Relieving Modern Day Atlas of an Illusory Burden: Abandoning the Hypermodern Fantasy of an Education to Manage the Globe

Abstract

The core of this article is a vigorous critique of planetary education for sustainable development and, emerging from this critique, a restatement of some alternatives, which compensate for the excesses of such globalized education. Drawing from a variety of perspectives—philosophy, sociology, geography, anthropology, psychology, pedagogy, biology and others—it is argued that the idea of an education for a sustainable future is founded on untenable assumptions. Contrary to contentions by promoters of sustainable development, who claim that the application of this ideology in all of education is the ultimate solution to humanity’s problems, evidence and testimonies are provided that suggest exacerbation of these problems. Examples of such perverse effects are described with respect to child development and preservation of diversity in people, cultures, places, practices and languages. Resume Le cœur de cet article est une vigoureuse critique de l’education planetaire en matiere de developpement durable et, decoulant de cette critique, la reformulation de quelques options de rechange pour compenser les exces d’une telle education. A partir d’une variete de perspectives ‐ philosophique, sociologique, geographique, anthropologique, psychologique, pedagogique, biologique, notamment ‐ il est argue que l’idee d’une education en vue d’un avenir durable est fondee sur des hypotheses insoutenables. Les promoteurs du developpement durable pretendent que l’application de cette ideologie a toute l’education constitue la solution definitive aux problemes de l’humanite. Les preuves et les temoignages suggerent plutot une exacerbation de ces problemes. Des exemples de ces effets