A month ago I heard this categorical statement on radio: “Today’s students are not committed to the problems of reality, they don’t want to leave the paradise of comfort.” When it comes to listening to these things, which are very common in the educational community, I wonder if the lack of commitment and laziness are not the titles that are attributed from generation to generation to the condition of being young. Each generation is born to meet new challenges and it is up to us to adapt to new contexts. For example, in recent times, the failure of the current production and consumption model is evident, due to the increase of social inequalities, the lack of coherence with the care of the environment or the acceleration of climate change. These problems have a wide variety of edges and the complexities cannot fail to address these emergencies holistically. It is important to reflect this reality in one way or another in teaching methodologies. Because we have to educate young people more for the future than for the past.

A couple of months ago I met a program running the Dutch center Windesheim Honours College, equivalent to the School of Economics and Business of the UPV/EHU, called Value Creator. It has been going on for ten years and its objective is for the students of the last years of the degree to reflect, propose solutions and carry out the problems and challenges of reality.

Despite how surprising it may seem, throughout the process subjects are not realized and have created their own methodology based on the theoretical U to carry out project management. In the first place, this theory, which has as its axis, indicates that it is essential to inform, reflect and become aware of the attitude towards the theme to reinforce the commitment to the project. Secondly, there would be the socialization process of what each has found, not only with the members of the university community, but also with the local institutions and agents. And finally, it is about carrying out the project and analyzing whether those positive contributions that are intended to be obtained have been obtained. However, surely the biggest contribution of this initiative to students is that they are not educated about sustainability, but about environmental sustainability.

At first, the Windesheim promoters were treated as a hippy, but the program started with twelve students and currently has 80 students. As we live in imperfection, I have no doubt that this program will have areas of improvement, but I feel that we still have something to improve with regard to the teaching system that I am living in on a daily basis. I believe that the objectives that arise from the university and the initiatives that are put in place are often inconsistent. It is often stressed the importance of having committed and active students, but it is difficult to guarantee spaces for reflection or individualized follow-up to young people with groups of around 100 people, it is difficult to respond to the new challenges from multiple points of view through learning and compartmentalized subjects, and it is difficult to integrate such a fashionable sustainability, without adapting resources and content to it.

However, as in all sectors, there are also breaths in our environment, and there are a wide variety of people who, from small spaces, often individually, are key to transformation. They're an example of engagement, certainly for me and also for the students.