As legendary British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough put it in his recent BBC One documentary Extinction: The Facts: ‘We are facing a crisis, and one that has consequences for us all.’
In the context of this climate and biodiversity crisis, the UK Government’s recent move to outlaw resources from organisations that have expressed a desire to end capitalism in the teaching of RHSE in schools is a mistake.
If we’re going to reach net zero emissions somewhere between 2030 and 2050 and limit the irreversible damage we’re doing to the world, capitalism is the system that’s going to get us there. It’s the least worst system out there; all of our institutions, infrastructure and cultural assumptions are built on its foundations; and it has a lot of influential fans around the world.
The important thing to note, at this point, is that we’re going to have to use it responsibly to achieve the net zero goal. That doesn’t mean throwing capitalism out, dismantling it, or subverting it. It means we need to appraise it openly and honestly, understand exactly how it works, and decide how best to use it to drive towards a successful and sustainable future. Oxford University’s Kate Raworth is leading the way here with her doughnut economics model.
To be effective, we need to really understand capitalism in context, and that includes our greatest minds from today’s school generation. I definitely don’t believe that our schools should be promoting the overthrow of our current social and economic systems, but I do believe it’s important to trust our students and our teachers to use all available information wisely, and not to censor our children’s educations, if we are to imagine a better future.
There will be solutions to the climate crisis that we don’t even know about yet, and we need the humility to assume that we may not know best and that the next generation of leaders could hold the key. With that in mind, we must expand, not restrict, the information and resources they have access to.