additional thoughts

Re-watching the mtv global warming video I posted a couple days ago, I thought I would share some additional thoughts. Many of you will no doubt find the message a bit jarring, which I did. Some of you could validly accuse the ad of subscribing to sensationalism, which I think, to an extent, it does. But that doesn't make it wrong.

The key thing I would emphasize when using this kind of approach is that your target audience is everything. College students, my parents, my friends - these types of people are who I would show this video to. Fifth graders? Not a chance. This cuts to the heart of our teaching philosophy at MOSS, which is that we do not teach (/preach) values, we teach science. What is the point of spreading so-called "doom and gloom" messages to students who are too young to actually do anything about it?

Not only is it counter-productive, it can actually be detrimental to our broader goal of instilling that key sense of awe (about the natural world) that is such a huge factor in ultimately making choices that are good for the planet. When students are given depressing messages without the ability to have any impact on what happens, it leads to a kind of nihilistic defeatism - if these things happening are bigger than me, then my choices don't matter, and since I can't have an impact, it's ultimately easier choosing not to care.

That being said, there are some fantastic programs happening around the country that are able to directly mobilize students - at surprisingly young ages - to create local projects that actually do have an impact. The key is that these things have to start local. If you teach your 4th grade class about rainforest destruction half a world away, and have a bake sale to raise money to save the rainforest, then what happens next? The school cuts a check, sends it off to X charity, and at most the kids get some pictures and a thank you note saying "your money saved 1 acre of rainforest land that you'll never actually see!" Ok so I'm totally being hypothetical/fictional - but contrast that to the kinds of local projects that have a tangible impact, whose presence can be seen on a regular basis as kids go through their schoolyards or neighborhoods. And then extend that kind of foundational positive experience to choices made later in life and contrast those choices to our earlier defeatist model. I think it's obvious which the preferred method is.

None of what I'm saying is particularly ground-breaking, and there's a solid amount of literature on these topics out there for further reading. The point I wanted to get across is that while I found the mtv ad worth sharing - it has an important message and is well-crafted - its limitations weigh on me. That being said, if you haven't watched it yet, scroll down and do so!