REHEARSING THE FUTURE

In a posthumous blog, Rehearsing the Future, H B Gelatt said, "The future hasn’t happened and never will. Once it arrives, it becomes the present and then the past. However, I believe it is possible to say that your image of your future, before it happens, is a very important factor in determining what it will be when it happens. What you do now makes a difference in your future. Doing nothing also makes a difference. What you do and don’t do counts, and depends on your beliefs."

Collaborative, project-based learning focused on real-world issues that need solving is doing something meaningful now. It builds students' awareness of global problems and sense of personal agency, while helping them develop increasing social-emotional competency. It teaches them to reach consensus collaboratively and respectfully with those with different strengths and perspectives. It allows them to discover issues they are passionate about and want to make a difference, now and in the future. It helps students bring into focus their image of their future, which further influences their actions in the present.

The heliotropic effect is the tendency of all living systems to move toward life-giving energy and away from that which endangers life. It's why a plant on a windowsill tilts toward the sun, and sunflowers follow the sun from east to west daily. People who imagine a bright future tend to do things to move closer to that future and avoid doing what impedes their vision.

World-class skiers visualize every turn and jump ahead at the start line, even leaning into imagined turns. Large and small organizations plan scenarios and contingencies and rehearse before critical events, and sports teams prepare and rehearse game plans. Young lovers, with beating hearts, imagine a first kiss. They are all rehearsing the future.

Public education should be a rehearsal for real life. The learning themes should be collaborative, project-based, multi-disciplinary, experiential learning projects focused on pressing, real-world issues affecting individuals, families, communities, countries, and the world. The only comprehensive framework of such matters, developed by 193 countries in collaboration, is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This framework can spawn infinite project possibilities for students of any age that align with how they imagine themselves contributing to a better world.