Yesterday I was set to fly to South Korea to address the Jeju education for designing a happy future conference. But, sadly the imposition of martial law gave me pause for thought and I decided not to get on the plane. Thankfully it now appears that the coup has been defeated and South Korea’s democracy will endure.

Because of this I ended up getting up this morning at 3.30am to present to the conference remotely. But, the conference went ahead and it proved to be a really interesting event, even if I had to attend remotely. In it presenters talked about the future and how to make sure that the education system prepared young people for the future and also tried to ensure that it will be a happy future.

At the moment I’m struggling to feel fully optimistic about the future, but I remain certain that the future is contingent on the actions of human beings. The recent events in South Korea demonstrate this far better than any lecture that I can give. When people rise up and assert the future they want they can achieve it. This leaves the important question as to how the education system can foster this kind of individual and collective agency and help people to become the authors of their own future. It is to this that my presentation tried to speak.

So, this is what I had to say.