How can we learn to be better ancestors and create a healthier future for our children?

By Rachel Musson

What do you hope for the world in 2100?

It's hard to think about a timescale so far from where we are now - particularly when most folks reading this (including me) won't be around to see it. It's sometimes hard to plan for next week, never mind for a time beyond our own, and to focus on a horizon we'll never see.

And yet it is our capacity to stretch our thoughts and actions well beyond our own lives that the world is deeply needing from us right now.

Sometimes this is known as 'cathedral thinking' - as you are working on something beautiful that you will never get to see completed - much like those who built cathedrals which would often take centuries to complete.

Last week, we invited a group of education leaders to journey to 2100 and imagine what life could be like. Whilst there, they wrote a 'postcard from the edge', capturing the feeling of the place and sharing what life was like in their community (be it a school or learning community, home or local area)

We kept these postcards hanging with us for the three days of the leadership summit as a reminder of what it is we're working towards and the legacy we're all weaving for future generations.

A wise soul - Rabindranath Tagore - once said that "the one who plants trees knowing they will never sit in their shade has started to understand the meaning of life."

So - what's your 2100?