What Happens When Young People Explore a Regenerative Future?

What kind of future do we want to create?

And what might happen if we begin exploring that question not only through ideas and discussions, but through our relationship with the living world around us?

This summer, we were invited by GiFT (Global Incubation x Fostering Talents) to contribute to “Diversity Voyage in Germany,” part of the Kyoto City Board of Education’s “Kyoto City High School Global Leader Development Training.”

Selected students from Kyoto City high schools joined Berlin high school students for a week of learning, dialogue and exploration. Their theme was “Realizing a Regenerative Future and Leadership”.

For us at DYCLE, this became an opportunity to explore what a regenerative future might mean when we begin not with an abstract definition, but with the living systems we are already part of.

Before talking about regeneration, we started with soil

One of our first activities was very simple. We placed five different kinds of soil in front of the students and asked: “If you were going to grow a plant, which soil would you choose?”

We had not yet explained our compost or talked about Living Soil. We simply invited them to look, smell and feel. Many of them chose the soil we make at DYCLE.

It was not because they had learned about soil science. They noticed the smell, the small insects and the signs of life within the soil.

They sensed something before they had the words to explain it. For us, this was an important beginning.

From sensing to seeing: the 5 Kingdoms of Nature

From there, we began to look more closely at the many forms of life that make our world possible.

In our 5 Kingdoms of Nature session, the students worked in groups with familiar foods and products — yoghurt, cheese, sauerkraut and others — and tried to figure out which Kingdom their unseen collaborators belonged to.

Bacteria.
Protists.
Fungi.
Plants.
Animals.

These are not simply categories in a textbook. They are our living companions, constantly shaping the world around us.

We then explored the place where DYCLE works: Atelier Gardens.

The students visited the community garden, the composting areas, the beekeeping space and even a toilet connected to urine collection, where we could talk about nitrogen returning to the cycle.

Standing in one place, they could begin to see that humans are not the only ones living there.

There are countless visible and invisible organisms participating in the life of that place.

We then brought these observations into a Systemic Design Mapping exercise. Using cards and photographs, the students worked in teams to create their own stories and connections.

Rather than giving them a single answer, we invited them to ask:
Who and what is connected here?

Then, they went out into the city

The following day was different. The students spent six hours exploring Neukölln district in small groups, largely on their own.

This was their time to experience Berlin as a place where people actually live: visiting parks, a Saturday market, the former airport grounds, vegan shops and other places around their everyday surroundings.

DYCLE did not facilitate this part of the program. We had suggested some places to explore, and the students decided how to move through the city, what to notice and what to discover.

They were not simply learning about Berlin.

They were experiencing it. They ate lunch together, walked, talked and encountered different ways of living.

Through these experiences, they began to ask their own questions about what kind of society they would like to see.

When young people start making their own connections

Looking back, we think the most interesting part was not any single workshop. It was what happened between the experiences.

At Prinzessinnengärten, DYCLE helped connect the group with a compost workshop, where they experienced another living system directly.

When the compost was harvested, the students were amazed by the soft, fluffy texture of the soil. They watched tiny insects suddenly appear and move through it.

They picked mint from the garden to make herb-infused water for lunch. They ate flowers and herbs grown in the garden. And then something small but memorable happened.

Some of the students from Japan had initially been worried that sitting directly on the grass might make their clothes dirty.

But once they finally sat down on the lawn, something seemed to shift. It was almost as if a switch had been turned on.

Suddenly, they began running around, laughing and gathering materials from the nature around them for their artworks.

For a moment, they seemed to become children again.

And perhaps that was also part of the learning.

Not being told what nature means, but becoming comfortable enough to play with it, notice it and create with what is around you.

From experience to their own stories

At the beginning of the program, only a few students raised their hands when we asked questions.

As the week progressed, more students began volunteering to answer in English.

And it was not always the same students. Different voices began to emerge.

Through the experiences they had accumulated, they started making their own connections.

At the end, five teams created their own artworks and presented their visions.

The results were all different.

And that was exactly what we hoped for. They were not asked to reproduce our idea of a regenerative future. They were invited to discover and express their own.

So, what did they learn about a regenerative future?

One student later reflected:

“I didn't know how I could engage with the theme of regeneration. But somehow, I feel like I now understand the world of it.”

That sentence stayed with us.

Because perhaps understanding does not always begin with a definition.

At DYCLE, we are careful with the word “regenerative.” For us, regeneration begins with our relationship with the living world with the many forms of life and ecosystems we are part of.

A new step for DYCLE

This project marked an important new step for DYCLE: beginning to work more intentionally in the field of education with the next generation.

We believe that environmental learning does not have to begin with fear, responsibility or a long list of things young people should do.

It can begin with curiosity.
With touching soil.
With noticing an insect.
With tasting a herb.
With walking through a neighbourhood.
With asking questions.
With making something together.

And perhaps most importantly, with realizing that the world is already full of relationships — many of them invisible to us.

We don't have to create the future alone.

We can learn to notice who and what is already here, and imagine the future together.

The future is not something we need to design for the next generation. We can explore it with them.