Education: The Spark that Lights the Way
On this International Day of Education, we celebrate the precious human activity of sharing knowledge. The spark of idea and thought that is nurtured and passed through families and communities across countless generations. This powerful tool has enabled humanity to accomplish feats that, at one time, seemed impossible. Today, we need to draw upon our creativity and ingenuity to direct the force of education towards building peace and advancing sustainable development — what for some may also seem impossible.
Education is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For us to address humanity’s greatest challenges and fully live up to our great potential, we must ensure that inclusive and equitable education options are available for all. It is only through the comprehensive dispersal of knowledge that we will be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve the ever-elusive peace and prosperity for all.
But to truly benefit from a global ripple of education, we need a new mindset and a better approach. We need to understand the interconnection among people and Planet, at the ecological level. We can’t just teach with a business as usual model, because the world has changed. We will not be able to solve the challenges of the future, including the sustainable development goals, by relying on the thinking of the past.
NURTURING THE CLASS OF NEW CONSCIOUS LEADERS: THE POWER OF EDUCATION
Being a Latin word, the etymology of education is often attributed to “educere”, meaning to lead forth, to raise up. Teachers are often expected to show their students where to go and how. But the word education can also originate from the term “edere”, meaning eating, nurturing. And this is precisely the sense that Professor Matteo Vignoli and I are more close to: far more than leading someone somewhere, education should at first nurture people, mentally, emotionally, creatively. It should serve to feed somebody’s thoughts.
For the third International Day of Education, celebrated today, the 24th January, UNESCO selected the topic — Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation.
EMERGING FROM A LEARNING CATASTROPHE
Recovery Education is an essential duty and necessity given the global and long-lasting learning disruption caused by the pandemic. “The closure of schools, universities and other learning institutions, as well as the interruption of many literacies and lifelong learning programs, has affected the lives of 1.6 billion students in over 190 countries” stated a UNESCO report.
Suddenly leveled out on the same page, the entire world is victim to the side effects of a global pandemic that has not only pushed the international community to the edge of a “learning catastrophe”, as warned by the UN Secretary-General, but has also inflicted widespread social, economic, digital, and emotional wounds.
The increasing emergence of a “digital underclass,” as stressed by the Global Risk Report 2021, is intensified by the projection of over 2 million children leaving school in 2030. In America, the divide between the rich and poor has been increasing, generating dangerous side effects for children in terms of learning performance, as The Economist reveals, while the numbers of Not-in-Education-Employment-and-Training (NEET) are skyrocketing.
According to the Office for National Statistics, there are 757,000 people, between the ages of 16 and 24, who are not in education, employment or training in the UK. This is a shocking statistic if we consider that the amount of NEET people between September-December 2020 reached 11% of the age group, compared to 2019 data, with barely 1% for the same timeframe. This data is further exacerbated by the increase in suicides, that in Japan alone, for example, hit 49% of children and adolescents.
Within this delicate matrix, the implementation of SDG 4, striving for inclusive and equitable quality education and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all is still far from being accomplished.
Yet, investing in and improving education has incredible effects not only on social and territorial regeneration but also in economic terms. Studies show that enabling adolescent girls to complete secondary education in emerging economies contributes 10% GDP growth.
IMPLEMENTING THE SEEDS OF CHANGE
How can we use this moment to reset our education system in a way that values personal and global wellbeing as one? Which values can and should schools teach to nurture students for life?
These are questions we need to answer to shape a new, better future; to bring the most vulnerable back to school; to mitigate learning losses; to build a more resilient, inclusive, flexible, and sustainable education system. In simple terms, to forge a new mindset.
Training the leaders of tomorrow means helping them to see and decode today’s complexities; it means restarting from universal human values that promote the close interconnectedness of the whole; it means putting the emphasis back on essential needs: training in collaboration, trust, reciprocity, and respect in order to co-design, learn from and with others, and be inspired by the supreme wisdom of Mother Earth. These are the seeds of change needed if we are to lead our society in a direction of prosperity and integral ecology.
Rethinking the why and the what is therefore pivotal to implement both a systemic approach and long-term vision given that, from this year, we have less than 10 years ahead to make it happen.
We can fight climate change and heal our Planet through education. We need conscious citizens, aware consumers, ethical eaters, and critical thinkers (just as reliable, responsible, and transparent producers) able to use creativity, to build bridges of dialogue, to overstep the geographical and competence boundaries to speak one common language. This means for me being able to embrace the beauty, the colors, and the complexity of life.
“What is important is to initiate processes of encounter, processes that can build a people capable of gathering on differences,” wrote Pope Francis in his Encyclical Fratelli Tutti.
For this exact reason, to embrace diversity, to value casual collisions, and to promote multi-generational, multicultural, and glo-cal dialogues, Future Food Institute multiplies its efforts in 2021 to form new generations of game changers: our Food and Climate Shapers.
Three more incoming editions of Digital Boot Camps that the Future Food Academy organizes with FAO (March 5th — April 11th; June 25th — July 25th; November 5th — December 5th) are going to intersect with in-person Boot Camps: one in Marettimo (Sicily — July 13th — 19th) and one in Pollica (Cilento — September 6th-12th).
All these experiences are grounded on the same ingredients: spreading the power of knowledge, favoring direct conversations with experts and peer-to-peer debates, discovering the social, territorial, and economic realities by sharing stories from the local actors, sharing moments for reflection, real-life experiences (digitally or physically), and action time based on prosperity thinking.
“The Boot Camp is a convivium.” Lauren Greco — Food & Climate Shaper
Within this context, the Mediterranean Campus also came into being: a long-term project aimed at spreading seeds of knowledge starting from the millenary cultural roots at the basis of our identity: the Mediterranean Diet. From here, and by learning the impacts that food systems can have on our Planet and human health, it is possible to favor the rediscovery of a national heritage, while transforming it into a strategic lever for the restart of the country.
NEW LEADERSHIP OR OLD WISDOM?
“The world is not suffering from a lack of intelligence or leadership, it is suffering greatly from a lack of wisdom.” — Robert J. Stanberg
In order to face the challenges of our time, we have to drastically rethink the whole system, starting from its fundamentals.We cannot delay the harmony between Planet, People, and Prosperity, just as we cannot separate financial growth from environmental and social regeneration. Leaders are pushed to become more transparent, responsible, reliable, and trustworthy, and this is possible only if they start to think and act “beyond their ego” and personal interests, as John Knights stresses.
Transpersonality and thoughtfulness are more and more associated with the qualities of good leaders, those who listen, who consider not only their stakeholders, who ensure psychological safety, and pursue a new model of business: the Economy of Care.
Are those new discoveries? Or are we simply restoring ancient truths?
If we look back at the grounds of the Mediterranean Diet and at the precious heritage of learning we have inherited from the past, it is possible to find an answer. The Mediterranean way of living, as intended since its beginning, is based on the perfect balance between the natural environment, human health, landscape, and society as a whole. Not surprisingly, Parmenide was both a philosopher and a physician, while the Eleatic School, first medical school in Italy, was based on the assumption of the unity of the being.
After all, wisdom is considered as the art of achieving a common good by finding a balance and equilibrium between different interests and timeframes. In contrast, modernity seems to have erased within us the basis of well-being.
Education should also be in charge of guiding us home and helping us re-discover this ancient, inner wisdom.
The Future Food Institute is an international social enterprise that believes climate change is at the end of your fork. By harnessing the power of its global ecosystem of partners, innovators, researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs, FFI aims to sustainably improve life on Earth through transformation of global food systems.
By training the next generation of changemakers, empowering communities, and engaging government and industry in actionable innovation, FFI catalyzes progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Learn more at www.futurefoodinsitute.org, join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Or attend a program through the FutureFood.Academy!
