Extinction Rebellion shouldn’t coax kids out of the classroom

I share Extinction Rebellion’s environmental concerns and I’ve previously joined their protests. My friends and colleagues fill their ranks. I even have a man-bun. But I can’t get behind their latest efforts to coax students to quit the classroom. Pre-empting this week’s disruption in London, Extinction Rebellion released a video recounting why student drop-outs, including marine biologists, gave up university for the movement. ‘I left university because someone told me the truth about what was happening and I realised that I had a responsibility to act,’ explains one former student. ‘(I left) because I am scared so many people I love are going to die and a masters won’t stop that’, says another.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br3LZvQFsVU

The clip acts as a recruitment tool, harnessing fear and worry for the environment and social pressure to seemingly encourage other students to do the same and drop out. It’s part of an increasing trend in which kids, students and academics swap education for activism.