2023-10-03 19:20:14
Environmental problems regularly make young people depressed or fatalistic. Education can do something regarding this, thinks the Leren voor Morgen cooperative.
Climate depression and environmental melancholy are no longer empty buzzwords. For many young people, these are serious obstacles on the bumpy road to a happy life. At least that was evident from research by the Trimbos Institute in June. Students surprisingly often mentioned climate change as a stressor that hinders their happiness and study success. And that is partly why they often report mental problems.
It is a painful but recognizable conclusion, says Giuseppe van der Helm. He is general director of Leren voor Morgen, an organization that wants to ’embed sustainability in the DNA of education’. He sees it happening before his eyes: how pupils and students end up in a state of apathy or fatalism, simply because the social problems are so overwhelming. They hardly know where to start to prevent that crisis.
Education can also blame itself for this, he thinks. In recent decades, this has focused too much on tests and diplomas, and much less on the development of young people into involved and responsible citizens. “The ship has become tilted. My youngest child must be able to recognize a trapezium before he can go to group 3. Then I think: where did the fire go?”
Nobody wants to dangle at the bottom of the rankings
It can be done differently, as Learning for Tomorrow shows. The organization is at number 34 this year Fidelity Sustainable 100, the ranking for outstanding companies who are committed to sustainability ‘from the bottom up’. You might best describe Learning for Tomorrow as a cooperative, a gigantic spider web containing 180 educational institutions and related organizations that all strive for a sustainable world.
Together they try to change education in such a way that it contributes to a better world. So that pupils, students and their educational institutions now know what they can do to make a positive contribution.
“We sometimes forget that the future will look very different,” says Van der Helm. “People naturally find it difficult to deal with exponential changes. We only notice it when we stand with our feet in a puddle of water. But we don’t have that time anymore. This is regarding the survival of humanity.”
And when there is so much at stake, actions can be a bit grating. Take the SustainaBul. Since 2012, this ranking has been measuring how well (or poorly) Dutch colleges and universities perform in the field of sustainability. Learning for Tomorrow copied the initiative to secondary vocational education a few years ago, and this year secondary education will also follow.
Van der Helm saw with his own eyes what a difference such an apparently simple instrument can make. “The first year there was no MBO director to be seen at the award ceremony. But the following year the winners sat proudly in the front row to receive the prizes. And of course no one wants to dangle at the bottom. You then see that schools copy successful sustainability initiatives from each other. That is exactly our intention.”
In addition, the SustainaBul also serves indirectly as an incentive to the Ministry of Education. “We have shown that you can easily measure how sustainable an institution is. So why mightn’t the education inspectorate do that? Ultimately it should become a government task.”
Oilman for sustainable education
Learning for Tomorrow is not always the initiator of these types of actions, says Van der Helm modestly. His organization is primarily the spider in the web that brings together all 180 participating parties and initiatives and ‘ties them together with rubber bands’. Together, these parties then carry out concrete actions such as the SustainaBul in secondary vocational education.
On the morning of the interview with Fidelity Van der Helm talked to several dozen secondary vocational education teachers from all over the country. They did this at the Koning Willem I College in Den Bosch, a vocational institution that has been declared the most sustainable in the country several times.
How do you ensure that the subject is sufficiently covered in education? Should there be more electives, or should there be a continuous line throughout the curriculum? And what is the role of school boards, teachers and internship companies? There were few ready-made answers, but the enthusiasm was palpable in the room.
This is what he does almost every day, Van der Helm explains. His organization has become a kind of oil man for sustainable education. “We talk to school umbrella organizations, the ministry, teacher training colleges and countless other organizations. One sends you to the other, and the other sends you back to the one. And you continue with that until you can set something in motion. And the nice thing is: it works out in the end. I see it happening before my eyes.”
Antisocial economists
Another concrete example: the week of economics education. Traditionally, economics education was mainly focused on homo economicus, man as a rational thinking being, aiming for profit maximization. Many teachers now realize that this cool and calculating thinking does not exist at all: people also want to take care of their environment. Every year in November, economics teachers from all over the country come together to show how they incorporate these types of new insights into their lessons and lectures.
Learning for Tomorrow is co-organizer of the week. This year there will be lectures regarding this, among other things degrowth (an economy without growth), non-Western views on the economy and experiments where students learn regarding the importance of reciprocity. “If you now follow an economics course, you will come out less social than when you went in,” says Van der Helm. “That really needs to change.”
Not regarding young people, but with young people
What will education look like in regarding twenty years’ time, when sustainability will hopefully have taken a permanent place everywhere? Van der Helm doesn’t dare say it. The changes in the world are happening too quickly for that, and moreover, Learning for Tomorrow is primarily the facilitator. Ultimately, education must come up with concrete solutions itself.
He knows which components those solutions must contain. For example, the government should take a stronger role in reforming education. In addition, sustainable development must be given a place in every subject. The teacher must be given the space to complete his or her subject in his or her own way and to be closer to the student. And the school buildings themselves can also be much more sustainable.
Young people must be included in every step, says Van der Helm. Too often the conversation is regarding young people, but young people are not spoken to. Learning for Tomorrow sets a good example by reserving a permanent seat for a youth organization on the Supervisory Board.
Apostle of optimism
Van der Helm studied Theology in the distant past, he says at the end of the interview. Does his own religious beliefs still play a role in this whole story? It is the first time that he has stopped for a moment. He thinks as he thoughtfully taps a mandarin wedge on his plate.
“Maybe so,” he says. “I grew up in the sixties and seventies. At that time there was a sacred belief in progress in the church. We were taught to read between the lines. You had to live by the spirit rather than the letter of the Bible. It has made me an indestructible optimist. I still have the firm belief that everything will work out.”
As a modern-day apostle, he now seeks to spread that optimism among the younger generations. He repeats once once more: “We have set up a billing culture full of tests. While we need to teach our young people self-confidence and faith, the belief that they can make a difference themselves.”
The current education system offers knowledge and skills that are useful in society. But there is still no ideological vision, a way out of the fossil economy. And with it hope. Young people deserve more, says Van der Helm. “We now show them the building blocks, but not the cathedral.”
Jury verdict Aniek Moonen
‘In the transition to a climate-neutral society we have to learn to live differently, but how? Learning for Tomorrow facilitates the learning process for young and old and thus directs us towards integrated solutions and a new view of the world and the people around us.’
The green ranking in steps
Trouw presents: the fifteenth Sustainable 100. Today numbers 26 to 40, of which number 34, Learning for Tomorrow, is described in detail on these pages. Numbers 41 to 100 were previously in the newspaper and can be found on Trouw.nl.
The highest 25 songs will be announced on Thursday, October 5 at 8:15 PM in Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam. The trophy will also be presented to the winner there. The next day, on October 6, a special supplement will appear in this newspaper and online where the entire ranking will be published.
Also read:
Dossier: everything regarding the Sustainable 100
Who tops the list of sustainable citizen initiatives this year? Follow everything regarding the Sustainable 100 of 2023 here.
Pressure to perform during studies is killing young people, research shows
Many students feel overwhelmed by high demands, expectations and responsibilities, reports the Trimbos Institute.
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