Every meaningful project begins with a simple but important act: listening.

As partners in the SPIRIT project, we often find ourselves talking about the future. Technology is evolving at an extraordinary pace, artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday life, and the world our youngest students will one day inherit is changing in ways we can only begin to imagine. It would have been easy to start designing activities based on our own assumptions about what children need. Instead, we chose to pause and listen. Across Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary, Italy and Romania, psychologists with expertise in children’s cognitive and emotional development shared their perspectives on the challenges today’s children are likely to face and, more importantly, the skills that will help them lead balanced and deeply satisfying lives. Their insights reminded us that preparing children for the future is about far more than preparing them for future jobs. It is about helping them become adaptable, emotionally resilient, curious and connected human beings.

Among the many conversations, our interview in Cyprus left a particularly lasting impression. Rather than seeing technology itself as the greatest challenge, our psychologist reflected on something much more fundamental: the quiet loss of community. Previous generations, she explained, often grew up surrounded by built-in support systems—extended families, neighbours and communities that shared life’s joys and burdens. Today, despite being more connected than ever digitally, many people experience a growing sense of isolation. Her concern was not that artificial intelligence or digitalisation will inevitably distance us from one another, but that without intention and meaningful human connection, they easily can. She also offered a perspective that has stayed with us ever since. When we spoke about helping children build happy lives, she gently challenged the idea, suggesting that perhaps we should instead be helping them build satisfying ones. Happiness is fleeting; a satisfying life is built through growth, purpose and the ability to navigate adversity. Children do not develop resilience by avoiding challenges, but by being supported as they learn to face them. That conversation served as a quiet reminder that education is not about shielding children from every difficulty, but about giving them the confidence, emotional awareness and support to move through life’s inevitable uncertainties.

As we move forward with SPIRIT, these conversations will shape the activities, resources and teacher training we develop together. Before creating tools, we wanted to understand the children those tools are ultimately meant to serve. If there is one lesson we are taking from this first stage of the project, it is that the future will not only ask children to be knowledgeable—it will ask them to remain deeply human. We hope the work ahead will help teachers nurture exactly that.