The global climate crisis is no longer a distant threat – it is a defining challenge reshaping the purpose and practice of education. This year, millions of students are enrolled in schools whose programs remain rooted in a 20th-century model: heavy on rote learning and standardized outcomes, light on the skills and mindsets needed to address a warming world. These students have inherited a planet demanding innovation, resilience, and collective action. The stakes are high: without a radical shift, we risk graduating a generation of students unprepared to tackle the environmental, economic, and social opportunities & upheavals ahead.  

As educators, we face the added challenge of climate exhaustion and malaise from parents and students. Teens self-report feelings of anxiety, dread, or hopelessness in curricula that present the scientific evidence and deep perils of the climate crisis without a hopeful vision for the future. The reality is far more promising, because our renewable solutions have arrived. The climate crisis is no longer a science or engineering problem, but one of communication, civics, economics, and politics.  As a society, we already hold the keys to a renewable future in which the Earth and its inhabitants co-exist in thriving communities.

The urgency is undeniable, yet progress in education is uneven.  Instead of focusing on recycling and composting programs that misdirect attention from the root causes of climate change, schools must equip students with the skills, knowledge, and tools to take collective action to end the fossil fuel era. Jobs of the future will demand green skills such as renewable energy expertise, circular economy strategies, climate justice advocacy. Society needs informed citizens and bold leaders who exhibit agency and interdisciplinary thinking required. The climate crisis exposes a compelling need: education must take action now to work with students to shape the future of the world they live in today.

The Solstice Project aims to define how schools can lead this transformation.  As well-resourced, high-visibility, and often more nimble organizations, our independent school communities are uniquely positioned to lead change and share a sense of responsibility for offering pathways that public schools and institutions can follow. Rather than focusing solely on imparting climate facts, schools must become hubs of climate action. Simultaneously, students need individual competencies—knowledge, skills, and agency—to drive change in their communities and beyond.