WE SHOULD be congratulating our children and using the opportunity of their strike against climate change as an opportunity to teach them what protests can achieve.

Protests unite people. Protests raise awareness. Protests demonstrate the incredible power of ordinary people.

They give a voice to the voiceless and hold government forces accountable for their actions.

>> SEE HOW THE PROTEST UNFOLDED LIVE

So the next time you scoff at another protest and tell our children that they should be in school, not marching for their future, take the opportunity to teach them about some of the brave people who came before them and shaped the course of history with their voices and their lives.

Teach them that the rights they have today, including the right to march, were fought for by those who joined together in all the movements, marches, protests and rallies that they have to learn about in Key Stage 3.

And there is no better way to learn than to experience what it feels like to be part of something big, something that they are passionate about, and something that is worth protesting about.

Remember the women's suffrage movement; Gandhi's salt march; the abolitionist movement; the anti-war movement; the storming of the Bastille; the Peasants’ Revolt; the civil rights movement; the Tolpuddle Martyrs; the miners' strike and the poll tax riots and so on.

In a democracy, the power lies with the people.

When multiple voices come together in opposition to something in the form of peaceful protest, powerful change can happen.

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