Schools can be the front line of climate action

Schools have been on my mind recently.

Our kura (schools) are one of the few community institutions left in Aotearoa New Zealand. There aren’t many other places where people from all backgrounds interact regularly.

Since schools touch everyone’s lives, they have the power to change our behaviours through social contagion.

Social contagion is an idea that fundamentally shapes how I see the world: what we do is shaped far more by what our loved ones do than we think. For example, people are far more likely to start smoking if their friends smoke. The same can be true for positive behaviours: being physically active, getting solar panels, enjoying a meatless Monday.

That is why schools hold so much power. They are the beating heart of our communities. They shape the routines for hundreds of thousands of families every day.

What if they used that social capital to take action on climate change? Well, it turns out that some schools in the capital are. Within their walls and outside the school gate, kura are trying to encourage environmentally friendly lifestyles and push the rest of us to do the same.

Kids love nature. They learn better in nature. They thrive more in low pollution communities. And they need our help to make the world better for them.

Kids crave the outdoors

By and large, kids learn better in nature. At early ages, they thrive when their play is punctuated by Papatūānuku. The rich world of the outdoors offers wonder that is hard to match indoors.

Dr Anne Meade, the co-founder of the early childhood centre Daisies, clearly loves experiencing outside with kids. Every week, they take kids out on a Nature Explore. They always go by bus or train. If there’s a pandemic, they walk.

The kids love it. Anne told me that the natural world feeds their curiosity. Children who might be shy in a typical classroom environment burst with confidence outside. The anecdotes that Anne shared track with evidence from research analysis: kids thrive at early ages when they can play and explore outside.

It also has a short term effect on boosting children’s relationship with nature. Though research has found that environmental education at an early age won’t transform every toddler into this generation’s Greta Thunberg, it does encourage a strong care for nature that can be fostered throughout life.

“Children end up feeling a connection to nature such that they want to enjoy it more, want to protect it more.” – Anne

Connecting with nature and taking action on pollution doesn’t have to end at the school gate. Our cities can be designed for kids to explore independently. When schools champion the climate-friendly transport that makes this possible, their mana makes these changes to our community normal.

It’s important they do so, because kids do better when they can have their own agency.

Why commutes matter for kids

In 1990, across the country around 20% of teenagers biked to school. Now? 2-3%. Most kids are driven by their parents to and from school.

In the past, even primary school kids had the autonomy to explore the world with their friends after class. Now, most primary school kids wait to be driven.

That’s why it’s so awesome to see schools like Berhampore School using their mana in the community to encourage a change.

Every Friday, tamariki from across Berhampore can join their walking school bus. When the programme first began in September 2023, then Principal Simonne Goodall said:

“Our Enviro Group wanted to create change, and I’m proud it’s been led by the kids. Not only are they conscientious and creative, they’re inspired by te ao Māori and being kind to the planet.”

Kids are happiest when they have autonomy over their own lives – including how they get to and from school. The Netherlands show us the way to improve our pollution while also giving kids back a sense of agency.

UNICEF has found that Dutch children are the happiest in the world. When you ask kids and their parents why, they explain that it’s because they can move freely through the world.

Stuff’s excellent Eloise Gibson explored this topic, too. Her coverage is well worth a read. Kids do well when our cities are built for them to safely enjoy getting around by themselves. Unless you want five year olds driving, our existing system isn’t ideal.

Reshaping our city to make walking, biking and public transport the best ways to get around will make our city far better for kids. They can explore the city and nature safely, on their terms. But to change the status quo is hard.

The committed tamariki and kaiako at our schools like Berhampore have led this change. Their mahi creates a flywheel. Now, the Greater Wellington Regional Council offers resources to schools to start active ways to get to and from class. More bike lanes have been built, and as they’re built more parents use them to travel with their kids by bike to school.

Transport options that are better for the world are also better for tamariki. It improves their confidence, mental health, and physical wellbeing. It’s a win win.

Even better, the more tamariki travel by bike or foot, the more likely they are to keep using those fun, low pollution ways to get around well into adulthood. It can be generational behaviour change.

Change starts in the classroom

Children’s positive experiences with nature and their community don’t have to be isolated to controlled areas like school playgrounds. We don’t have to live in a tarmac ocean, ferrying kids between areas built for adults. We could make living an active life, connected with city trees and our community, a part of our daily routine.

Schools are well placed to lead this cultural change. Our teachers can’t (legally) build a bike lane, but they can spark change in their communities.

They could replace car parks with bike spots and start their own version of the Oregon Bike Bus to encourage families to travel differently. They could organise walking buses through the neighbourhood like Berhampore School. They could make plant-based kai the default in their ECE centre.

Each little action does more than cut an individual’s pollution or improve one kid’s access to the natural environment. They encourage the community to see these behaviours as good, encouraged, normal.

But just like our schools, we can all make a difference. We can champion solar on our school rooftops or set up our own walking buses when dropping our kids off. Each of us has more power to shape others behaviour than we think.

Kids want to be out in nature. They want to get around their communities on their own in a fun way that they control. It improves their wellbeing when they do so.

We’d all do better by listening to them.