by Marsha Rakestraw
It’s often a struggle to know how to talk to our children about challenging global issues.
Yet we need to. We may want to protect them, but children learn about these issues from a variety of sources.
As Anna Fahey, communications professional at Sightline Institute, notes: “When my daughter was four-and-a-half, she asked me point blank about climate change.”
Recently, Anna wrote an article sharing some important insights from a variety of experts (also parents) about how we can talk to younger children about global climate change, one of the most devastating and far-reaching issues.
These activists and scientists had a variety of suggestions, including:
- helping children to think from the heart about what is right and wrong
- nurturing children to act as caretakers of the earth
- teaching kids emotional resiliency
- encouraging children to be changemakers and to realize they have power to enact positive change
- cultivating our connection to the natural world
- supporting kids in making choices that benefit others and embracing our personal responsibility
From Wisdom for Talking to Kids About Climate Change by Anna Fahey, Sightline Institute, Copyright 2016 – Sightline Institute; used with permission.