sullen disregard of the actual content of the report.
Frankie D.
“Should we teach our children to be activists and disrespect parents and authority?”
If the parents and authority are wrong, then yes. Why wouldn’t you teach children to stand up for what’s right?
M2
The title is rather misleading. Science and policies are quite different things
Sun
This is the Left Foot Forward. What do you expect. The Left believes it “owns” science.