Does Our Vital Growth Receive the Best Possible Thinking?

Discussion article. Part of The Thinking Upgrade.

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We talk about growth in economies, businesses, productivity and wealth. How much attention do we give to the human growth that helps make a better future possible?

The growth of our imagination. Our understanding. Ourability to think clearly, create something original, work through difficulties and care for one another. Our willingness to keep learning, question what no longer serves us and act on what could be better.

This is our vital growth: the continuing development of our capacity to live fully, contribute meaningfully and help build a brighter future.

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Does it receive the best possible thinking?

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Consider a child who is endlessly curious. They ask unexpected questions, invent games, take things apart and imagine possibilities adults have stopped noticing. What should we hope happens to that curiosity over the next fifteen years?

We should hope it deepens. That knowledge gives their imagination more to work with. That challenge strengthens their determination. That they discover the satisfaction of understanding something difficult, making something useful and helping someone else.

We should want them to enter adulthood with a growing sense of agency: “I can learn. I can contribute. I can question this. I can help improve it.”

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How well do the experiences we design for young people support that outcome?

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Our collective future depends greatly on people’s originality, creativity, ingenuity, experiences and capabilities. It also depends on their kindness, resilience, proactivity and entrepreneurship: their willingness to notice a need, take initiative and turn an idea into something worthwhile.

These qualities deserve deliberate attention. A person may have extraordinary technical ability but struggle to listen, manage themselves or consider the consequences of their actions. Another may have valuable ideas but lack the confidence, resources or support to develop them. ‍

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What possibilities are lost when we develop only part of a person’s potential?

‍Education is one of the most powerful opportunities we have to address this.

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Its purpose deserves a serious, continuing public conversation.

What should every young person, by the time they are 18, know, be able to do and have in order to help them live fully and impactfully?

That question should shape what we teach, how we teach it, how we assess progress and how we support those doing the teaching.

Strong foundations in literacy, numeracy, science, the arts and understanding the world matter. Knowledge gives us material to think with, connections to make and ways to recognise when something does not add up. Breadth introduces us to possibilities we might never otherwise encounter; depth allows us to move beyond superficial understanding.

Alongside those foundations, what priority should we give to ensuring young people can:

Understand and lead themselves: recognise their thoughts, emotions, needs, strengths and vulnerabilities; examine their assumptions; and manage their attention, time, energy and behaviour.

Learn throughout life: ask useful questions, practise deliberately, seek feedback, remember and apply knowledge, and revise their understanding when better explanations emerge.

Think with care and independence: assess evidence, recognise uncertainty, consider different perspectives and distinguish a persuasive claim from a well-supported one.

Imagine and create: explore possibilities, experiment, make things, solve problems and develop the confidence to initiate something without a ready-made set of instructions.

Connect and contribute: listen, communicate, cooperate, disagree respectfully, ask for help and support other people’s development.

Navigate everyday life: develop practical understanding of health, money, relationships, digital environments, rights, responsibilities and the institutions that shape their opportunities.

Prepare for varied roles: explore what it takes to be a colleague, friend, partner, parent, neighbour, team member, innovator, employee, business owner, investor, citizen, a guardian of the planet, or leader, while discovering different kinds of work and contribution.

Build support and opportunity: know how to find trusted people, useful tools, further learning and routes into experiences beyond those immediately available to them.

These are foundations for continuing development. Eighteen is neither a deadline for having life worked out nor a finishing line for education.

We are all works in progress. Our worth does not depend on constant achievement, and growth needs room for rest, play, relationships and discovery. A love of learning is much easier to imagine when learning enriches life.

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So what experience of education are we creating?

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Assessment has a valuable purpose: helping us understand what someone knows, what they can do and where support is needed. But when preparing for assessment begins to dominate the experience, we should ask what is being crowded out.

How much time remains for exploring a question with no obvious answer? For making something that might fail? For following an unexpected interest? For discussing a difficult issue without guessing what the examiner wants?

If a young person leaves education with good grades but little desire to learn again, how should we judge that outcome?

Equally, if someone leaves with modest grades but considerable creativity, practical intelligence, kindness and determination, have we given them a fair understanding of their capabilities and possibilities?

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Young people deserve to be known as individuals. Their development cannot be fully represented by a rank or a narrow collection of scores.

Imagine learning experiences that connect rigorous knowledge with meaningful activity. Students investigating the health of a local river, using science, mathematics, writing and civic understanding to propose improvements. Young people designing an accessible product alongside people who might use it. A group creating a small enterprise and discovering the practical demands of budgeting, teamwork, customer needs and responsibility.

Such experiences need thoughtful teaching, subject knowledge and clear standards. Enjoyment and rigour can strengthen each other. Working hard at something worthwhile can be deeply rewarding.

Technology also gives us possibilities to explore: explanations presented in different ways, opportunities to practise with feedback, simulations of otherwise inaccessible experiences and tools that help people communicate or create.

But putting a screen in front of someone does not answer the question of what they should learn. We need to ask whether each use of technology strengthens understanding, independence and human connection. Could an AI tool help a learner examine their reasoning? Could it also make it easier to avoid reasoning altogether? The educational purpose must guide the choice.

Teachers need the time, trust, development and resources to make those choices well. Many already bring exceptional care and imagination to their work. They should have a meaningful role in designing change, alongside learners, families, researchers, employers and communities.

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Which brings us to an uncomfortable question.

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Are the people designing and governing education bringing the breadth, depth and diversity of thinking that the task deserves?

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No individual or small group can know everything required. The quality of the process matters: whose experiences are heard, which assumptions are challenged, how alternatives are tested and whether decisions change when the evidence warrants it.

Are we willing to reconsider a timetable, qualification oraccountability measure when it gets in the way of learning? Can we explain why we retain a practice beyond “this is how it has always been done”? Can we preserve what works while making room for something better?

The people making these decisions should model the qualities they ask others to develop. We should expect senior leaders to show curiosity, listen carefully, acknowledge what they do not know and demonstrate willingness to learn.

When they defend poor reasoning, dismiss constructive challenge or support policies that unnecessarily restrict opportunities to develop, we should call that out clearly and fairly. Criticism should identify the decision, examine its consequences and press for improvement. Seniority should bring greater accountability for the quality of thinking.

These expectations extend beyond education.

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What happens when a curious young person enters a workplace where questions are unwelcome? When an employee wants to learn but is given neither time nor support? When an older person’s experience is overlooked, or someone seeking a new direction is treated as though their opportunity has passed?

Our vital growth needs support throughout life. That means access to learning, mentors, thinking partners, diverse experiences and communities where people help one another develop. It also means addressing practical barriers. A person struggling with exhaustion, insecurity or caring responsibilities may need time and material support before another invitation to 'fulfil their potential' is useful.

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We should also examine the future we are preparing people to build.

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Humanity has much left to discover. The possibility of a future stretching millions of years ahead, on Earth and perhaps beyond, invites us to think far beyond today’s arrangements. Such a future is a possibility, not a promise. What we learn, protect and create matters.

There are ways of governing, educating, building, producing food and living together that have yet to be imagined. Existing approaches remain open to improvement. Young people should have opportunities to help design those possibilities.

They also need to recognise threats and act responsibly to address them. We can help people face problems with both realism and initiative: What is happening? Who is affected? What could prevent harm? What could we try? Who could help?

That is how concern can develop into practical contribution, and an idea into greater success, wellbeing and positive impact.

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For each of us, the discussion can begin close to home.

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Whose growth do we influence? What do we encourage, reward or unintentionally discourage? When someone questions a familiar practice, do we become defensive or help them examine it? What opportunity to learn could we make possible for someone else?

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And collectively, we should keep asking:

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Are we giving the development of human potential the care, imagination and quality of thinking that our future deserves?

The people who will help create that future are learning from the choices we make today.

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Thanks for reading.

Best,

Rob

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