Why Children Should Learn to Imagine Tomorrow

 

We spend much of education teaching children about the past and preparing them for the present. History books explain where we came from, and core subjects like math, science, and language equip young people with tools to navigate today’s world. But what about tomorrow? In a rapidly changing world, the ability to imagine different futures is just as important as reading or writing. This is where futures literacy comes in.

What is futures literacy?

Futures literacy is the skill of understanding that the future is not fixed. Instead of seeing tomorrow as something to be predicted or feared, children learn that the future is a space of possibilities. They develop the ability to ask: What if? and Why not?—not just for fantasy, but as a way of exploring real options and preparing for uncertainty.

Why children need it

Children today will grow up in a world shaped by challenges like climate change, artificial intelligence, and shifting global economies. Yet they will also inherit opportunities we cannot yet fully imagine. Teaching them futures literacy helps them:

• Build resilience: They won’t panic when change comes, because they expect uncertainty.
• Think critically: They question assumptions about “how things are supposed to be.”
• Be creative: They see problems as openings for new ideas, not dead ends.
• Act responsibly: They imagine consequences before making decisions.

What it looks like in practice

Futures literacy in education doesn’t require complicated tools. It can start with small classroom exercises:

• Storytelling and scenarios: Students imagine their city in 2050 and write short stories or draw maps of what it could look like.
• Games of “what if”: What if schools had no exams? What if food came only from vertical farms? What if we could speak with animals?
• Exploring weak signals: Spotting small changes around them—like new apps, new habits, or new slang—and asking what these might mean for the future.
• Role-play debates: Arguing from the perspective of different futures (“a robot citizen,” “a climate migrant,” “a child of Mars”).

Through these playful activities, children begin to see futures as something they can actively shape.

Shifting the role of education

Traditionally, education has been about filling students with knowledge. Futures literacy shifts the focus toward curiosity, imagination, and agency. The aim is not to predict the exact jobs or technologies of tomorrow, but to give children the mindset to navigate whatever emerges.

If we want children to thrive in the 21st century, we need to give them more than facts and formulas—we need to give them futures literacy. By learning to imagine tomorrow, they discover that the future is not a mystery to fear, but a canvas to paint. And when imagination meets action, tomorrow becomes not just something to inherit, but something to create.