The Irish Creamery and Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has hit out at a “biased” draft document for a “climate action” Leaving Cert module, which would teach students how to engage in climate activism.
Last week Gript published a report about the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment’s (NCCA) new Leaving Cert draft document, entitled “Climate Action & Sustainable Development”.
“Direct action, civil disobedience, boycott”: A draft document for a “climate action” Leaving Cert module would see children taught “how to effectively organise themselves to take action” on climate change, and study the “tactics” employed by “activists.”https://t.co/VoQg1VmtGI
— gript (@griptmedia) March 14, 2024
The proposal – which is currently open for public consultation – is designed to help students to “organise” around climate issues by studying activities like “lobbying”, “civil disobedience”, “boycotting,” and various “tactics” used by “activists”.
It would also have students study “the role of Irish agriculture” in “climate breakdown”, as well as climate regeneration, and economic “degrowth” (the idea that the economy must shrink for the sake of the climate).
“A MOVE FROM EDUCATION TO INDOCTRINATION”
Responding to the report, ICMSA President Denis Drennan said that farmers had “no problem whatsoever” with pupils being taught “the scientific evidence” behind the climate change or “science-based solutions.”
However, he said they “most certainly” had a problem with what Drennan characterised as “ideology masquerading as science” and “a move from education to indoctrination.”
FARMERS PAINTED AS “THE ENVIRONMENTAL BADDIES”
“ICMSA accepts the reality of climate change and our responsibility – along with everyone else – to step up and meet the challenge,” he told Gript.
“But we object completely to the kind of baseless and groundless discourse that has farmers – and farmers alone – as the ‘environmental baddies’, while everyone else is absolved of the need to do anything meaningful that might discomfort or inconvenience themselves.
“We have said it before repeatedly and it’s never been seriously disputed: it is entirely possible to mitigate climate change and lower emissions while preserving the critical economic and socio-cultural role played by commercially viable family farms. It is not an ‘either/or’ and never has been a ‘either/or’.
NEXT GENERATION BEING “MISLED AND MISINFORMED BY A BIASED EDUCATION SYSTEM”
“If that is the way this course is going to be presented, then we slip downwards from education to indoctrination and the next generation – so far from knowing the facts and being enrolled in the solutions – just end up being misled and misinformed by a biased education system.”
He added: “We need to deal with the facts, and not ideology.”
The consultation period opened on February 2nd and closes on April 5th 2024. Individuals can respond online here.
DESCRIBED AS “ABSOLUTELY SCANDALOUS” BY ONE TD
Drennan’s comments seem to echo similar remarks by Michael Fitzmaurice TD of the Independent Ireland party, who told Gript that the plan seemed “designed to indoctrinate young people” and that it was “absolutely scandalous.”
“Designed to indoctrinate young people”: A Leaving Cert draft curriculum which would see students studying the tactics of climate activists has been described as “absolutely scandalous” by Michael Fitzmaurice TD of the Independent Ireland party.https://t.co/zw0Ik5mhOB
— gript (@griptmedia) March 16, 2024
In an article last year, Gript revealed how the State-funded Green Schools programme urges students to “eat less meat and dairy” to save the planet, and encourages teachers to read picture books about Greta Thunberg saving the world to young students.
A State-funded group urges Irish teachers to encourage children to “eat less meat” & dairy in pursuit of climate goals, to introduce them to “vegetarian or vegan” eating, & to show them a picture book about Greta Thunberg. @Ben_Scallan reports:#gripthttps://t.co/mXiRdIsLym
— gript (@griptmedia) August 25, 2023