IT’S funny how life twists and turns. Before our business Railholiday became the focus of my days, I was a music teacher. After two decades of juggling two jobs, a family and a band I finally realised I couldn't do it all, so gave up teaching to focus on the business.

Recently I've started teaching again through my voluntary work at Livewire Youth Music Project, and its reminded me how much I enjoy it. There is something deeply satisfying about passing on expertise.

I was trained in the art of imparting information by my wonderful mother, Frankie Lister, who for many years was a maths teacher. She followed this by a spell of working as a farming and wildlife consultant, alongside lecturing in ecology and countryside management at Duchy College. From a young age I and my siblings were drilled in mental maths and countryside lore. In the photo above she is showing our son Walter how to settle a swarm into a new hive; teaching was always second nature to her.

To be a good teacher it is essential to be a good listener. Students will always teach us as much as we teach them. It is important students feel valued, and that their own bank of knowledge also has agency.

After mum died I regretted not listening more. I have had to work hard to build my knowledge of flora and fauna, which I could have absorbed organically had I been more attentive. However I do think self discovery is an important part of the learning process.

We are all teachers; we have a reach beyond ourselves, and with tact, knowledge and compassion can help our friends and family understand the climate crisis.

When imparting knowledge we need an open mind. This is especially important when talking about environmental issues. Despite increasing proof of climate change, it does feel like climate denial is on the rise. We all have non-negotiable beliefs that we will will do everything we can to protect, even if fundamentally they flawed. We don't want to believe in global warming because it requires us to make changes to our lives. We want to believe that when we fly, drive, buy stuff etc that it's okay. No-one wants to damage the environment maliciously.

By creating a narrative that our behaviours are not harmful, and protecting this narrative, we remove ourselves from the guilt that could otherwise unhelpfully swamp us.

It has to be remembered that there are big businesses who gain financially from our current lifestyles, who have unlimited resources and who understand how to manipulate the general public. On social media we are bombarded with posts that dismiss the science of global-warming and encourage us to continue business as usual. As educators we need to be able to counteract this trend with concrete evidence, and learn to sympathise with those who are finding reality difficult to accept.

We are already being impacted by global warming. It is not characterised by one-off events like storms, floods, and fires, which historically have been happening for millenia, but by growing frequency of these events. These are well documented in respected news sources such as The Economist and The New Scientist. Unfortunately one truth is that 2023 was the hottest year on record, and this trend is set to continue.

To be a good educator we need to be able to get to the truth. Learn as much as you can. Gather facts. Listen to others. Be kind, but never underestimate your own power to influence. You have a voice. Now is the time to use it.