YouthXYouth’s Ila Malhotra Gregory on the need for a global (r)evolution, led by youth, for education
We have mentioned the YouthXYouth learning initiative before, but not had the opportunity to properly profile this global project of youth-led educational reform till now.
Our entry point is a podcast interview (original link here, player below, pictured above) with the hugely impressive 19-year-old Ila Malhotra Gregory.
You’ll get a sense of Ila’s take on education from this “About” file from the YouthXYouth website:
Theory of Change
We believe that in order to transform our education at scale, globally, and rapidly enough, we need a youth-led, adult-supported (r)evolution of our education.
The Current Problem: Dominant Industrial Education System
Designed to serve our economies
The dominant education system is designed to serve our economies and an ideology of perpetual growth that is harming our planet and ourselves. The main function of education systems is to supply the economy with the next generation of workers, NOT to serve people or planet. The exploitative nature of schools creates an attitude of disrespect and exploitation of the planet.
Moreover, in a world marked by multiple intersecting crises (climate change, rising inequality, loss of species, etc.), young people are struggling to find their place and to find meaning. This is clear when we look at the declining youth mental health (according to the World Health Organization, one in seven 10 to 19-year-olds is experiencing a mental disorder) and the rise of new phenomenons like eco-anxiety. Young people are missing spaces to engage authentically with the problems of our time in order to make sense of them and address them effectively.
Social fractures
The social fractures we are witnessing today, from climate change to growing inequalities, are a direct result of the way we have designed our education. We are not educated to care about our wellbeing, the wellbeing of others, or the wellbeing of our planet. Instead, we are taught to ruthlessly compete for notions of “personal success” over collective wellbeing.
Our traditional education system is not fit to prepare young people for the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world they are entering into. We also recognize that as much as the Industrial education model was an incredible advancement for humanity, it is not designed to serve us (people, places, and planet).
Rooted in colonial ideology
The dominant education system is rooted in colonial ideology promoting limited ways of knowing and being. Historically, the “factory school model” was implemented in colonized countries to erase indigenous cultures and control populations. To this day, the use of curricula, grades, and tests, promote a worldview of “one truth” and instill the belief that only the dominant paradigm is valid.
Core practices
Raising young people's awareness about the role of education in perpetuating the status-quo.
Creating prefigurative safe spaces (i.e. spaces where we practice showing up as if the future we wish to create is already there) for young people to connect, learn, and be in solidarity with one another.
Supporting young people in reclaiming their learning and in influencing and designing their education systems.
Support young people in being creators of a New Story instead of perpetrators of the Old (and destructive) Story of Separation
Building and joining broad alliances towards the transformation of education.
Tapping into the essential organizing power of Story by making the New & Ancient Story of Interbeing (in the words of Buddhist teacher and author Thich Nhat Hanh) visible and by exposing the destructive powers of our current Story of Separation
Utilizing systemic and ecosystemic approaches to societal change