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 ago, when reflecting on the right balance of skills and knowledge for the 21st century, I mentioned two well-known books by Yuval Noah Harari as essential reading for teachers and students. This year I recommend his most recent work: ‘21 lessons for the 21st century’.

He writes, in the chapter on education: ‘the best advice I could give a fifteen-year-old stuck in an out-dated school somewhere in Mexico, India or Alabama is: don’t rely on the adults too much. Most of them mean well, but they just don’t understand the world.’ In response, as educators, we must commit more than ever to ensuring that our continuing professional development keeps our subject specialist knowledge, teaching skills and world-view contemporary and innovative.

Harari continues: ‘So on what can you rely instead? Perhaps technology? That’s an even riskier gamble. Technology can help … but if it gains too much power over your life … you might increasingly find yourself serving it instead of it serving you.’ So – in the world of advancing AI and the algorithms that are watching all of us – where we go, what we buy, who we meet, monitoring our steps, breaths and heartbeats – we must ensure our students learn to understand not only what is appears on the screen but also the workings going on behind it, thus not only preparing our students for a digital future but helping them to shape it.

Yet in this time of technological acceleration, we must always remember that educators are still the best apps. Our students will continue to rely on us as authoritative repositories of knowledge, as stable and encouraging mentors, transmitting to them the excitement of learning and assisting with their personal development. Aristotle once wrote that children are naturally grateful to their parents for giving them life and should be still more grateful to their teachers for giving them the ‘good life’. That good life included ethics, character development, positive engagement with the community and understanding of others’ viewpoints; all of which contributes to ‘flourishing’ as a human being – which Aristotle called eudaimonia.

That word has made a welcome return to recent educational discourse: in the teaching of resilience through mindfulness, to assist the young to face current examination and societal pressures – and, I suggest, to give them the mental and psychological strength for a future life where they will need continuously to re-invent themselves; in encouraging them to play their part in the community – schools are among the last communities in an increasingly fragmented world, so that contribution is doubly precious; and in the importance of intercultural understanding – that flows naturally from the best international education … the growing recognition of what it means to educate the whole person fully to flourish is a very positive trend.

Yet in his latest book ‘How the world thinks’, Julian Baggini rightly reminds us that we should now extend our philosophical reach beyond the western tradition to which Aristotle belonged. So if we are to educate the young to understand themselves by understanding others, to become tomorrow’s global citizens and tackle – together – the big issues that face us all, a philosophy-based course of global citizenship is the next imperative in learning to be truly and universally human.

For more information about Inspired, visit www.inspirededu.com

This article first appeared in the 2019/20 edition of John Catt's Guide to International Schools. You can read the digital version of the guidebook here: