Reasons for Optimism
Or why I want to be a solarpunk when I grow up
I am an optimist, most of the time. I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, and that show’s vision of a future that was more positive, not utopian, but full of collaboration and science and adventure, still fills me with nerdy optimism today.
I have to admit though, the times we live in are hard for us optimists. It feels easier to hear a dystopian narrative. Political battles, the pandemic, and the climate crisis are everywhere, and the way we consume media makes even distant, isolated incidents feel like they’re happening to us, near us, right now. It’s a lot to handle for adults, and I see it weighing heavily on my students.
But this post is about reasons to be optimistic anyway. Not meaning that we ignore problems. Meaning that we need that energy of optimism, the sense that progress is possible, to keep us growing into our whole potential. Which brings me to Exhibit A.
What if we could envision a future in which, yes, we’ve been forced to adapt dramatically to take care of the environment, but that adaptation is beautiful, clever, and somehow lets us be freer? That vision is what I stumbled across when I learned about solarpunk.
Solarpunk is a label given to writing, art, and ideas about a human future in which we live in greater harmony with nature (the “solar” part), as well as with greater personal freedom (the “punk” or counter-cultural part). Solarpunk asks: what if we succeed? What if we transform ourselves to save our planet and end up living better lives?
Image-search solarpunk and you’ll see an incredible vision of the future. Lush cities full of sunlight, earth-tone buildings and abundant greenery. Futuristic architecture in friendly, human-scale villages and cozy homes. It’s not quite Star Trek: The Next Generation — it might be better.
What if we transform ourselves to save our planet and end up living better lives?
And now for Exhibit B, a second source of inspiration, and one which may bring these ideas a bit closer to home. It’s about permaculture, and how this approach may hold keys to re-thinking education.
Here’s why — our current schools are, more or less, inspired by factories. I won’t go into the whole story here as I think many know it, but public schools were invented at a time when factories were the most advanced level of economic activity and the likely employer for many graduates. Schools were explicitly modeled on factories. The idea that there is one right way to learn things, that we all proceed at the same pace, that we can cut and measure tiny increments of learning (like deciding that this math formula takes 45 instructional minutes to teach) — all of this was modeled off of industrial processes.
Schools are not the only places where this idea took root. I think of it every time I drive through the California Central Valley, an uber-productive agricultural region filled with colossal monoculture farms. Monoculture meaning growing just one plant. One farm might have tens of thousands of almond trees in perfect lines stretching as far as you can see, all exactly the same size and height. It increases output and efficiency — just as traditional public schools did — but at great long-term cost. We now know that this type of industrial farming, while it provides essential food for many, does so in a way that damages the land, often relying on heavy use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides, destroying habitats for local species, decreasing biodiversity, and more.
The same mindset that makes monoculture farms possible — learn how to master one thing, then do 100,000 times more of it, faster and cheaper if possible, while ignoring the side effects — is also what makes modern schooling.
But here’s the turn back toward optimism.
In the 1970s the term permaculture was coined, referring to a mindset and practice that has the potential to heal what I just described. It describes a way to grow food plants that naturally regenerate the environment. Some people have framed these ideas into 12 Principles, which themselves would make an incredible basis for a school or family. For example, “Self-Regulate: Accept Feedback” and “Use Edges: Value the Marginal.” With permaculture, humans can help manage an ecosystem to produce food, waste nothing, take care of the biodiversity in a region, and continue functioning well without chemicals. Permaculture is reason to be optimistic.
What if we made our schools and homes more like a permaculture farm? In this mindset, a gardener’s job is to figure out which seeds we have and what they need to grow, and what they can contribute to the whole. We won’t waste anything. That will mean figuring out each child’s interests and passions and letting that drive things. A permaculture garden does not need every plant to be the same; it survives because of diversity.
And in the spirit of solarpunk, let’s be permaculture educators not just to avoid catastrophic mistakes — let’s do it because things are going to be awesome when humans get good at this. If parents and teachers get a little better at trusting young people, a little more interested in weaving interests together rather than controlling others to be a certain way, we all are freer. Young people can discover more of ourselves. They’ll avoid the trauma of being labeled a bad student, a bad seed. There is no such thing anyway.
As they discover authentic passions and curiosities, they will become highly skilled at things they care about. There’s nothing like an authentic curiosity to make you resilient, willing to keep working on something even if it’s hard or others think it’s not cool. And that thing you get really good at will doubtless become part of your contribution.
So in the spirit of a still-new year, and for my optimistic self, let’s hold the possibility that we can design a more beautiful future. I don’t believe in utopias—those shortcuts to dystopia—but I do think we need a sense of progress. Despite our tendency to mess things up, we humans are unbelievably clever and adaptable. Let’s make sure young people hear that message. And let’s live the truth of it in how we parent and teach. Trust them. Don’t make them be the same. Discover what seeds are waiting in them.
A few other updates…
A Match for Mama G
I am lucky to have one of the most amazing mothers-in-law of all time, someone whose supply of love and creative magic never seems to run out. But right now she’s fighting a rare bone marrow cancer. She needs a blood stem cell transplant as soon as possible to save her life.
Our family's task is to find a donor who is a perfect match, and to do that, we're asking everyone we know to consider joining the DKMS blood registry, which just requires a quick cheek swab from a mail-in kit. You can sign up here in a few minutes to have a swab kit sent to you for free. By joining the registry, even if you're not a match for her, you could save someone else’s life. Thank you for considering it! Here’s the link again.
Advisory Training
One of the highlights of the year for me has been our summer training institutes, when I get to help train teachers in how to become excellent advisory facilitators. I know that when advisory is done well, it becomes the heart of a great school. It’s the place where students have the most unconditional belonging, and can access the deepest social-emotional learning. If you’d like to hone your skills as an advisor or know a teacher who does, join us! We’re hosting a three-day training in San Francisco this July.
Book Reviews
If you’ve read my book, Finding the Magic in Middle School, first of all, thank you! I still can’t believe it’s out there in the world. I hope you’ve found it helpful. And if I might ask one more thing of you — would you consider writing a brief Amazon review here? These are a great help to establish the book as a credible resource for parents and teachers everywhere. Thank you!
Chris, yes to the yesth degree! Thank you for the link to the Solar punk world; I truly needed some optimism today. Thank you thank you!!