BEYOND GRETA

Today’s kids can do much more

By Marc Prensky

HOORAY FOR GRETA THUNBERG!

What she did in 2019 was really helpful — and now is the time for all our newly-empowered kids to do more. With their new technology, and new-found “WE CAN” attitude, today kids around the world are capable of going much, much, farther— they just haven’t fully realized it yet, and haven’t yet truly arisen.

Passionate speeches and one-day strikes, as moving and attention-getting as as they may be, by themselves change nothing. Why did the kids return to school after their one-day walkout? Why aren’t thousands or even millions of kids camped out outside UN headquarters? Or outside the European Union headquarters?

Why aren’t kids already breaking into coordinated international teams to take action on hundreds of fronts — -each team coached and mentored by an adult who has been pushing forever for action on climate change?

We know kids can do this kind of work — scores of real-world accomplishments by kids of all ages are documented online at BTWdatabase.org and elsewhere. The kids just need to take it to a worldwide scale. They already have the tools.

The number of adults working full-time on stopping climate change is relatively small, yet the world has roughly 2 billion kids. It is only when the world’s kids begin to realize the power they now collectively have, and begin to understand that they can throw off the adults’ shackles and start doing powerful things on their own, that things will begin to change.

Marc Prensky is the Founder of the Global Future Education Foundation. Contact him at marcprensky@gmail.com