Students in New York City joined others around the world in a coordinated school strike Friday, walking out of class to demand action on climate change. There were more than four hundred such strike actions in the United States alone and at least 1,600 worldwide, in more than one hundred countries.

When I meet Alaisha Negron, sixteen, in Lower Manhattan, she was on her way to City Hall where she and other striking kids were gathering. “This is all going to be flooded!” she was shouting to the handful passersby. “We’re going to be under water. Do you want that?”

Although the New York City government — not to mention the national government — could be doing much more to address the problem, it is getting one thing right: some of our public schools are nourishing the engaged and informed citizenry that this crisis needs.