‘Parents don’t want lectures from 7 year-olds’: Backlash to primary schoolers telling parents to turn off car engines
A uni project urges primary schoolers to tell parents to switch off their cars outside schools – but one expert says mums and dads don’t welcome “lectures from their 7-year-olds”.
Kids urging their parents to turn off car engines at school drop-off and pick-up led to a drop in pollution and boost to air quality, a new study has found.
But one educational psychologist says parents don’t want “lectures from their 7-year-olds” and questioned whether kids should feel responsible for the burden of fixing global environmental problems.
Deakin University researchers recruited year 5 and 6 children from two primary schools in Melbourne as part of the Idle Off pilot project. The children were told to ask their parents to turn off the car ignition when they parked close to the school each morning and afternoon.
PhD candidate Aria Huang from the School of Psychology said the study led to an 18 per cent decrease in idling during morning drop-off and a decrease of 40 per cent in the afternoons.
She said the project “shows that when children are empowered through engaging, hands-on environmental education, they can influence community behaviours”.
“Students also reported increased confidence in addressing environmental issues,” Ms Huang said.
“This is important because involving children more in climate action not only helps to drive change but can also balance climate anxiety with a sense of agency.”
Kids fixed signs to the school fence with posters with captions including: “Turn off your cars, you’re going to die!!!” and “Do you really want to make the environment worse?”
Dr Clare Walter, an air pollution expert at Deakin University and the Climate Catch Lab at the University of Melbourne, said idling vehicles near schools could significantly increase children’s daily exposure to air pollution, triggering childhood asthma.
She said there was a “strong potential for broader rollout” of the pilot across Australia.
Ms Huang said the year 5 and 6 students involved in the study rated it highly, as did their teachers and parents, demonstrating how well-designed, child-led environmental initiatives can shift household and community behaviours.
It comes as a study from North Carolina State University found children aged 10 to 14 had the ability to change their parents’ ideas about the environment, with daughters more effective than sons at changing views.
However, Sydney-based educational psychologist Clare Rowe said she was concerned about “children being burdened with adult responsibilities, often under the guise of empowerment”.
“I do think many parents are getting fed up with lectures from their 7-year-olds about climate change. No child should feel it’s their job to monitor their parents’ behaviour, whether it’s keeping the car running or remembering to recycle a yoghurt lid,” she said.
“We should absolutely be improving air quality around schools, but this should be driven by adults, not through the emotional labour of children.
“Real environmental solutions must come from policy and planning, not the playground.
Children deserve to feel safe and supported in the world, not burdened with fixing it.”
Dianne Giblin, CEO of the Australian Council of State School Organisations, said she was pleased to think environmental education is having an impact on children and families.
“We have a strong education for sustainability policy – conversations with our children done respectfully is another way of engaging in what they are learning at school and within the community,” she said.
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Originally published as ‘Parents don’t want lectures from 7 year-olds’: Backlash to primary schoolers telling parents to turn off car engines
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