At precisely 11am today, thousands of children from schools in more than 60 towns and cities across Britain will get up from their desks, pick up their bags and march out of their classrooms.
Not because they're bored, or playing truant, or want an early start to half-term or even just fancy a breather from fractions and French lessons.
No, these kids, many as young as nine, will be taking part in a mass protest over climate change — a warm-up for a global school strike on March 15.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg attend a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
A good number of them have been inspired by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old pig-tailed Swedish schoolgirl who has been obsessively researching climate change for seven years and who, since last summer, has been skipping school every Friday to sit on the steps of the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, with a home-made sign that reads 'Skolstrejk för Klimatet' (School strike for the climate).
She grows her own vegetables, refuses air travel and luxury hotels — even if the only option is a 32-hour train journey and a tent — and with her round face and simple clothes, looks even younger than she is.
Greta also struck the fear of God into attendees at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland in December 2018, accusing them of leaving the burden of climate change with future generations.
'I don't want your hope. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day,' she told them firmly in her clear, calm, barely accented English.
She gave business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month both barrels, too — 'our house is on fire!' she said, and looked IMF Chairwoman Christine Lagarde very hard in the eye as they shook hands.
How brilliant! Regardless of what you think about climate change, for once we have a proper role model who practises what she preaches with dedication and courage.
And, of course, had every child that's going 'on strike' today, as part of the so-called 'Fridays for Future' movement, been inspired and mobilised by Greta, then teachers, heads, parents and politicians alike would probably be more relaxed about them bunking off school to join her protest.
But sadly, Greta's campaign has been hijacked by a band of opportunistic militant anti-Tory career activists who are co-ordinating the walkouts and drumming up support among children on social media in an effort to further their own hard-line agenda, not just on green issues, but also promoting civil disobedience.
Greta Thunberg was born on 3 January 2003. Her mother is Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman and her father is actor Svante Thunberg, - here with her sister Beata. She is pictured with her other family members
They include in their hoary ranks Roger Hallam, 52, founder of Extinction Rebellion, whose roadblocks bought parts of London to a standstill in November; Janine O'Keeffe, an academic who specialises in 'empowerment struggles'; Jake Woodier, a former vegan cafe owner; and Robert Possnett, a 57-year-old ex-paratrooper and fanatical Remainer.
Little wonder Education Secretary Damian Hinds said yesterday that skipping school 'won't do a thing to help the environment', while teaching leaders say parents will face £60 fines if their children walk out.
So what inspired the girl who's sparked such a remarkable situation?
When Greta was 11, she became depressed and stopped talking and eating.
In December, she described herself as having been 'diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, OCD and selective mutism — 'I only speak when I have something important to say' — and insists her autism helps her concentrate. 'I see the world a bit differently, from another perspective… I can do the same thing for hours.' She comes from an eminent family.
Her mother is the beautiful blonde Swedish opera singer Malena Ernman who was the country's entry in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
Her father is actor Svante Thunberg, who was named after a distant relative, Svante Arrhenius, the Nobel-prize-winning scientist who in 1896 first calculated the greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide emissions.
(While much of his work has stood the test of time, he did predict that it would take another 2,000 years for us to reach today's levels of warming.)
Greta's own crusade began when she was nine years old and learned
