Published by Columbia Global Reports, MISEDUCATION by Katie Worth is subtitled: How Climate Change Is Taught in America. Worth is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning investigative journalist and while her work is sometimes rather academic in tone, she includes numerous engaging anecdotes and raises key questions about curriculum and textbook selection. Highly relevant in this time of increasing debate over instructional content and bans on books in school libraries, Worth includes chapters on topics like Science and Doubt, the Teachers, the Standards, and Selling Kids on Fossil Fuel. MISEDUCATION is extremely well-researched and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly (“Policymakers and educators alike will find much to consider.”). Villanova University included Worth in their year long program on climate change; this video shares some statistics and charts from her work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1oR5hHRbfI

What a brave book. I read this before the movie Don't Look Up came out. Under two hundred pages only but is a stunning declaration of the state of public education over the climate crisis. Though restricted to the United States alone, this text is crucial for educators around the globe nonetheless given the optics this nation has on various climate crisis policies and economic strategies. I am grateful to Netgalley for providing me with this book. It has been immensely helpful in sharpening my discussion regarding the environmental and politicking issues here in India.

Nonfiction | Adult
<cover image>
My decision to read this book emerges from my growing interest in (read horror at) the politicisation of facts and science that took hold first in the U.S., and more recently in Canada. It’s a natural progression, I think, from the information I gathered, some three years ago now, from Prius or Pickup: How the Anwers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide, and just last year, Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire. Investigative journalist Worth delves deeply into the current state of climate education in primary and secondary education in America. She did her research – she reviewed dozens of textbooks, built a 50-state database, and visited children and teachers around the country to learn just what kids are taught in the classroom. She unveils what is effectively a red state/blue state division; where you live determines how well you will be taught climate science, if at all. Like tobacco companies did with cigarettes and cancer, Big Oil and its interests are trying to sway young people’s understanding of the causes of climate change by funding schools, pressuring politicians and publishers, and engaging in outright lies and obfuscation. As a result, more than one in three young adults in the U.S. believes climate change is natural, and a full quarter of those under 18 don’t think it’s an “emergency” – “a rate higher than any other nation surveyed in Western Europe or North America,” says Worth in her introduction. Even in northern California, which has been devastated by wildfires due to year after year of drought, classrooms are filled with kids who believe what their parents tell them: it’s not real. Worth’s research reveals that it’s not simply Republicans versus Democrats, though; there’s a concerted effort to marshall support from the religious right as well as the conservatives who favour unfettered capitalism and put the economy above all. If you aren’t angry and horrified when you read this, you missed the point. While the criticism is sharply focused on U.S. classrooms, Canada gets some attention, including a comment on a Fraser Institute booklet of questionable lesson plans on climate change. There is hope, as Worth offers an epilogue reminding readers of dedicated teachers around the country who are working to help students develop critical thinking skills and a desire to make a difference, and are standing up to the funding sources that come with unacceptable expectations. The book includes a lengthy footnote section, much of it annotated, along with an annotated list of resources. It’s published by Columbia Global Reports, a publishing imprint that produces up to six ambitious works of journalism and analysis a year, each on a different, underreported story in the world. My thanks for the digital copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and reviews of this title: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58751011

"How did we get here? Why are millions of American children learning mixed or false messages about the phenomenon that will dictate their future? How did there come to be a red-blue divide in climate education? Who has tried to influence what children learn, and how successful have they been? I spent years tracking down the answers to these questions. What I found were the unmistakable signs of moneyed interests and entrenched ideology."

Complete review on GR
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4340598427

Where to start with this review? This book was both terrifying and fascinating. I had no idea when I started how much both Oklahoma (where I grew up as a child) and Hawaii (where I've lived for 20 years and raised my own child) would feature in this book. I must say that I'm shocked by the things I've learned from this book about Oklahoma's education standards (along with far too many other mainland states). Because my own son is very knowledgeable about Climate Change and this topic has been included in his public elementary school curriculum as well as his private college-prep school curriculum every year since preschool, I think I just assumed that this was an accepted educational topic in all developed countries. I had a hard time sleeping several nights after reading. Highly recommend for any parent, educator, legislator, or human who cares about future generations. My take from this is that we must do more beyond the steps we take in our own homes. This is important information that needs to get into the hands of those of us who care and those who can make change happen. PLEASE read this book. It's hard to stomach at times, but it's just so important to understand where we are. And why we're here.

Wow. Let me just start with that.

This book is amazing. I absolutely loved it. Written in an engaging, direct style, this book takes you in- gives you a touch of history, and takes you on a journey right to the current moment. I knew, as one does if they are willing to think, of the vast differences and divides in approaches to the existence of climate change- but the wide ranging examples and sometimes startling facts- they put the whole thing in another light. For example, the book highlights one survey of 115 teachers where half of them did not even know that there was scientific consensus on climate change. That just goes to show the deep impact that the efforts by big oil, or conservative groups have had. Denying it is one thing, not knowing something that is well established, while you're a teacher, is another.

Another thing I particularly appreciate about this book is that it isn't afraid to name names. Generally, books on climate change have a way about them- the use of words is so that it conveys the message, but isn't direct 'in your face'. That isn't the case here. States (Idaho), publishers putting out different set of books, unfairly focussing attention on one aspect, when bothering to speak about climate change, while letting the other one slide, or retaining contrarian language, or even particular individuals, it's all there.

To a common reader who isn't entirely aware of the politics and games that have got us to the point of a 'red flag for humanity' as per the IPCC's latest report, this book, short, sharp and well researched, will give you the truth straight up, of how our politicians and moneyed interest groups, in their blind desire for money, have led us (almost) to the point of no return.

Its does make a point that millennials and Gen Z are more aware of the dangers we face, despite the divisions, which I hope is true, but I'm not certain that it is.

Everyone needs to read this book- realise that they may have been taught bilge in school, learn the truth and then put in the work to save us from doom.

(ARC was thanks to Net Galley. My gratitude)

I don’t remember when and how I was taught about climate change in school! I wish I did, because it would be interesting to compare my experience with the various experiences cited in Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America! Katie Worth is very thorough in how she seeks to understand such a broad topic, for the States is vast and populous and full of fragmented education systems.

I received a free eARC from NetGalley and Columbia Global Reports in exchange for a review.

Worth looks at multiple factors that affect what is taught in a classroom: teachers’ biases, federal and state standards, curriculum, and textbooks. In each chapter, she examines how these factors can intersect and how they relate to our wider society. She includes both quantitative data, such as the percentage of states that have implemented certain standards versus the percentage of population in those states, and qualitative data, such as interviews with various stakeholders. The resulting picture is comprehensive and suggests there are many areas that need to be improved if the United States is going to improve its climate change education.

I said “our wider society” above because even though this book is mostly focused on America, it does mention Canada a couple of times. Worth talks about the Fraser Institute, a conservative organization here in Canada. She doesn’t dive too much into Canadian education systems, and I can say from experience that ours (at least here in Ontario) is nowhere near as dire as what Worth describes in the US. However, the mention of the Fraser Institute is important. Also, Canadian school boards buy American textbooks, and our market is not big enough to allow us to demand our own special edition. Therefore, the textbooks in the States (and the standards in Texas that influence the content that ends up therein) do affect my country’s education as well.

In the same way, the education of Americans affects all of us. We can roll our eyes and snicker and say, “Oh, those backwards Americans!” but at the end of the day, the US remains a very powerful country. That’s why I picked up this book in the first place—not because I’m particularly invested in American education, but because I wanted to see what types of ignorance we are up against that could spill over to an international level.

Worth’s book might make a reader feel somewhat hopeless. How can we compete against the deep pockets of oil and energy companies? How do we tackle the conservative voices that seem to dominate school boards and committees? I think these are the wrong questions. Rather, I think all of the evidence Worth assembles points to a larger conclusion: climate change is a capitalism problem, and the solutions for climate change require an anti-capitalist stance.

I should be clear that Worth herself isn’t arguing this. In true journalistic form, while her bias in favour of climate change education is evident and understandable, Worth dances around the idea that science education should be political. She elects instead to include the voices of various educators who would agree or disagree with that stance. I appreciate her attention to detail and nuance and the fact that she includes the perspectives of climate change skeptics without mockery. This is valuable for me, pierces my bubble wherein I think every reasonable person must think like me. In particular, it was painful but necessary to hear young kids (grade 6) wrestle with their doubts about the reality of climate change as a result of how they were being educated.

Miseducation is a detailed investigative work that provides a clear picture of the state of climate change education in America. This picture is grim, but I don’t think it means we should give up. Rather, I hope that if you read this book you will understand what we are up against and how important it is to organize, at a grassroots level, to work against the groups that prefer profit over our planet.

This book had loads of valuable information but it was literally just 184 pages of straight facts and citations. There was no weaving of a narrative or storyline, instead just a constant bombardment of data. Which got really old, really fast. I understand the desire to let the reader make up their mind on their own, but it was already clear what conclusion Worth wanted you to draw and so I wish she had just explicitly come out and said that. It would have made this book all the more powerful simply because it would have been a lot less dry

The game comes straight from Big Tobacco. Only this time, it’s all about climate change. Katie Worth sums up the gigantic effort by Big Oil to sow doubt over all the science between teachers and students, and parents and their children in Miseducation. Teachers, schools, school boards, education departments and legislatures have all knuckled under to the unending torrent of lies, misinformation, misdirection and sheer weight of bogus stories meant to cast doubt on what everyone’s lying eyes tell them. Sadly, it’s a proven strategy. Americans are no longer big believers in climate science.

Worth had a very straightforward plan. She visited middle schools in places as different as California and Oklahoma, Hawaii and the Marshall Islands. She talked to teachers and students, then up the chain to textbook authors, publishers and school board members who specify and order them. She learned from propagandists, CEOs, “non-profits” funded by industry, and consumer non-profits, compromised by them. It all adds up to a giant big bang of noise with almost no signal, of conflicting claims so varied and bizarre as to be unwieldy, and confusion, masses of it, for American students. And that was the idea all along.

In Oklahoma, she investigated the large Marshall Islander community. These people came to Oklahoma to escape the ravages of surging seas on their collection of flat islands. They know it has no future. Even their government says so. They are essentially climate refugees, ensconced now in Oklahoma, where climate change is a most unwelcome subject, ignored, denied and often banned.

In America, school textbooks that even mention climate are designed to encourage discussion, not to educate. Unlike cell theory or the theory of gravity, climate theory is fair game for even the most ignorant. Everyone qualifies to criticize it or ignore it totally. So in place of learning, children are told there are two sides to climate science, and they have to decide for themselves which one is true. The textbooks are not only no help, they are beyond useless. They are damaging.

The publishers say they’re just following orders, trying to sell books to school systems. If they want lies about climate change, they get them. If they want no mention whatsoever, it’s no problem.

Worth says “About a third (of teachers) said they emphasized to students that ‘many scientists believe’ global warming might be natural – an erroneous statement. And fully two thirds encouraged students to debate whether global warming has been caused by humans or nature.” And “Surveys have found that a majority of teachers falsely believe scientists still disagree about the cause, which would explain why they teach that.” So “It is safe to say that across the country, intrepid teachers rigorously educate their students about climate science. It’s also safe to say that commonly, a teacher down the hall is miseducating them about it.” All the stats she cites show that teachers have fallen for the Big Oil/Big Tobacco strategy – hook, line and sinker.

Worse, possibly, there are plenty of places where ecology or climate science cannot be taught at all, correctly or incorrectly. And with climate now affecting everything in society, from economics to agriculture to transport to species extinctions and lifeform migrations, this complete lack means American students are totally unprepared for employment in 21st century America. The country is raising generations of people totally incapable of understanding their own futures or how employers are having to cope.

But a lot of this is to be expected in a country where evolution is still a debatable theory. Julie Angle, of Oklahoma State University, is a member of the 59-strong educators committee to update learning standards. She says “I don’t think Oklahoma was ready for the e-word. We have legislators who believe that evolution has not, is not and will never occur in the state of Oklahoma.” And there is glorious history behind this: in 1925, “Governor Miriam ‘Ma’ Ferguson of Texas ordered the Texas State Textbook Commission to strip evolution from the state’s new science textbooks: ‘I’m a Christian mother who believes Jesus died to save humanity and I’m not going to let that kind of rot go into Texas textbooks.’” Similarly, climate science might be just an elective, or not offered at all. It might only appear as a paragraph or a page somewhere. And when it does, it will make no claims to being a serious issue worth anyone’s time or attention.

Nor does it help that recent generations, having absorbed the indoctrination themselves, now instruct their children that climate change is a hoax. Students are forever confronting their science teachers with this parental wisdom.

It also didn’t help that the Trump administration directed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove all mentions of climate from its own website. Any use of the word in a piece of legislation meant it was automatically dead on arrival. This despite the fact that more scientists agree on climate theory than agree on a spherical Earth.

Worth cites the American Petroleum Institute, representing major and minor players in the fossil fuels sector, which has been on the case for decades. Its goal has always been to sow doubt, just like Big Tobacco did for decades. In the meantime, their members can make billions in profits. Decades ago, it circulated a memo: “The memo laid out plans to target school teachers and students, so as to ‘begin to erect a barrier against further efforts to impose –Kyoto-like measures in the future.’”

A lot of the confusion comes from the Heartland Institute, Worth says. Heartland funds books, teaching aids, teacher training, and provides videos for use in class. It mass mails its propaganda to teachers. (It also still argues the link between cigarette-smoking and cancer is exaggerated.) Groups like this and the American Petroleum Institute have programs such as the one offering $10,000 to the authors of any anti-climate change papers that get published, regardless of the content. Just keep it coming.

In the ever-evolving science of education, educators say kids don’t want 90% problem and 10% solution like the climate science they are taught; they want 20% problem and 80% solution. They’re there to learn. The insanely mixed messages they get about climate change are depressing and frustrating to them, keeping them off balance. This is precisely the goal of the companies and the climate deniers. Keep everyone in the USA off balance. In a lot of ways, they have already won.

Not everything in the book is pure truth. For example, Worth says “Because the federal government leaves it up to the states to run schools…” But the federal government doesn’t “leave” anything to the states. It hasn’t abandoned its duty. States provide education, and anything the feds do is considered unconstitutional interference – unless it’s handing out great dollops of dollars. It would take a constitutional amendment to change that. So like anything else, weigh what is written. Nonetheless, Worth is thorough, hard-hitting and effective in covering the subject in far more angles than readers could normally hope for.

Miseducation is another in the truly excellent series of Global Reports from Columbia University. These books are tight, jampacked summaries of issues by hard-digging journalists that lay out the extent of an issue and how it is being dealt with. Every one of them seems better than the last, and I have yet to find one that could be classed as weak rather than powerful.

David Wineberg

This was an excellent overview of climate change denialism and skepticism and the general anti-science attitudes that are all too prevalent. As one of the many people who never really learned enough about climate change in school, this is an important book that's very approachable. Even though this really focused on the shortcomings of the US's educational system and the unchecked power of oil companies, I also learned good bit about climate science itself.

I also appreciated that the tone was urgent but not alarmist. Rather, it focused on the importance of properly educating students about climate change so that they can be a part of the solution.

A disturbing, straightforward study of the topic of climate change in the US education system.

Katie Worth, a fact-digging reporter, presents an illuminating exploration of the ways climate change in US education is influenced by big money, school and state boards, political confrontations and corporational giants. The author traces changes in the textbooks and curriculums from the first time the question appeared in the public informational space till 2021 to highlight an alarming fact: modern children still do not consider climate change a part of their inevitable future. The main problem of incorporating climate change into the textbooks becomes evident from the start. Due to the abundance of controversial information in the news, in the materials sent down to schools, in the laws that differ from state to state, teachers and educators can't agree on whether climate change is a hoax or our reality, is it human-caused or a part of the natural cycle. As a result, some teachers do not mention climate change entirely; some talk about it indecisively, making it a topic for discussion. Only a tiny percent stays firm on their beliefs, be it denial or acceptance. The disruption campaign, disseminating doubts about climate change, isn't limited to schools and universities. It permits mass media and, in recent years, has received approval from the highest echelons of power.

All and all, 'Miseducation: How Climate Change is Taught in America' is fine research into two fields at once: climate change and education.

The author's writing contains elements of academic, popular science, and fiction styles. Though the book is engaging and easy to understand, the mixing didn't work well for me personally. Occasional vivid descriptions of nature and interviewees intertwine with statistical data from surveys on the subject. In some parts of the text, the author's lyrical mood highly affects the generally neutral material.

The positive influences of big money, new laws, oil companies, etc., on education are briefly mentioned but not explored in great detail. The author adamantly sticks to one idea - we are in a dire position. The text calls for arms rather than proposes a peaceful, legally framed resolution of the conflict.

I'd recommend the book to readers interested in the past and present of climate change.

I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

As a teacher myself, I was curious to see what this book would say from an outsider's perspective about climate education in America today. Much of what Worth writes about resonated with my, and frankly didn't surprise me at all. She talks to a lot of people and explores different avenues, from individual biases to structural obstacles like standards. It's not an easy fix, but knowing what the problems are is essential.

I often think the best teachers are those who are passionate about their content, learning more and keeping up on the latest research. Worth's argument bolsters this thinking. If we had more teachers who actively kept up with true, relevant, scientific research, and then taught science as a process rather than rote memorization, perhaps we would not only make progress in climate education but in education as a whole. We should want teachers who model good thinking within their content, and that seems to be what she's implying in these pages. After all, honestly, standards are merely statements on paper. At the end of the day, a teacher will spin them however he/she wants and will teach them the way that he/she wants (unless there's some strong oversight system in place). Better standards are not the answer- better teachers are.

I think this book gives a lot of insight for obviously the science community and science education community but I also think it's a great book to consider in teacher prep programs and professional development. Yes, it is about climate change and research, but it is a great reflection about education and how we can improve it to meet the needs of our students.

What is the purpose of education? In an ideal world, education would furnish youth with the knowledge and skills they need in the future. Given that climate change is the looming existential threat for the entire planet, preparing our youth for the future would entail teaching them about the short- and long-term effects of climate change and the actions that might prevent the worst.
But this is not an ideal world.

I've been part of a grassroots nonprofit that teaches climate change at schools, and I was familiar with everything in this book. However, if you don't think/talk about climate change and the livability of our planet regularly, you'll learn a great deal from this book. Worth has an engaging writing style, and her extensive research about science and climate education, as well as her numerous interviews with students, teachers, textbook writers and editors, industry professionals, and scientific experts, make this book an excellent source. Honestly, I couldn't put this book down.

Miseducation is a perfect read for anybody concerned about climate change and forces that influence or shape curricula and textbooks. It is also for people who'd like to understand the current state of K-12 education.

One of Katie Worth's mentors once advised her to "got ahead and write a shitty book" and Ms. Worth has fully complied. A single example should prove my point. Ms. Worth encountered a woman named Paige Miller in Arkansas who correctly asserted that if the US were to cut its CO2 emissions to zero instantly the worldwide impact would be very close to zero which Worth rejected but she did so without any citation to authority. How sad. Perhaps the most cited reference in Worth's jejune book is to Naomi Oreskies' book, "The Merchants of Doom" but regrettably this very same person (and her husband) have authored several scholarly papers in which they reject the capability of computer models to correctly forecast the future. Perhaps Ms. Worth's second most cited resource is the New York Times along with the Washington Post, the LA Times, the Atlantic, and heaven forbid even the Guardian. Of course, the result was only trash.

Don´t trust everything you read - ever heard that? Or another version - don´t trust everything they say.
Scepticism is good. It´s good for science. It´s part of critical thinking and there is nothing wrong with it, But what if our mistrust, our doubt, went way too far?
For years we have been hearing scientists saying that climate change is happening, while other scientists, politicians and authorities have been saying the exact opposite. If society gets mixed messages it´s only natural that mistrust gets stronger and deeper.
Katie Worth travelled around States only to discover how money from oil and gas industry has walked into schools spreading false information not only amongst teachers, but also among children. She explains how oil money is influencing politics (and vice versa) and science. The amount of examples is overwhelming. What´s more, Katie Worth says it´s not the first time we have to fight for factual science being present in schools as opposed to so-called-science. For example the battle between evolution and creationism is still on! In XXI century! Another example is the battle between tobacco industry vs entire society. Remember how they presented their own "science" to back up their believe that smoking is actually good for you?
Katie Worth explains very well the problem of doubt in climate change and why fixing it is urgent. But really, the most important question is: isn´t it already too late? Today is 16th of August 2021 and a few days ago scientists announced that our damage to climate is irreversible. One of chapters in the book is called Victory. Well, they won.