BUILDING OUR FUTURE


BY JEN REID I


n the spring of 2025, one of my Grade 4 students reflected on how old he would be in 2100, and whether he would be alive. I replied that yes, I did think he would be alive, and we calculated that he would be 85. But


then, to myself, I wondered, “What will the world look like in 2100?” To say that we live in uncertain times is an


understatement. Climate change, rising fas- cism, artificial intelligence, increased income inequality, genocide, war, eroding democratic systems – these are just some of the extreme world events that continue to overwhelm us with pictures of a planet in turmoil. In fact, we are in a “permacrisis,” a term coined just aſter the pandemic by Collins Dictionary to describe “an extended period of instability and insecurity, especially one resulting from a series of catastrophic events.” Faced with inheriting a world in chaos,


there is little wonder that young people are increasingly struggling with their mental health. Information from the 2022 Health


of Young People in Canada: Focus on Mental Health report indicates that feelings of hope- lessness and sadness are on the rise. Te re- port, developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada, used extensive surveys of young people across Canada to research trends in mental health. Te results are startling: for Grade 8 cis-


gender girls, feelings of being sad or hopeless almost every day for more than two weeks increased to 46 per cent in 2022 from 24 per cent in 2010; for Grade 8 cisgender boys, the increase was to 21 per cent from 14 per cent over the same period. Self-identification


as transgender or gender-diverse were not options in surveys ➔ ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 31


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