If it matters, it'll be a special part of the program. So if we, as a nation, are serious about changing our culture to combat the challenges of climate change, we'll create an infrastructure that permeates our programs from civic planning to regulative policy to education.
What better way to get students thinking about it than by having a very visible Student Climate Convention at all levels of school: Middle, High, College. Whether aligned with city/county/State, or by State and National representative districts, gathering students for conventions at all levels of government organization would be a great way to involve a significant portion of our next generation.
Every homeroom is represented in a school-wide club who's purpose is to increase awareness of how our lives are connected to both the current environment at so many levels, and what we do on a local scale can contribute to helping and hurting. [Colleges could do it by major.] The schools would elect a representative team from their school to attend the county convention. That convention could be a 2-way communication from the scientific/academic, industrial, and government entities pushing the latest findings and initiatives, The schools would present the initiatives at their schools, and elect a team to represent them at the state level. The state convention would have county representation and do the same thing at that level. Finally, the states would send an elected team to the national convention. It could garner the same sort of media interest as the states came together to gather opinions and trends, pick some best practices, collect the information and publish the results and findings in an Annual Youth Climate Change State of the Union.
That's just an initial idea -- there are lots of ways to cascade from school to national levels, and there are lots of different formats to build it. If we can do March Madness with something as inconsequential as collegiate basketball and the college bowls with football, we can certainly do something similar with human relations. Wait, I mean climate change. Add a competitive component? A prize component? Ask some producers how they could make this meaningful. Having educators who are sponsoring student groups would be like the coaches for sports teams. Building capacity within each school to bring that intimate connection between our individual lives and the whole earth to all of our areas of endeavor is not such a stretch. We can do this.
