Teaching from, with, and for the future requires a shift in mindset.
Instead of teaching what is known, a futures approach to teaching is grounded in discovery, experimenting, interrogating, and wondering about potential futures.
The Portrait of a Descendant activity explores cultivating Empathy for the Future. By asking us to embody what the future might feel like, we can see the potential implications and experiences of a diverse set of people living in multiple possible futures. This helps us understand a much fuller range of the moral, ethical, social, and equitable human implications of different futures at the individual and communal levels.
How does it work?
Each participant will imagine a descendant many generations in the future—the world their descendant lives in (and how our present-day choices affect that world); their descendant’s culture, values, and beliefs; and how the descendant remembers the participant (their ancestor). They will create a physical, artistic portrait of their descendant using materials like colored paper, fabric, ribbon, and more.
Use the downloadable activity booklet to guide you through the activity. As participants complete the reflective questions in the notebook in four stages, invite them to construct a portrait.
Credits
With contributions from Louie Montoya, Lisa Kay Solomon, Laura McBain, Ariel Raz, and inspired by Roman Krznaric’s book The Good Ancestor.
Related Resources
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