Bill Gates Praises This New School Subject That Could Change The World

Back-to-school season has arrived, and students in New Jersey this year may get a new addition to their curriculum.

New Jersey is the first state in the U.S to formally begin incorporating climate change into its public school education curriculum.

What Happened: Climate change education is now formally included in the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, which outline learning objectives for each grade in a variety of subject areas.

The goal, which Bill Gates praised as setting a new standard, is to teach students how and why climate change occurs, how it impacts communities and how to make informed and sustainable decisions.

Read More: Bill Gates Says He Loves Learning About This Topic And Shares 'Cool Research' Being Conducted

This is great. New Jersey is setting a new standard by taking climate curriculum one step further – not just telling students what’s happening, but also asking them what the world can do about it. https://t.co/bwmjVKXbKn

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) September 12, 2022

Christa Delaney, an AP environmental science teacher at Egg Harbor Township High School on New Jersey’s southern shore said the programs will help prepare students for the future, as well as show the nation as a whole that New Jersey is focused on climate change.

Why It Matters: “[We’re learning] how to find solutions and how to mitigate the effects of climate change. And we are a coastal state, so we really will see the effects of climate change,” the AP environmental science teacher said in an interview with NPR.

“Once you look at that big picture, you see how important it is to teach students about climate change, and so they are better prepared for the future,” Delaney said.

In a 2021 blog post titled "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster," Gates, who has been vocal on climate change education, focused on informing the public about how to approach thinking about climate change and provided advice on lowering an individual's carbon footprint.

Photo: Bill Gates via Shutterstock, tree by ejaugsburg from Pixabay