Listening to the future: Why our children deserve more

Written by: Diya Kanoria

I sat down alone, and I cried. I had done it. I couldn’t believe I had pulled it off. All the “business people” I spoke to all told me not to do it. They all thought I was mad. Get into teacher training and ed-tech they said.  “That makes more business sense.” “You are such a good teacher, why would you leave the classroom.”   

They all lacked vision. They could not imagine that an interdisciplinary summer program rooted in values, with multiple changemakers and workshops to inspire teenagers across countries was possible. Not when they had to think about college applications and building a resume! 

My skin was tingling, my hands were shaking and my body was filled with adrenaline…I had just experienced the biggest high of my life.  

Hello! I am Diya Kanoria. I was just a regular international school teacher, but with a vision that we as educators, that our society, needs to do more to prepare our children for their futures. Futures riddled with uncertainty, conflict, inequity and wicked problems like climate change. So 3 years ago, I left the classroom, and decided to work on the future of education without the constraints of the school system and I was going to do this through the Gaia Changemakers Program.  

I know the program would not have happened without me and my dogged vision to bring it to life. Neither would it have happened without the team that came together -and what a team! A motley crew strung together with our dire financial situation. Everyone volunteering either 100% or partially, no office in which to gather together, a team scattered around the world – Zurich, Lausanne, New York and Greece – but we did it!

Three intense weeks, 24/7 with some incredible 20 or more experts and collaborators in a delicately woven web of experiences, learning and love. We had 8 participants from 7 different countries coming to us. We had to make it come to life. To say the days were long is an understatement. I missed my family, I had to be away from them for this, but they supported me, and waited for me. I knew they missed me too.

I asked myself several times why I was doing this, and I will tell you why. The Gaia Changemakers Program is why I started my organisation – Make The Change Education.

It was not the original name we planned, but “Make The Change” is the phrase that kept coming up. We need to offer our kids more than just a grade scale on which to measure their impact and success, we need to offer them a toolkit, and create a community for them to deal with the way the world is right now. It is not only that the future is in their hands, they need our help and support to navigate this crazy world, to make sense of it, and to find their own place.

So now I hand over this article to their voice, not mine, for you to understand why. 

Dear Moms and Dads,  

Listen. Listen to how your kids are feeling. These are direct quotes from participants of our Gaia Programs this summer (ages 14-19): 

“I feel sad about the terrible news. A lot of families and children (I feel extremely sad for children, who are younger than me) died and lost their homes because of starving, dying of thirst, earthquakes, hot weather or other natural catastrophes. How unfair life is, isn’t it?” 

“I feel empty like an empty bowl when I see these terrible images of wildfires, bushfires, other natural catastrophes or war. I feel so sad for the people and animals, that I don´t know what to say.”  

“I’m scared, that animals will die out, for example water animals. It´s not the fault of their own that they will die out. It´s the humans. The humans killed the animals. How sad.” 

Knowing these are the anxieties that teenagers from international schools are feeling, made it all worthwhile. What do we want to teach your kids about success? What do we want for them and what do they want for themselves? Do we push them into the rat race, suppressing their worries about the future, or do we help them step into the world curious, confident, and clear that change is possible? 

This is why a holistic changemaker attitude towards life matters. A friend once told me he had asked ChatGPT whether eating organic food made any real difference. The answer he got was that it didn’t matter much to his direct health. This is where we are so disconnected as a society. The health of the soil we grow our food in impacts our own health. The way ecosystems thrive or collapse determines the way we live, but we don’t use Systems Thinking to think about the world. 

A just and sustainable future isn’t just about facts, recycling, or turning bottle caps into cups (though we did that too, and it was fun!). It’s about understanding ourselves, our behaviour, and the systems we are part of. It’s about asking: Why do we act as we do? How can we inspire others? How do we design for resilience, equity, and flourishing? 

That’s the approach we brought to the mini-Gaia changemaker program we did for Zurich International School on the theme of Sustainable Design. Students explored sustainability as a way of thinking from multiple dimensions of nature, economy and society. We introduced them to frameworks from thought leaders like Joanna Macy’s ‘Work That Reconnects’ and to the principles of ‘Permaculture Design’ rooted in the wisdom of natural ecosystems and applied to practical design solutions.  

Change is certainly coming. 

Forward thinking schools like Spring Academy, recognise that one model of education does not fit all, Spring Academy is a new inclusive school for Neurodivergent children in Zurich. Founders Gustaf and Virginia were inspired after their own son attended a our Sustainability Mindset with Design Thinking (SMDT) Camp for primary school children, and invited us to design their science curriculum – a Regenerative Systems Science course that uses the Head, Heart, Hands approach: connecting rigorous scientific inquiry with design thinking, creativity, and empathy. The children at Spring Academy are not only learning about the world, but also how to question it, reimagine it, and contribute to it in their own way. 

However at the end of the day, it is the children’s voices that matter most, you read how they felt before, and this is how they felt after:

“This camp taught me to believe in my ideas. No matter how small. It made me feel like there is hope.”

“I’d like to continue the friendships to create a productive feedback loop between one another to keep the drive and passion going that was sparked by the camp.”

“I feel ready to start my own project back home. I know if I take action, change will start.”

“Listening to music on the glacier, the hike up the glacier, learning about water management, nuclear energy, and more -it made me realise I want to spend less time on my phone and more time outside in the real world.”

“I was really inspired. I would like to keep the knowledge in my mind as long as possible. So, I will still remember the information, when I’ll be an adult.”

Their words are why I do this. Our children need spaces where they can feel inspired, supported, and believed in. They need opportunities to see that they are not powerless, that their ideas matter, and that even small actions can ripple outward to create big change. We know that how we use our summers can have a profound impact on how we perceive the world, what we do and how we feel.

That is why the Gaia Changemakers Program exists.