Kids Of The Future Talk About The World Of The Future

 

 

The Future according to kids: Excerpts of quotations from various students across the globe regarding their views about the future of the world.

What sort of images do you get after reading these statements?

11 kids of the future who are from a school in Australia speak about their view of our world and the future of kids:

As commented by a seventeen year old male student from a government high school about kids world in the future:

* Without definite action, nothing will really change for the better.
* The Cold War is over and now the world must work cooperatively to lift itself out of the visionary slump it is in.

Belinda, who goes to a government school in a middle class area, had this to say about the future of our world:

* I see a world in which people accept each other, help each other
* The world will be replanted
* There will be no cruelty to animals and there will be an abundance of them
* There will be no poverty. Everyone will have food and shelter
* There will be time to enjoy life

 

Angela, a fifteen year old "kid of the future" who attends a school in a low income area in outer south western Sydney, expressed similar hopes for a more environmentally sustainable future but with particular emphasis on more social justice and less violence and creating a bright future for kids:

* My hopes and dreams for the future are that different colored races are united in one society
* People, whether white or black, will be caring and sharing with each other
* Problems will be resolved in talks, not through wars
* The Earth will be restored and there will be no pollution
* There will be no third or second world countries
* Everyone will be equal

 

For Brad, a year 10 Asian Studies student at a non-metropolitan school, there was the following image of a better world:

* I journeyed to the year 2020
* The image I saw was of beautiful, sunny surrounding
* It was a world in which students enjoyed school and had fun in class while still learning about things relevant for survival
* It was a world in which real steps had been taken to end child poverty
* There was less pollution
* Species were not threatened and the forests were flourishing
* There were no wars on the news
* There was news of improvements in pollution control and cures for diseases
* There was no discrimination
* The color of a person's skin didn't matter. All were treated fairly

Huong, a seventeen year old, attends an outer metropolitan school in an area of very high youth unemployment. Her family came as refugees from a strife-torn situation in South-East Asia. This is Huong's description of the probable future of kids in the twenty-first century.

* Death, killing, saw a man dead, tank blown up
* I saw a war in the twenty-first century
* I don't think the world will be better
* More crimes are going to happen
* More people will die

 

After participating in a creative visualization activity, as part of a futures workshop at her school, Huong shared the following image of a better world:

* I see a future world in which everyone is treated equally
* We live together in peace.
* There is lots of love between people, no matter what their color, sex, culture, religion
* I see the environment as safe to live in
* Everywhere you go there are nice gardens, parks, trees, flowers
* Everybody has their own garden
* No one is hungry or homeless

 

Such a narrative on preferable futures is similarly echoed in the dreams of Sonia, a fifteen year old at a non-metropolitan high school. Her dreams are in sharp contrast with her fears about a world of the future with more hate, selfishness and greed:

* I saw the world as a non-polluted planet. The seas and skies were clear
* The forests were healthy and bright with numerous birds caroling
* I walked near a small spring and waterfall. The waterfall was crystal clear
* The world had become caring and beautiful

 

For this year 11 student, who attends a government high school in an inner-city suburb, survival from the onslaughts of war and environmental degradation depend on the passive hope of a technofix variety:

* In the year 2020, there are lots of computerized things. Everywhere you go computers will do the hard work
* The Earth may have had a nuclear war and be badly polluted - so the surviving people live together in cities.
* They may have to have huge bubbles over the cities to protect the people
* Outside of the bubbles would be a desolate Earth with lots of pollution but inside [the bubbles] everything would be a nearly perfect environment to live
* Beyond our present planetary home, there may also be people living on Mars or the moon

 

Dylan, who is a year 10 student in a Catholic inner city boy's school, also is quietly confident of technocratic deliverance:

* The world will enjoy the improvements of technology
* The environment will be reasonably clean in children's future
* There will be voyages into deep space
* New planets and galaxies will be found

 

Even more enraptured by hi-tech answers is Nicholas, a year 11 "kid of the future" at a metropolitan high school:

* The twenty-first century to me will be easier
* Everything will be done by a flick of a button. Instead of human modes, I see robots
* Science and technology will lead the field in the twenty-first century
* There will be more peace in the air and the environment will also be better if they keep producing aerosol cans without fluorocarbons

 

The uncritical enthusiasm of true believers in the technocratic credo was similarly evident in the view of Matthew and Adam who attend a non-metropolitan School. This is what Matthew had to say about the future of kids and his preferred world in the twenty-first century:

* There will be cities under the water
* There will be great new technology
* School will be a thing of the past as machines will slowly take over the workforce
* There will be no point learning as there will be no jobs to occupy us in a leisure-filled world