A review of thirty-two science textbooks used across the country discovered "muddled and misleading" descriptions of climate change, according to "Are we ready? How we are teaching — and not teaching — kids about climate change," a lengthy investigation published by The Hechinger Report and HuffPost (May 23, 2020).
"[A]t least 12 included descriptions of climate change that were superficial or contained errors. Another four of the science books did not discuss the topic at all. And some downplayed the scientific consensus that human activities are causing the current climate crisis. according to the four experts who reviewed the passages."
Richard Alley of Penn State commented that many of the textbooks gave "the few contrarian voices with their loud megaphones a much greater voice than is warranted," while Kerry Emmanuel of MIT observed that "in a few cases, it was fairly clear that there was little interest in conveying a scientifically correct account, or worse, an active intent to deceive."
Andrew Dessler of Texas A&M said that the treatment of climate change in the textbooks under examination was not as bad as he expected, though, explaining that he "expected to see a lot more of 'some scientists say the climate is warming, but others say it's not' ... or some similar both sider-isms."
A focus of the article was Texas, where state science standards are soon up for revision. John Mead, a middle school teacher in Dallas and one of NCSE's Teacher Ambassadors, commented that climate change is "effectively absent" from the standards and that teachers in Texas commonly experience "backlash" when they introduce the topic in their classrooms.
Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, which advocates for sound science in the Texas state science standards, explained that the wording of the standards influences the wording choices of textbook publishers: "You word passages in a way that you hope is not inaccurate but doesn't spark a controversy or a debate."
The article also noted, "Climate science is complicated, and many teachers say they don't have as much knowledge as they’d like to feel confident teaching it." Alison Wood, a high school teacher in Duluth, Minnesota, and one of NCSE's Teacher Ambassadors, was described as still relying "on a hodgepodge of resources rather than textbooks."
"Are we ready? How we are teaching — and not teaching — kids about climate change" was part of a nine-part series that also included "How the science of vaccination is taught (or not) in US schools" (May 23, 2020), which quoted NCSE Teacher Ambassadors Alison Wood and Rebecca Brewer and NCSE's Director of Teacher Support Lin Andrews.
