The Good is that, by all accounts, climate change and social justice fold seamlessly into social studies. Lessons about advocacy, policy, and economic structures are at the core of social studies lessons.

The Bad is that all of the damage done to the environment and to each other is a result of the systems we have created and that we perpetuate in our daily lives.
 

The Ugly is that those systems benefit the very few, and those beneficiaries are invested in maintaining the status quo. Too much of our discourse is polluted by topics that are unrelated, inaccurate, and unproductive. 

 

So many times over the past ten years, as our nation has become more and more divided, people have pointed to the schools and said "They should be teaching civics!" or "They shouldn't be talking about systemic injustice." The truth is we need to stop talking about what other people should do and start talking to each other. We have more in common than we acknowledge. We need to be able to get to a place where we can debate about the best ways to solve our problems, moving past our current confusion about what those problems actually are.