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New Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has proposed that all children should
learn Maths to the age of 18. It may be a well-intentioned plan but it
rather begs the question of what education is for.

Sunak’s speech in January 2023 was focused on building a world class
education system, an NHS focused on patients, stronger communities and
safer streets and a society that ‘truly values the family’. The danger
with such rhetoric is that it can be easily twisted – valuing the
family can come to mean ignoring the rights of less traditional family
styles. And that’s where Sunak’s focus on Maths to 18 as an education
solution falls at the first hurdle.

A fair and functional society requires an understanding of shared
goals and a commitment to achieving them. But that means unpicking the
language used, the definitions understood and the pathways to
achieving them – and that can’t be done without questioning the
assumptions in those statements, and those assumptions that underlie
the goals.

No one wants an NHS that’s not focused on patients, but without
proper funding, decent levels of staffing, effective management that
doesn’t have a stranglehold on clinical care, that’s not going to
happen. And stating the obvious about what we want is meaningless if
we don’t understand how we’re going to get there. Understanding Maths
and economics might help us crunch the numbers to work out what’s
possible, but it’s not going to tell us anything about what we’re
choosing to value and how.

Sunak’s vision is for one where Maths will be compulsory to 18, as a
means of giving children the analytical skills that the modern
world requires. But analysis is not just crunching numbers – it’s about
nuance and perspective, about value and bias. The ability to question
bias, to examine value, to create new approaches cannot be taught by
expecting children to cite and learn mathematics – especially when
they often dislike or even fear it.

Part of the challenge is the fact that Maths is taught in a linear
rigid fashion. The elegance, beauty and even magic of Maths doesn’t
come into play until further Maths – and while children need to learn
the basics in order to explore the art of mathematics, that’s not
going to necessarily equip them with the skills to question and think about
what they’re doing. Data is everywhere -we need to interpret and to analyse
it,- but Maths isn’t necessarily the best tool for children to use. Mathematics is 
important and can be exciting but forcing children to learn something they
don’t like, for reasons they don’t understand, cannot be the way
forward.

Sunak’s vision harks back to a Victorian approach which is about creating 
a workforce to fulfil the needs of future employers. In a world where the UK 
government is attempting to pass legislation to force striking workers to work,
removing one of the future tools for effecting change for working people, isn’t it 
more important that we teach our children how to think independently, 
critically and compassionately?

​From Felicia Jackson as seen in Educationtoday.co.uk 
 
There is great excitement in the lead up to the World Cup in Qatar. Equally however, there is concern that a tournament in which the world is expected to take part is taking place in a country where not all human rights, not of all fans, are respected. 
 
While in countries like the UK, human beings have the right to choose who they love, in Qatar the country has already issued warnings that fans should avoid waving rainbow flags or demonstrating for the rights of gays and homosexuals during the tournament. 
 
The Guardian newspaper directly asked the Supreme Committee (in charge of the tournament) if all fans would be safe and got a generic answer. It said, “Everyone will be welcome to Qatar in 2022, regardless of their race, background, religion, gender, sexual orientation or nationality. We are a relatively conservative society – for example, public displays of affection are not a part of our culture. “ 
 
The statement went on: “We believe in mutual respect and so whilst everyone is welcome, what we expect in return is for everyone to respect our culture and traditions.” Given that those cultural traditions include the fact that alcohol, pork products, adultery and, yes, homosexuality are illegal is cause for concern.  
 
What ARE we willing to tolerate so that thousands of fans can enjoy this global celebration of the Beautiful Game? The Qatari response implies they will be tolerant so long as there is no public flouting of local and religious norms. Is this enough of a compromise? Should liberal democratic citizens be expected to curb their behaviour and hide their identities, not to mention turn a blind eye to a litany of alleged human rights abuses surrounding the death of migrant workers since Qatar began preparing for the tournament itself? 
 
This brings us to one of the most tricky aspects of the concept of tolerance – the idea that we have to tolerate ideas and ideals that we dislike, that every truth is relative and that cultural tradition trumps everything else. What tolerance boils down to is not what one person believes or not but rather that no matter one’s beliefs – everyone should be awarded the same rights in their lives as everyone else.  
 
That means freedom to believe whatever you want, but your right to impose those ideas and ideals on others stops when that freedom infringes on the rights of others. While football itself has been the home of racism and violence for decades, there is an enormous amount of work being done on bringing people together through the love of the game.  
 
If two people love the game that much, no matter how different they (or their beliefs) are it’s proof that they have something in common. Finding common ground, mutual respect for difference and a means of communication are the basic steps towards resolving tension and conflict.  
 
Football v Homophobia was set up to challenge discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression at all levels in football. One of its members, Lou Englefield, was reported as saying that he knew of no European LGBTIQ supporters’ group, or individual supporters, who are currently planning to attend this World Cup. 
 
It’s not just a question of whether or not individual fans will be safe, but whether the message that the World Cup committee, funders, advertisers, sponsors and even players are sending is one that is good for people, fans or even football itself. 
            
 

This year Tolerance Day is focused on climate change. For some this may seem an odd choice but one of the central tenets of tolerance is to give others the rights you demand for yourself. In a world where the developed and developing worlds are at odds about taking responsibility or providing funds, where the most vulnerable to climate change impacts are those who did the least to drive climate change, we need to think about rights and about equity.
 
This year’s climate negotiations brought an unprecedented number of activists, NGOs, businesses, academics and people of every age together to drive action on climate change. While there were many calls to action, one of the most exciting was the recognition that education, one of the last bastions of the old approach, is moving forward on climate change.
 
Earthday.org is leading a growing call for every school in the world to have integrated, assessed climate and environmental education with a strong civic engagement component. As Earthday.org President Kathleen Rogers says, “With the proper tools, knowledge, and attitudes, this will enable the next generation to develop into informed and engaged environmental stewards, capable of tackling climate demands.”   To do any less is to fail to equip our children with the resilience and knowledge that they need to thrive in an evolving world.
 
The UK’s Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi announced a new draft strategy to implement climate education in the UK. He said, “Teachers will be supported to deliver world-leading climate change education through a model science curriculum, which will be in place by 2023, to teach children about nature and their impact on the world around them.”
 
In the UK, children and young people will also be encouraged to get involved in the natural world by increasing biodiversity in the grounds of their nursery, school or college by taking small steps like installing bird feeders. They will be able to upload their data onto a new, virtual National Education Nature Park – which will allow them to track their progress against other schools in the country, increase their knowledge of different species and develop skills in biodiversity mapping.
 
This is a great start but, like so many issues, the government seems to have missed the point. Climate change is about so much more than science and sustainability means thinking for the long term, thinking about complexity, thinking in a systems way and understanding the importance of actions and consequences. Science is critical and fundamental but teaching in such a siloed approach is exactly what we need to avoid. Climate change is about science, technology, policy but its also about people, justice, equity and the next generation. We need to learn to think in different ways about our relationship with nature, our relationship with each other and our relationship with ourselves.
 
We need to help children build their own resilience in a changing world. Eco-anxiety is on the increase and we need to find ways to support children to manage their fears. That means helping them to think about the world in new ways, and finding ways of empowering them to take action and be present in their own world in their own way.
 
At COP26 this year there were children everywhere, activists, journalists, strikers. It’s the young that are going to bear the brunt of what’s coming and its only right we do something about it.  We need to stop using fossil fuels, but what right do countries that have been exploiting fossil fuels for centuries to drive growth have to tell developing countries that they can’t use the same approach to bring their populations out of poverty. We can’t just demand action, we have to find ways of making it fair.
 
Critical thinking is a skill that will help children understand the complexity of what is to be faced. Our lesson plan the Knotty Tree helps to work through some of the complexities of use and responsibilities and we hope you find it useful. In the coming year we’re going to provide further tools and resources to help you address climate and sustainability issues and, as ever, help you support the children around you in becoming creative, critical and compassionate thinkers. A generation that could do things better than we have.

Download the climate change worksheet here to help children understand the importance of tolerance.

Tolerance Day video assembly here, with James Bridge, chief executive and Secretary General of UNESCO UK

Research by education campaign Teach the Future found that 70% of teachers feel they haven’t received adequate training to educate students about Climate Change. Yet as a subject Climate Change doesn’t sit easily anywhere – it involves Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Geography, History, Politics, and Economics, and the perceived issues and solutions are changing all the time.  
 
Italy in 2020 was the first country to make Climate Study compulsory in schools but putting it into practice in the classroom has been patchy. The tackling of climate change is a Wicked problem - complex, difficult to solve, crosses many disciplines and affects many people. When ‘facts’ and knowledge are constantly evolving it’s thinking tools - the ability to view information with a critical eye, research widely and consider multiple perspectives - that will serve our pupils best for the future rather than overwhelming teachers and pupils with conflicting data and apocalyptic forecasts. 
 
At the end of October, the UK Parliament held its first-ever debate on climate education. The Westminster Hall Debate, tabled by Nadia Whittome MP, the youngest sitting MP, in partnership with students aged 13-18 from the Teach the Future campaign, was intended to examine sustainability and climate education in the UK curriculum. To highlight how diverse the subject is, the debate covered a range of topics, including disparities in climate education around the world, education for girls and women, ensuring the right climate change information is included in the UK education syllabus, and how to provide career guidance on green jobs.
 
Earlier this year, the largest study ever conducted into the effects of the climate crisis on the mental health of young people revealed nearly half (45%) of young people globally feel climate anxiety negatively affects their daily life. It also found that almost two-thirds (64%) of young people around the world believe governments are not doing enough to protect them from climate change.
 
Teach the Future is a youth-led campaign, composed of secondary and tertiary students from all four nations of the UK, aiming to rapidly reorientate the education system around the climate emergency, social justice and sustainability. Scarlett Westbrook, a 17-year-old organiser with the Teach the Future campaign and UKSCN said, “Our approach to climate education urgently needs to change: the current curriculum is failing young people and causing escalating levels of climate anxiety.”
 
If our leaders are unable, or unwilling, to take the necessary action to address climate change, then children need to feel empowered. It’s no longer useful to equip our children with what they need to thrive in a world that no longer exists. The reality of extreme weather, as well as economic and social change driven by the impacts on the systems that sustain us, requires that we integrate critical thinking about climate change into the curriculum, and now.

Resilience is something that most people recognise we need, even if they don’t exactly agree what it means. Is it surviving things that happen to you, adapting to challenges, the capacity to recover quickly, or simply ‘keeping calm and carrying on’? As our children face an increasingly transforming world, how can we teach them the skills to be resilient in the face of change?
 
Complexity is something that we don’t talk about often enough. Teaching itself is a complex process, as teachers must communicate with children with a range of interests, motivations, fears and understandings. Yet while we accept that different children might require different support, we haven’t really changed the way in which we approach the subjects that children learn. Complexity engenders excitement but it also makes the brain use different thought processes including problem solving and creativity.
 
Children between five and eight have been proven to be able to comprehend scientific theories like natural selection (in Deborah Kelemen’s work), which are not only complex but help us understand why the world is the way it is. Children often ask how what they learn will matter in their futures, whether they’re talking about maths, geography or history – we need to show them how every part of their education matters for their ability to face the future.
 
Teaching complex ideas, the interconnections between different disciplines and the interactions between topics can educate children about human values while providing a tool set enabling them to engage with complex ideas and situations as they grow. This helps to build resilience, which may be key to surviving 21st century challenges, and enables the application of knowledge to ‘wicked problems’ which means, using Rittel and Webber’s theory, problems that are difficult to define and maybe even unsolvable. That doesn’t mean we stop trying though
 
At Learn2Think we are using Tolerance Day 2021 as a focal point to explore how the way we think affects climate justice, and the kind of world in which we want to live. We need to embed questioning and critical thinking at the heart of learning, combined with empathy and creativity so that we can not only imagine ourselves in another’s shoes, but also imagine new ways of solving someone else’s problems
 
It’s no longer enough to educate in isolation, in silos, as that approach is responsible for so many of the ‘wicked problems’ the world faces today. Whether it’s climate change, racial injustice or covid vaccinations, we need to teach a new way to approach problems. In terms of vaccinations for example, the phrase “no one is safe until everyone is safe” seems wholly self-evident. And yet 60% of the world’s population hasn’t even had its first vaccination: supplies are not reaching the poorest. This is not only a moral failing but a system one, which provides more opportunity for new variants to arise and bring the pandemic storming back.
 
It’s the same in education – how do you solve a complex problem? We know that improving literacy is linked to improved educational attainment but how best do we achieve those positive outcomes? Is improving literacy child by child the best approach, or should we deal with the impacts of poverty, racial inequality, budgeting issues or other wider social issues?
  
So many of today’s biggest challenges are system wide and ‘wicked’. To tackle them effectively, our children must learn differently in order to think differently. We have talked about radical empathy and its importance in developing children’s thinking in ways that make them adaptive and resilient, able to respond to an increasingly changing environment – technologically, socially and environmentally. And the first step is to recognize that children understand complexity. If we encourage them to think about complex issues from an early age, we may be giving them the resilience and power to change their own futures.
 
This article first appeared in the May 2021 edition of Education Today www.education-today.co.uk