[Peakoil] Re: Meeting outcome: Talking to schools

[Keith Thomas]

On the positive side, most year 11 and 12 groups have people from 
outside the teacher/student body come in and talk to the students about 
issues of public concern. Some of these are short of speakers, and it 
shouldn't be hard to get an invitation to address individual classes.

On the downside, a professor at the ANU tells me he has learnt not to 
reveal to first year students the extent of the environmental threat as 
this can lead to disempowerment and despair.  If we paint too grim a 
picture, some students (who may be already depressed or in difficulty 
in their private lives) may even be motivated to suicide.  This is 
unlikely, but it's a risk that anyone addressing teenagers should bear 
in mind.  As well as being a personal/family/school tragedy, such an 
event would have massive negative blow-back on this group.

The response to the Peak Oil Sheet for Australians that we posted at 
www.natsoc.org.au has been of three kinds: 1. amazement with thanks for 
bring it to their attention; 2. criticism for being 'doom-and-gloom'; 
3. criticism for making light of the breadth, depth and longevity of 
peak oil. I am pleased we took a relatively gentle approach with our 
sheet as it gets the message across powerfully enough, leaving the 
imaginative reader to draw the stronger conclusions for themselves, in 
their own lives.
--------------------------------------------
Keith Thomas
www.evfit.com
--------------------------------------------
On 07/09/2005, at 10:55 PM, Alex P wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> At the last meeting we talked about presenting Peak Oil to school 
> students.
>
> Year 11 and 12 could especially benefit since they are starting out in 
> life
> and haven't committed to buying a car, house etc..
>
> While it's been suggested that making textual info available to schools
> rather than face-to-face presentations could be a more effective use 
> of our
> time, I still think "face time" is more persuasive.
>
> Basically, petrol is biting and I think people will pay attention. 
> Sandy put
> it well at the last meeting, saying that we need to get people aware 
> that
> this is imposed by nature, so that they don't get conned into blaming 
> it on
> terrorists/hurricanes/oil companies etc....
>
> What do you all think?
>
> Who wants to take this task up? We need to get in contact with schools
> first, what is the best way? Particular schools? Particular staff? The
> Catholic Education Office?
>
> Alex