Editor’s note: The following is reprinted from Adam Tilove’s April 23 weekly email to the HBHA community.
Happy Earth Day and Earth week!
I read two interesting things this week: The first is that the insurance giant Swiss Re published a report on the projected economic impact of climate change. They stated that by 2050, the global economy could be 11-14% lower than it would be without climate change, as a result of ocean waters rising to envelope cities, and hurricanes, floods, and forest fires becoming more frequent and severe. This amounts to a $23 trillion dollars a year difference in economic output, not to mention the difference in human suffering due to these changes.
The second is that the United States now has the audacious goal of halving its carbon emissions by 2030 — just 8.5 years from now. It seems unfathomable to me, but it is the goal!
This got me thinking of the enormous change happening in our world, and how much of it I don’t do! The next 30 years are going to be critical for our world.
The students in our school are going to be facing monumental challenges that our generation has put before them. In 2050, God willing, I will be almost 80 years old, and my time to make a difference will have mostly passed. But our kindergarteners will be in their early 30s, and our seniors will be in their late 40s.
How do we prepare them for a challenging future we can barely imagine?
Every school will tell you some of the same answers. We need to help our students develop critical thinking skills. They need to know science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM).
But I think the most important skill isn’t even a skill. It’s an attitude. A mental discipline.
We have to help our students care. We have to show them that life is not a zero sum game, where they are competing with each other to be the best, strongest, smartest, or richest. We have to teach them, and show them that caring for one another, for the world, and for our future generations is core to who we are as a people.
This sense of purpose — of teaching the next generation that there is meaning in our lives, and that meaning is deeply connected to how we treat others and our world as a whole — is in everything we do: from the books we read, to the subjects we discuss in mentoring, to our community service requirements.
We know life isn’t just about academic rigor. It is also about meaning, purpose, and making the world a better place.
The moral of the story is, care.
Adam Tilove is HBHA head of school
