My point is that people can and definitely did try to discredit them by pointing out how ignorant they were about this or that when everyone knew well and good what the problem was and that not enough was being done to address it. It is not necessarily the job of a protest to set a specific technical agenda.

No these kids don't need to know those things. I know that because hundreds of thousand of people just marched and made the news, and we're taking them seriously. And that's the point. a) something needs to change, b) things are not changing enough, c) people march about it. If you care about the movement and want to help them become even more effective than that's great. But you and I both know what these protests are about. Pretending that this is not the case and setting technical standards by which we "decide" how seriously to take them does nothing but distract.