What does it look like when schools try to foreground planetary thriving? More and more schools across the world are creating opportunities for children to look after and regrow part of their environment. Often it is diverse groups of indigenous peoples who have managed to create this work in schools. The goal here is not only knowledge and understanding – though this is certainly important – but also developing the values and ethic of care for the planet and its ecosystems. This is what it looks like when environmental and sustainability education moves from being something school's do to part of their purpose. In addition, a growing number of schools are making global competence part of their purpose. There is a long tradition of schools founded in the name of international cooperation, such as the United World Colleges, but increasingly this applies to state (or public) schools as well, such as the Asia Society's International Studies School Network. Developing global competence, including understanding of perspectives and working across cultures, but also working with a view to collective wellbeing, informs curriculum, teaching practice and assessment at these schools.

Formal institutional and legal reform is inadequate to achieve enhanced, effective international governance; attention must also be paid to engage the support and participation of global populations whom the institutions will serve. The foundation for a renewed United Nations must be the shared values of all those who support it, and a solid “civics” understanding of global institutions. Public education, both formal and informal, and extensive engagement with the mass media, are critical to establishing strengthened global governance. Populations around the world must be grounded in key principles of the international order—such as peaceful settlement of disputes and universal respect for human rights—to uphold these principles and the relevant institutions. Education is also needed for those who serve in enhanced global institutions and those who participate in international governance processes. Many will need new skills, new ways of thinking and particular qualities of evolved, ethical leadership relevant to their roles in complex, international environments. This chapter sketches the multiple forms of education and the related sharing of knowledge that should accompany the proposed processes of reform, to ensure the correct general cultural and practical circumstances needed for functional global governance, requiring unprecedented new levels of cooperation and investment.