What if children are not the future? How to support educational possibility

Abstract

This essay begins from the position that the planetspeak bromide “children are the future” has been banalized far past the point any usefulness. Despite the sensible attractiveness of teaching children well and letting them lead the way, the commonplace ad nauseam linking of children to the “future” has perverse disempowering effects. And, in our current moment of conjunctive global crises, it jeopardizes the future as it actually moves us away from—not toward—transformative pedagogies of the possible. This essay suggests ways to rescue educational possibility from narrow “children are the future” banalities.