Securing a better future for us all – how we can best support the young on the fast track to becoming the global citizens of tomorrow Dr Stephen Spurr, Group Education Director of Inspired, is optimistic about the beneficial impact of the best in international education I am writing this on the 75th anniversary of D-Day as world leaders assemble on the Normandy beaches. This is surely their moment to step back from parochial politics, to prove they are world statesmen and renew a commitment to international alliance. That international alliance which brought about the end of the Second World War and the still greater international alliance now necessary to address the global threats to human civilisation as a whole. But are they up to it? Can they stem increasing nationalism and populism? If so, they might begin to restore belief among the young. For just as today we remember with gratitude the huge debt owed to those who sacrificed their lives 75 years ago – so many of whom were 19 year-olds, the age of today’s school-leavers – we now see the young again leading the way in the battle to halt climate change, striving in their turn for a securer world order and future. Inspired by 15 year-old Greta Thunberg who, in refusing to attend classes until Swedish politicians took action to slow global warming, just a fortnight ago on 24 May over 1,000,000 school students in more than 110 countries staged strikes: a truly remarkable level of international alliance. Think too of Cameron Kasky who mobilised fellow high school students throughout America with #NeverAgain: kids push for gun control. ‘The adults know we are clearing up their mess’, he says;
while a fellow student adds ‘it’s as if they are saying we made this mess while continuing to spill soda on the floor’. So we must redouble our efforts as international educators. What better and more optimistic signal do we require that the current generation is internationally engaged, has learned the power of independent critical-thought, takes seriously their social responsibility and demonstrates an entrepreneurial determination to make the world a better place? Our duty now as ever is to support them as they fast-track into becoming committed global citizens and future world leaders. Are we up to it? And if so, how best to do so? In Inspired schools we define an educator ‘as a current leader who is in the business of developing future leaders’. For that surely is the essence and aim of the teaching profession. And so it is not too much to say that teaching creates all other professions – whatever the jobs – still to be invented – that our students will take up, evolve and re-invent in a world where the only certainty is change. At a time when education has never been more important, it is disappointing to see that the number of teachers is declining globally. We must do everything we can to reverse that trend by re-asserting the dignity of the profession among ourselves and convincing others also that to teach today is to create tomorrow’s leaders. In my introductory editorial to this excellent and authoritative guide to international education two years
In this time of technological acceleration, we must always remember that educators are still the best apps.
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