The Long Now of Education – Denver 02024
Our 02024 gathering challenged participants to untether their thinking from the constraints of the present.
We imagined learning 10,000 years into the future. Rather than predictions, we explored possibilities that transcended conventional thinking about education. The strength of the gathering emerged from provocative questions like:
• What will happen when capitalism no longer guides us?
• What course should be mandatory today to have a 10,000-year impact?
• What would learning, teaching, leading look/feel/sound/be like if ‘school’ were optional?
Signals + Design
Participants identified signals of change already emerging around us as indicators for possible futures. Our time together revealed a new insight: reimagining education in the distant future requires us to hold true the belief that education must be human-centered at its core and in its implementation. And, amid the many changes humankind will face, we discovered constants that will likely persist: the deep value of relationships, nature as a surrounding force, curiosity and creativity, and the unknown itself.
Wayfinding
The 02024 DENVER gathering helped us recognize that education’s future is not about certainty but navigation. What emerged was not a definitive vision, but our deepened understanding that to find our way through whatever comes next, we must balance the immediate need for significant improvement with a commitment to envisioning a more emergent human future in education.
Since June 02024, we have continued to explore the ideas and directions sparked by our initial gathering. We have defined some values to ground our ongoing work, ensuring we remain true to purpose and practice; set a foundation for our next gathering that recognizes the power of storytelling to help envision NEW shared futures; and committed to working to build better learning experiences for future generations by working in adaptive, innovative contexts.