What is Teach the Parent?

Teach the Parent puts young people in the educator’s seat as they provide climate education to their parents or guardians through informal conversations. We hope this will inspire our parents to take action on climate change and adopt more environmentally friendly practices in their lives.

Teach the Parent is led by young people, for young people. We want to support and engage our parents in meaningful, constructive and informative conversations about the climate crisis. These are designed to happen informally -this could be around the dinner table, on a walk or sitting on the sofa. They don’t always have to be serious! These discussions are about young people educating their parents on the climate crisis and sharing how it makes them feel, with the hopes to encourage their parents to take action.

How children and youth can get involved?

- If you are in the UK, encourage your School to take part in Teach the Teacher Day to get more young people teaching their parents and making an impact!

What we would like parents/guardians to do?

- After you have had your climate conversation with your parent/guardian, we would like them to complete our feedback form where they will pledge to "make changes to my day to day life to help tackle climate change, and to support my family in their own efforts to address climate change and its impacts." - The parent/guardian will receive one email 2 months after they have made their pledge, to ask for some feedback on the progress of their pledge.

Why we are doing this?

Our are parents aware of the extent of the climate crisis we might face in the future as young people, and the urgency that is needed to limit global heating?

Our parents often don’t realise the scale of the climate crisis we are facing now, and will increasingly face in the future; and importantly what they can do about it. We think our parents lack sufficient climate education. Yet, we are witnessing the increasing impacts of the climate crisis every day. Young people are suffering from rising levels of climate anxiety, and don’t always feel supported by their parents. Teach the Parent centres around the idea that climate education can be provided outside educational institutions, and young people have the potential to impact adults’ mindsets and behaviours by delivering this climate education through these conversations.

Got questions?