Are your children being taught that a climate apocalypse is inevitable? If they aren’t, they might be soon.

It’s been a year since New Jersey became the first state to require that climate change be taught in nearly all grades and subjects. Since then, organizations such as the New Jersey Climate Education Hub have distributed instructional materials that include subjects such as environmental racism , youth climate action (categorized as “Climate Heroes #2”), and emotive art representing how climate change makes us feel. It’s not just New Jersey, either — states such as California , Illinois , and New Mexico have adopted or are considering similar programs.

I’m not here to argue about the science behind anthropogenic (human-driven) climate change. That’s its own battle. But even if you, like me, affirm that anthropogenic climate change is something we should be worried about, there’s still a right way and a wrong way to teach our children about climate science. Climate change as a scientific concept may belong in the classroom, but climate activism does not.

By activism, I mean foisting a collective mindset shift on students. This is the whole point of school climate change programs. They don’t want students merely to learn the scientific facts behind climate change; they want students to do something about it.

It’s not acceptable for schools to use children to reengineer their parents socially, but that’s exactly what climate activists would have schools do. Conservatives and fathers are the primary targets, since they are the demographics perceived as being most resistant to climate activism. These efforts have become more stringent in light of recent research that suggests that conservatives prefer tradition and the established order. (Conservatives want to conserve things? Who knew!)

Even ostensibly centrist organizations such as the Brookings Institution have fallen victim to this movement. A 2020 Brookings report lamented that “entrenched political ideology among adults is a major barrier to shifting public opinion on climate change and thus wide scale behavioral change toward climate action.” Brookings even argued that schools should avoid using the term “climate change” so as not to offend parents’ “highly resistant political ideologies.”

It’d be one thing if climate activism in schools was just another passing educational fad that would come and go without doing too much damage. Unfortunately, all the talk about impending climate disaster is shaping the next generation of Americans’ mental health, as well as how they view their place in the world.

A 2021 survey published in the Lancet found that 46% of Americans aged 16-25 are “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change. Even more alarming is that for many respondents, this worry was so extreme that it negatively affected their ability to function in day-to-day life. Many young Americans are also choosing not to have children since they cannot bear to bring others into a world that already terrifies them.

Younger children are also affected by climate anxiety. A 2022 review article noted that children under 18 already feel hopeless and pessimistic about the planet’s future. Many now believe that the world will end during their lifetime. By including climate hysteria in school curricula, states and school districts would only reinforce this anxiety, and perhaps condemn an entire generation to a fear-driven stasis.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with teaching children about climate change. Children should know the facts — how climate models work, the differences between climate and weather, and how the Earth’s climate has changed throughout history. But schools should not be trying to turn children into Just Stop Oil proxies. The next generation of Americans deserves better than becoming political pawns at the expense of their welfare and education.

Garion Frankel is a Ph.D. student in pre-K-12 education administration at Texas A&M University. He is a Young Voices contributor and was previously an education journalist.