The next climate change that we are not talking about: youth part of the problem or part of the solution
“Young activists today are the drivers of movements for justice, rights, the environment, and an end to discrimination – just as every strong movement for human rights and solidarity in history has been spearheaded by the young” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein UN Human Rights Chief
In 2012 TED published their list of the most watched talks and Ken Robinson was number one, with a talk he gave back in 2006. It was still number one in 2013 with over 13.5 million viewers. (It’s still top of the list in 2017)
Why was it so popular? Because it resonated with what many of us felt about the redundant nature of an educational system built on the industrial revolution. But here is my question…when so many people in the world agreed that there is a problem in education, why has so little happened to change the system?
Climate change had a similar problem. People were agreeing with the data but things weren’t changing.
We have a new climate change type problem right in front of us. Some people have talked about it. Some have even done some hand-wringing over it, but little seems to be happening to change the game….and it, like climate change, is a ticking bomb.
The issue is the rise in the youth population of the world. Some random stats:
The world population today is 7.5 billion people. In 2030 (13 years away it will be 8.5bn) and in 2050 (33 years away) it will be 9.7 billion.
In Africa children under 15’s account for 41% of the population. Children 15 -19 years old add a further 19%. That makes 60% of the African population under 19 years old
In India 28% are 10 -24 years old
89% of the world’s youth live in the world’s poorest countries.
The global opportunity
Now, from one perspective this is an amazing opportunity for the planet. If there are over 1.8 billion young people aged between 10 -24 years old and these youth of today are the inheritors of global issues from climate change to mass youth unemployment, then the opportunity for the world’s youth is to be part of adding to the world’s solutions, rather than its problems. A young person’s brain is hard wired to want a meaningful, impactful life and so the young mind has a field of dreams ahead of it in this world. The young mind is hungry for the investment of adults who can see and call out to their potential.
The problem – an unproductive youth
But there is a big flip side.
If a young persons brain isn’t invested in, it turns naturally to answer this need in destructive ways.
What happens when we don't invest in the next generation from the earliest years?
Intergenerational cycles of hopelessness
Unfulfilled potential
Frustration and conflict
Radicalisation
Caught in self and community defeating cycles of behaviour
An economic cost to the community
Adding to community insecurity
Increasing the fragility of lives and communities –health, education, environment, sanitation
Continued gender inequality and gender based violence
Perpetuating Human Rights abuses
If we ever wanted an image of what this danger looks like, then just glance at photos of educated South African youths destroying their own education apparatus to make their (often legitimate) frustrations heard. Once the rage has subsided there wasn't a class to go to the next day, or in places like Grabouw there wasn’t a health centre there the next day to collect your Anti Retroviral’s from. Classrooms and clinics had been ransacked and burned.
The solution - a productive youth?
But lets turn the ‘problem’ back the right way up. What is an active, productive youth citizen?
They have self esteem
They are empathic
They are a contributor to family and the local economy (net giver, not taker)
They contribute to community security
They have an empathic heart and character
They are empowered and equipped to write the story of their potential
They contribute to human rights for all
They contribute to the health of themselves and others
They are learning and they are facilitating the learning of others
They know how to think critically
They contribute to a healthy and sustainable environment
They are creative, problem solving, entrepreneurial, courageous and resilient people
All the things that we need to face the challenges of the next 50, 100, 200 years.
Youth – the key to the future
In the past, present and future the youth have been and will be the key to change.
“Young activists today are the drivers of movements for justice, rights, the environment, and an end to discrimination – just as every strong movement for human rights and solidarity in history has been spearheaded by the young” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein UN Human Rights Chief
This is not just about investing in youth; it’s about seeing youth as the centre of the solutions.
I don't need to rehearse the issues facing the planet in the next 50, 100, 200 years, what we do need to face up to is what the population of the world will look like in 50, 100, 200 years from now to deal with these issues.
It is no longer an issue of “we need to change the education model because its outdated or boring etc”….we need to change it because the world cannot afford not to change it.
It’s a climate change type issue. It is the burning platform. It is a seismic issue that can bring the future to its knees.
So what are Emerging Leaders (www.emerging-leaders.net) going to do about it? As we’ve trained countless youth in the challenged communities of Sub Saharan Africa, this is what we conclude.
Change the goal
The goal of the current education system is based on a belief that the currency a young person needs to access the global market of adult life is…….exams. This is the explicit and explicit message we give to all school children. Even attempts to add little extra curricula courses on life skills, PHSE etc are just that –add on’s. Add on’s to a system that has a fundamental belief in one core currency – exams.
A better system will not come about by incremental tinkering with the existing system, because the existing system is based on a flawed currency.
The currency the world is dealing in now (as opposed to 200 years ago) is that every young person needs to hit 18 years old knowing how to lead their life. (They have self esteem, are empathic, are a contributor to family and the local economy -net giver not taker…..see the list above)
STOP!!!!!! Let us stop believing that if we do nothing, everything will just turn out all right. If you do nothing to invest a different goal in the lives of 1.8bn youth then they will learn the default story that their parents learned and their teachers learned and their leaders learned – a story that was based on a totally outdated goal. If we don't challenge the very system we grew up in, we will simply repeat it, albeit in slightly modernized ways, but it’s still a repetition
Create a working model
People like Al Gore wore themselves out telling the world about climate change until eventually some people started to do some things differently and ‘whacky climate change evangelists’ suddenly became the ultra cool Elon Musks of this world. Climate change was now seen as real; and so were the solutions. Electric cars, solar paneled roof tiles, zero waste to land fill, sustainable energy sources……
We need models of a different system and I mean a different system where teachers at Teachers Training Colleges around the world are taught to lead their own lives[1], then taught how to teach children how to lead their own lives, not just once but each year so it creates mindsets that are already laid down like railway tracks by the time they leave school. The kids parents are taught how to lead their lives and the teachers and parents are taught how to make daily connections in the school of life, between what is happening in any given situation and the life leadership lessons within it. There is clever use of technology to ensure access and quality of for all teachers and in the most challenged communities.
Governments change the goal to create the framework…that what government is for - to create a guarded space for people to prosper.
A model where every single child between 8 to 18 knows how to lead their life. Not the few. Every child. It's the norm. Why wouldn't it be the norm when this is what the world requires of every young person?
This will be the new currency. Every child leaves school knowing how to lead their life and the old currency of exams will still hold good, but within this new goal, not the king of it. But there will be other currencies like vocational skills and talents and entrepreneurs – that the ‘market’ of life will require in abundance.
And just like Musk created Tesla, not to supply the whole world with electric cars[2], but to demonstrate a scaled working model, so that the whole world could see that every one having an electric car wasn't only possible but desirable.
Lets get building.
In the next blog I will address in more detail what actually needs to happen in the new model.
trevor@emerging-leaders.net
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/01_education_technology_shearer.pdf
The Power of 1.8bn UNPFA 2014
[1] Pedagogy of the Oppressed Paulo Friere Penguin 2017 ed
[2] The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why - Tim Urban - Kindle Edition