Introduction

 

The Challenge

There is a Challenge. And before we can begin to respond, we need to be clear about what it is and what it isn’t.

 

The challenge is not just climate disruption, rising inequality, or education systems that no longer seem to work. It is not a lack of motivation or technology. These are symptoms. The deeper issue is that the foundations we’ve built our societies on, especially in education and economics, are out of step with what long-term survival actually requires. They focus on short-term results while ignoring the larger patterns we now have no choice but to confront.

 

Most education today is designed to help people find their place in systems based on continuous growth. These systems reward expansion and extraction. They treat success as something measurable in productivity, speed, and profit. But this model has limits that cannot be ignored. No amount of innovation can make infinite growth possible on a finite planet. We are now seeing those limits show up in collapsing ecosystems, fractured communities, and widespread uncertainty about the future.

 

This book offers a vision of education for the 22nd century that looks beyond the goals of 21st-century education, which still tend to focus on preparing students to function within existing economic frameworks. Education for the 22nd century takes a longer view. It understands that survival will depend on a shift from sustaining growth-based systems to building new, regenerative ones. It asks how education can support this transition by preparing learners not just to adapt, but to reimagine and rebuild the foundations of economic life. It also recognizes the unique function of grandparents and allograndparents—those who, as Elders, take on the responsibility of overseeing the long-term viability of family and community—as central to this mission. True education reform centres not only on the youngest but also on the oldest, honouring the essential role of Elders and their learning alongside their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

 

How did we get here?

To reach these goals, we need to understand how we got here in the first place: we need to track back to the dawn of humanity. Political anthropologist James C. Scott describes the "Thin Anthropocene" as a long period of human history that stretches back over a million years. During this time, humans gradually began to shape local ecosystems through practices such as fire use, selective harvesting, and migration. These impacts were small at first, but they accumulated.

In some regions, people responded by developing systems of responsibility. They began to manage their extensive influence, not just take from the land. These practices, rooted in observation and relationship, became the early forms of what we now call “regenerative systems.”

 

This response to long-term impact tells us something important. Human beings are not simply driven by survival in the short term. We also have the capacity to reflect, to remember, and to care about future generations. Our species has always depended on cooperation, shared meaning, and an ability to learn across generations. These are not just cultural traits. They are evolutionary strengths. When these strengths are applied toward care, balance, and responsibility, regeneration becomes possible.

 

But not all cultures took this path. Some built economic systems around expansion as a strategy for survival. These systems sought to control resources and people in order to outpace risk. For a time, they created stability through growth. But that strategy comes with a built-in limit. It can only continue by pushing other systems—ecological, social, and psychological—beyond what they can sustain.

 

The result is what we now face. We live in what might be called the "Thick Anthropocene," where the scale of human impact is global, deeply layered, and urgent. The problems we are dealing with now are no longer local or isolated. They are connected across ecosystems, economies, and cultures. And they require responses that are just as connected.

 

A Path Forward

This book identifies three overlapping areas where those responses must begin. The first is nature. We need to understand how natural systems work, how they break down, and how they regenerate. The second is society. We need to rebuild relationships, strengthen cooperation, and create communities that know how to care for one another. The third is meaning. We need to restore our ability to communicate clearly, to tell honest stories, and to share a vision of the future we want to build.

 

These three areas—ecological, social, and symbolic—are not separate. They support each other. If one breaks down, the others are affected. And if we want to rebuild, we have to work across all three.

 

This is not a return to the past. It is a project of consciously choosing how we use the capacities we already have. Regenerative thriving is not something humans have always done. It is a deliberate innovation. It emerges when we take the capacities we evolved over time—like cooperation, memory, adaptability, and planning—and use them to create systems that protect life, manage complexity, and prepare for what lies ahead. Thriving in this way does not happen by accident. It is a conscious project.

If we accept that the problems we face are structural, then the solutions need to be structural as well. This is not just about reacting to crisis. It is about designing a different path, one that builds on what already works, restores what has been lost, and creates space for new ways of living and learning to emerge.

 

Education is central to this shift. Not only formal schooling, but the broader processes through which knowledge, values, and responsibilities are passed on. Education is how societies shape identity and prepare people to navigate change. If the world we are preparing for looks different from the one we inherited, then our approach to learning must also change.

 

A Solid Basis for our Journey Forward

This book takes the position that we do not need to start from nothing. Across time and place, Indigenous peoples have developed regenerative systems that support ecological balance, social cohesion, and intergenerational care. These systems are built on observation, relationship, and accountability to land and community. They include food and fire stewardship, governance based on consent, and knowledge practices that are rooted in both tradition and adaptability.

 

These are not remnants of the past. They are living systems that have responded to environmental and social change over long periods of time. In many cases, they emerged in response to early forms of ecological impact. Indigenous peoples became stewards by necessity, not by choice, and by doing so developed highly refined practices of regeneration. Elders in these communities often hold not only memory but also responsibility, acting as teachers, advisors, and keepers of long-term vision.

 

The invitation now is to recognize the value of these systems and learn with humility. Reconnection is not about copying Indigenous lifeways. It is about listening, learning, and applying principles of care, reciprocity, and responsibility in ways that are appropriate to each place and community.

 

At the same time, the shift to regeneration is not limited to Indigenous communities. Around the world, people are beginning to experiment with new forms of education, governance, and economic practice. These innovations are sometimes small and local, and sometimes broad in scale. What they share is a commitment to long-term thinking and a recognition that we need to change the way we live together.

 

The Journey Begins

The transition to regeneration is not a single step. It is a long process that involves remembering, repairing, and redesigning. It asks us to reconnect with natural systems, with one another, and with the deeper reasons we educate in the first place. It is not easy work, but it is necessary.

 

The long-term goal of this work is what we describe as Convergent Regenerative Humanity. This is not a fixed model or a blueprint. It is a shared direction. It reflects the possibility that diverse cultures, knowledge systems, and communities can come together around a common commitment to regeneration. It is not about becoming the same but about choosing to become responsible to the same future.

 

Foundations

The foundation for 22nd century education is Regeneration Partnership Education—a path of learning that supports the emergence of a shared identity and practice grounded in the responsibility of a Convergent Regenerative Humanity.

 

The goal of this shared identity has been inspired by the teachings of Elders and knowledge holders who have pointed toward ways of seeing and relating that are rooted in care, responsibility, and respect for complexity.

 

Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall offers the principle of Two-Eyed Seeing which advocates for the integration of Indigenous relational knowledge with hypothetico-deductive scientific reasoning (often called Western Science. This is not about blending or simplifying these two systems but learning to hold multiple perspectives with respect and using both eyes to see more clearly and to act more wisely.

 

Another foundational influence is the concept of Universe Referent Citizenship, shared by Australian scholar Kerry Arabena. This framework asks us to define our responsibilities not only in relation to our nations or cultures, but in relation to the entire living system of the universe. It shifts the focus from personal and national rights and entitlements toward long-term accountability. It reminds us that being human means being in relationship with everything else that lives.

 

Convergent Regenerative Humanity builds on these teachings. It offers a way to think about education as a shared project of regeneration. It asks what kind of learning prepares people to meet complex challenges without losing connection to meaning, to land, and to each other. It invites us to imagine a future where education does not divide people into winners and losers, but helps communities thrive together over time. It proposes a social contract where rights derive from regenerative responsibility: where access to resources—clean water, healthcare, education—becomes contingent on stewardship, echoing Indigenous cosmologies where privileges are earned through responsibilities.

 

As Chief Oren Lyons of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy says, rights are inseparable from responsibilities to the land and to future generations, embedding stewardship into the fabric of societal ethics.

 

This vision is not abstract. It is grounded in practice. It draws from real efforts already underway in classrooms, communities, and cultural networks. It learns from both traditional knowledge and new experiments. It respects the place-based wisdom of Indigenous Peoples, while also recognizing that many others are searching for ways to reconnect, repair, and contribute.

 

The work ahead is not about returning to a better past. It is about taking what we know, what we have learned, and what we can still recover, and putting it to use in the service of life. Regeneration is not an endpoint. It is a way of moving forward, together.

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Connect and Thrive

Connect and Thrive is not just the title of this book. It is a concept, a practice, and a learning experience taught through the Global Care Packs Programs. GCP Programs actualize the belief that connection is not a luxury or an afterthought, but a condition for intergenerational survival. To thrive in the long term, we need to be connected to the systems that support life, to the people who help us grow, and to the values that guide our choices. This demands learning new skills through both building conceptual knowledge, experiencing practices and skills and building real world relationships.

 

At its core, Connect and Thrive is about remembering who we are and what we are capable of. It is about reconnecting with the full range of our human capacities—our connection to nature, our capacity for prosocial care, and our ability to hold a sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves. Thriving means more than surviving. It means learning to develop the practices of regeneration at every level: ecological, communal, and personal.

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Global Care Packs Programs – Connection and Thriving in Action

If you’re reading this book on its own, that is more than enough to understand and benefit from the conceptual aspect of this education system. Connect and Thrive offers a full exploration of the ideas, frameworks, and examples that shape the concept of Regeneration Partnership Education. It also forms the knowledge base for the Global Care Packs Foundation Program.

 

The Global Care Packs Foundation Program is the gateway to the three Global Care Packs Advanced Programs. If you want to explore these ideas in action through nature-based activities, community challenges, and regenerative teaching practice, you are invited to join the Global Care Packs Foundation Program. In joining the GCP Foundation Program, participants will build on the knowledge base presented in this book with hands-on learning and guided practice that deepen understanding through lived experience and real-world relationships.

 

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