Reboot the Future’s initial conception came about during the Paris COP, at a time when our founders were inspired by ‘Laudato Si’, the famous encyclical from Pope Francis which established the sacral view of humanity’s relationship to nature- and our responsibility to live in service to the natural world as part of a divine prescription, rather than seeing nature as part of man’s dominion.
In 2015, the same year the PA was adopted, the United Nations also adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to replace the Millennium Development Goals. The SDGs are 17 aspirational goals and 169 associated targets. The SDGs are also meant to be achieved by 2030. In other words, both the PA and SDGs were adopted in 2015, and the targets and obligations were to be achieved by 2030.
Since 2015, the political and material fabric of the world has changed substantially. Despite best efforts, consumption of fossil fuels remains higher than ever. Brexit, Trump, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are among the many significant vectors of change in this period.
Reboot was founded on the conviction that, more than just technical or data-led fixes, the climate crisis was one of culture- that is, values, leadership and, yes, education.
When Reboot threw its birthday celebration late last year, we took a moment to reflect on the changing circumstances of the world around us. Reboot acquired the Global Dimension platform in what now feels like a very different world.
What we now call EdTech was in its infancy; Greta and the Fridays for the Future movement not yet started; and the global development community was recovering from Copenhagen and gathering muster for Paris. GD was forged, if not exactly in a time of optimism, then at least in a period when the language of climate activism was growing richer, gaining traction across the board. Despite the best efforts of the burgeoning ESG actors, all the arrows now seem to be pointing in the wrong direction.
Which brings us back to Reboot.
While the provision of a library of teaching resources for sustainability remains unequivocally a Good Thing, the teaching community has changed, and the pressures on young people, and the kind of world we are asking them to enter have exponentially increased.
Working with universities and young people in lockdown, we saw that the burgeoning crisis of mental health in young people is in part a justifiably rational response to the ‘no future’ of climate catastrophe. Recognising this, we want to bring students back in from the school gates and into the classroom- the one true laboratory where we can co-create a sustainable future.
Since Reboot took over Global Dimension, we have increasingly concentrated our campaigning efforts on catalysing this teacher and student community, giving them voice through successive, ‘Golden Rule’ inspired campaigns.
With ‘Rise Up’ we took Jonathan Porritt’s original text and commissioned films and a social media campaign alongside our classroom resources, giving student voice in the run-up to the Glasgow COP.
‘We Are Antarctica’ similarly took the inspiration of Jack Harries’ trip to the Antarctic and brought the golden rule to classrooms in 130 countries around the world, to our 18500 teachers, and to EarthRise’s 4m online follower.
When we commissioned the Rebooting Education report last year, we saw that the teaching community wanted to inspire their classrooms and prepare students for an uncertain future. The keyword here is ‘agency’- for both teacher and learner.
BITD, adding a ‘global dimension’ to ones lesson plan might have seemed like adding value. Today, we have a more holistic understanding of the interconnectedness of the kinds of decisions we make. And that we are all of us active participants of the kind of world we seek to foster.
For this reason, we are refreshing our brand and moving bringing our education work closer to the home brand as “Reboot Education”.
The change recognises the demands of teachers to be an active, engaged community, rather than a passive consumer, even of classroom resources.
This brings Reboot Education into line with our other workstreams - Reboot Leadership and Reboot Campaigns.
Moreover, it reflects an increasingly dynamic relationship with and between the teaching community.
Later this month, we will be launch our new campaign, PACTS- Politicians Accountable for Climate to Students.
It’s about reflecting the incipient power that every teacher holds to make lasting ripples of change for the future. It speaks to the times that we are in, when all of us, whether we admit it or not, are balancing fears of wellbeing, security and the future- children more than any others. 2024 is the greatest year ever for democratic participation in global history, with the biggest and most decisive campaign yet to be won.
We want teachers' voices to be more than represented in this- we want them to lead. Reboot Education is more than titular, more a call to arms.
By Anthony Bennett
