Children and Sustainable Development

“Children and Sustainable Development: A Challenge for Education”

Workshop 13-15 November 2015 Vatican City

In April 2014 the Pontifical Academies jointly held an excellent Workshop on Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature. A remarkable series of contributions produced a clear picture of the issues, and stressed the urgency to act. It also raised the need for spiritual and moral leadership. But the Workshop stopped short of elucidating the role of education in the changes to come, and making poposals for action in this direction. These essential questions form the basis of the present Workshop of November 2015,Children and Sustainable Development: A Challenge for Education.

The goal is to build, through education, an inclusive society in which all people can have the resources to develop a life project in harmony with their culture and beliefs, transcultural universal values and respect for the environment. Children must develop an approach open to the other as oneself so that the world, without losing the richness of diversity, can become ever more integrated. To prepare their active participation in the common good, promoting a cooperation between students in their relationships with civic awareness, valuing cooperation and solidarity above all forms of competitive selfishness are essential. Cognitive and health sciences provide today a better understanding of the way children grow, from birth onward, develop their cognitive abilities to read and write but also to reason, as well as their emotional senses and empathy.