Schoolchildren and climate strike

A chara, – As a secondary school student who is greatly concerned about the effects of climate change, I would like to express the following reservations about the strikes.

First, of all places to be striking from, school is not the one. It is nonsensical to propose that we should give up a day of school a week to fight climate change, while sacrificing the very thing that can defeat it – education.

Second, there are better ways to mobilise students than shutting down the schools. For instance, imagine the effect of having every school student in the country marching on the capital, on a Saturday perhaps, demanding change?

And finally, with no disrespect to the great Greta Thunberg, my suspicion is that the majority of students asking their teachers for a strike or refusing to get out of bed on a Friday morning have no concern for the environment, don’t care about this issue, and are more than likely looking forward to a good lie-in. – Yours, etc,

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OISÍN Ó SÍOCHÁIN,

Donoughmore,

Co Cork.