UKH

“I’ve got a great idea. Let’s not be too hard on major commercial interests or our own pathetic effort as worldleaders to address climate change. We can implicate young kids - lets get them to clean up our mess. We can even bask in the reflected glory”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59172936

Edited for grammar - cold morning iphone fingers

I'm sure it wasn't their plan, but kids shaming their parents and grandparents might help a little.

Your cynicism is very sad.

They’re doing their part, are you?

youtube.com/watch?v=-_7FaWnlhS4&

1. Whenever we encounter a national/global challenge, a default position is to say that schools arent teaching the right stuff, should do more etc (e.g knife crime, racism, workk-based skills etc). 
2. Record levels of mental health/anxiety problems amongst school kids: they are trying to make sense of the sh*t show created by adults

Not cynical. I live in the real world & encounter both these issues on a regular basis. 

But education does work, and has to be part of any solution - How many kids these days smoke? They all know how to eat healthily etc.

I'd never say that 'education' doesn't work - and it's good to be reminded of its positive effect. My argument is that formal education seems forever to be implicated as the fall-back position (as well as the fall-guy) when there is a 'problem'. A case in point is so-called 'inclusive education' - which places incredibly heavy emphasis on schools (rightly), without an equal focus on the most other sectors of the work-force.

omg, seriously?! does it have opposable thumbs too? How do they work? Can you voice-command them? I've always been pretty look warm to new phone tech advances but this sounds like something genuinely incredibly useful.

Aren’t today’s generation the most overweight in history? 

An alternate view is as well as many other measures that are in place and I'm sure lots more to come by engaging with and giving more education to kids things will get better in the long run. Today's kids are tomorrows adults who can chose not to own a car, eat meat, shop in an unsustainable way etc.

Lukewarm, surely? 😂

Do you mind reminding me who's in charge of feeding them?

I couldn't agree more. We've been delivering quality education on climate change and the human effects as part of the science curriculum for decades. 

This just feels like more cynical passing the buck from the government. There is also quite a lot of evidence that bearing the brunt of climate change is having a negative effect on children's mental health, for example:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29637319/

You can’t force a child to eat anything it doesn’t want to. Your point doesn’t reconcile with the original point. 

Though FWIW I do agree that parents are to blame for childhood obesity, my complaint lay at the point being made that children know how to eat healthy. Perhaps they do, but it’s clearly being ignored.

Schools are increasingly picking up the slack of bad parenting. Now I get that if this slack is going to be picked up anywhere schools need to do a big part of it. However, it's placing a huge amount of pressure on schools and some of the expectation around what schools can or should take responsibility for are pretty unrealistic.

Three quarters of 45 to 70 year olds are over weight or obese 

What age are you thinking of? A quarter of kids are over weight or obese before they start school

Schools should and are doing their bit, but it has limited impact if that message isn't reinforced by society in general. Various studies involving schools providing more PE lessons, food education and providing healthy meals have had very limited or no effect.

There has been a massive drop in teenage pregnancy, smoking and alcohol abuse amongst school kids over the last 20 years, but a rise in drug related problems. I wouldn't say the drug education in schools has had less of a priority or been less well delivered

In general kids with supportive parents will go to good or outstanding schools. It is generally accept that their development has been the least affected by covid. Disadvantaged students have suffered more from not attending RI or inadequate schools regularly? 

Pehaps the kids were more attentive in school than one thinks, they can calculate that spuds have 20 times the carbon footprint that sugar has by calories as well as I can, the rest of the green rubbish is far worse! Eat more sweets and save the planet (and the pension system).

I teach in Scotland where most kids go to their local school. But yes, the impact of covid has fallen harder on the disadvantaged and will widen that gap. Contrary to what most of the media attention was about I've not noticed much academic impact but we've seen an increase in behaviour/mental health issues.

Whereas here, some kids will spend nearly two hours a day on a coach in order to go to an outstanding school, doesn't seem too environmentally friendly to me? 

I did a bit of work 11 months ago looking at A level maths assessment across a few schools. In general teachers said that those kids who would have got 90% previously were still getting 90% the difference was those students who would have got 40% were getting far less. 

For me that has been most notable amongst vulnerable students or those who have/care for someone with underlying conditions. 

Presumably their parents, who would most likely be in their 30's or 40's - so NOT the wrinklies !

Don't many grandparents like winding their children up, by giving the grandkids stuff they wouldn't normally be allowed, including sweets? 

I bet for many the tables have turned, grand parents despairing at the amount of processed foods and takeaways the current parent generation and their kids consume. The same with exercise, my 70 plus year old mother is certainly more active than my 40 plus year old brother, he's out of breath just doing the stairs in his house. 

My initial comment was a bit tongue in cheek, but in the past one parent wouldn't have a full time job when their children are young, that role is increasingly been performed by grandparents.  

If he struggles to get up the stairs no wonder he is reluctant to put more insulation in his loft.

I do despair at times, I try not to react to their goings on. You can't pick your relatives! 

I'm sure many have limited time and thus can't cook blah blah blah.... but they probably squeeze in time for all the rubbish on TV and netflix etc.. yes stereotyping I know, but viewing figures would suggest plenty have lots of spare time.