Teaching our children to honor their word is one of the most important things a parent can do. Because my daughter felt bullied at age 13 and 14 for being “weird” and "different," I made it a priority to encourage her to make decisions that empower her to stand up for herself and to move forward on her own two feet, not my coattails.
So, last week when my daughter said, “Mom, I really want to go to New York with you for the Climate Strike and hear Greta, but I don’t want to let my teachers down, especially my ecology teacher,” I knew she felt empowered to speak her mind with me.
“I’m sure she’d understand," I said, "After all, she’s a science teacher."
“But that’s not fair to her if no one’s in her class on Friday. She wants to strike too, but she won’t get paid if she does. And the writing club meets on Friday. I don’t want to let my English teacher down or Margaret. They’re counting on me."
My daughter’s friend, Margaret, a senior, has been a loyal friend and the one who inspired my 16-year-old to join the creative writing club at the high school they both attend in rural Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania’s public school system, like many “swing” states, did not embrace Greta Thunberg’s global Climate Strike like nearby New York. Climate Change is still not a priority in states like Pennsylvania, and even in progressive Philadelphia last Friday for the global strike, students and teachers who participated in the Philadelphia Strike were not excused or paid for their absences.
My daughter felt that was horribly unfair, and because she attends public high school in a poor district outside of Philadelphia, she wanted to support her teachers and the parents of classmates who couldn’t afford to take the day off to attend the strike in Philly and New York.
“Mom, if I’m the only one in my class who’s striking, that kind of makes me privileged. I mean, you’re getting paid to write about it, aren’t you?”
She was right. I’d be paid for the piece I was scheduled to write on Sept. 20, even though I was also striking because of my own beliefs.
Consequently, when I told my editor the news that my daughter would not be joining me on September 20 after all, that editor (who felt the title of my Op-Ed should be, “Why I Brought My Daughter to Greta Thunberg’s Climate Strike") cancelled my assignment. Seemingly, the publication she works for was no longer interested in publishing a piece about my daughter’s decision to honor her commitments and Climate Strike the following Friday in Philadelphia.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for my daughter) that publication, which features news stories about women by women, will not get to deliver to its readers an important piece about what my daughter said to me after she made her own decision.
“Mom, can't we strike another Friday?” she asked.
“Of course, we can!" I said, "And we will, as soon as next week, if you want."
"Okay, cool," she said.
And like Greta said on September 20 in front of hundreds of thousands of teenage girls, "This is only the beginning!"
I couldn’t be prouder of my daughter’s decision to keep her word and honor her commitments, and I’m sure Greta Thunberg’s mother is exceptionally proud of Greta for honoring her words and her commitments – and as a result, Greta has not only empowered herself, she’s empowered an entire generation. Now, millions of children value her words, her integrity and her leadership.
Greta’s commitment to Gen Z, even with the challenges she faces as a person with Asperger Syndrome, demonstrates incredible determination and strength. And her desire to continually confront adult leaders who refuse to listen to the science is just one more example of her commitment to the truth.
Keeping our commitments to the truth, each other, and to future generations is what Greta’s movement is all about. It's about how actions always speak louder than words. And it’s this level of maturity in Greta and in teenage girls like her that gives me hope as a woman and a parent.
My daughter’s commitment to the environment, her teachers and friends who inspire her to make a difference every day, gives me additional hope that young women can and will change the world, and perhaps save “adults” from themselves. It's the adults who've created this environmental crisis. We are the ones who’ve looked the other way and haven't held our leaders accountable. We are the ones who continue to ignore the science. And we are the ones who must listen to Gen Z now.
It’s past time for so-called adults to finally honor their commitments and invest in a planet that's healthier and safer for our children and future generations. As one teenage girl’s sign so poignantly reminded people in Foley Square last Friday: "70-year-old men should not decide my future."
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