The Catalyst Effect - Why Early Childhood Educators Hold the Key to Sustainable Futures (Ep 3)

Episode 3: The Catalyst Effect - Why Early Childhood Educators Hold the Key to Sustainable Futures

Series: The First 2,000 Days: Building Brain Architecture and Sustainable Futures

Welcome to the final episode in our series exploring how child development and sustainability are the same story viewed from different angles.

Over the past two episodes, we've examined the extraordinary neuroscience of the grounding years and the troubling extinction of outdoor childhood. Today, we bring these threads together to reveal why early childhood educators have such extraordinary leverage to create sustainable futures.

In this episode:

We begin with a deceptively simple question: When does a person's capacity to care about the planet actually begin? The answer might surprise you. Through the story of Joseph and his shadow investigation, we explore what a catalytic effect actually means and how quality early childhood practice, when situated in relationship with the natural world, is already the most powerful form of sustainability education possible.

We address the misconception that holds many educators back, revealing the three interconnected domains of sustainability and why you're already working across all of them every single day. From growing vegetables to the ripple effects that extend far beyond your garden gate, we examine how your influence accelerates change at multiple levels.

We tackle practical concerns head-on. What if you don't feel confident about your own relationship with nature? Where do you start when global challenges feel overwhelming? How can one educator possibly make a difference? And we share stories that demonstrate just how powerful children are as change agents right now, including Bronwyn's son requesting a water tank for his fourth birthday and a child who convinced a cafe owner to replace plastic straws within one week.

Why This Matters:

Your daily choices are creating ripples that extend well beyond what's immediately visible. Every interaction where you model curiosity, every moment you encourage gentle handling of living creatures, every experience where children work together to care for growing things, you're simultaneously building cognitive, social, emotional, and environmental capacities.

The Message:

You are not just preparing children for school or providing care while families work. You are architects of possibility, working during the years when foundations are laid that will support or limit what becomes possible across

Transcript

Episode 3 Transcript: The Catalyst Effect - Why Early Childhood Educators Hold the Key to Sustainable Futuresto Sustainable Futures 

Series: The First 2,000 Days: Building Brain Architecture and Sustainable Futures

LIL: Welcome back to the Project Sustainability Collective podcast series, The First 2,000 Days, Building Brain Architecture and Sustainable Futures. I'm Lil.

BRON: And I'm Bron, and in this series, we've explored the neuroscience of the grounding years and discovered how children's relationship with nature takes shape during this same critical window of development. Last episode, we examined the extinction of experience and how outdoor play has vanished, and why childhood nature connection predicts adult environmental attitudes decades later.

LIL: Today, we plan to bring these threads together. So this episode is called The Catalyst Effect, Why Early Childhood Educators Hold the Key to Sustainable Futures.

BRON: We're examining why early childhood educators hold such an extraordinary level of leverage for creating sustainable futures and what it means to work at the intersection where human development and sustainable futures meet.

LIL: And we're starting with a very simple question, but it has profound implications. When does a person's capacity to care about the planet actually begin?

BRON: Most people assume that environmental consciousness develops later, perhaps through education in primary school or beyond, but the research tells a very different story.

LIL: The capacity to care about living systems beyond ourselves emerges during the same developmental period when children are learning to care about anything at all. When a two-year-old notices a small black beetle, and thinks about whether to squash it or observe it with interest, something fundamental is starting to take shape.

BRON: That moment really matters, obviously for the beetle, but also because of what's being wired in that child's developing brain about their relationship with other living things. Are they separate from and superior to the natural world, or are they part of an interconnected web of life?

LIL: And who is present during those formative moments? Who is modelling, approaching the beetle with curiosity? Who is creating the conditions where this learning happens?

BRON: It's the responsible adults, the families, the early childhood educators. You're present during the window when the foundations are being laid for how children will relate to the living world for the rest of their lives.

LIL: And this is what we mean when we talk about educators, meaning you, and any other early childhood professionals or leaders of organisations, when we talk about you as catalysts. A catalyst is something that accelerates a process. It makes it possible. Often the catalyst itself doesn't become consumed by the reaction, but its presence, meaning your attitudes, your daily choices, they are catalysing the development of capacities that will ripple through children's entire lifetimes.

BRON: So let's be a little bit specific around what this looks like. Joseph, an educator working with four-year-olds, he's planning his week, thinking about the children's interests and development. He's noticed they've been fascinated by the shadows cast by trees on sunny days. Now, a traditional approach might involve reading books about shadows and perhaps doing an indoor science demonstration with torches and objects or light tables. And these activities aren't wrong, but they do miss something crucial.

LIL: Yeah, so Joseph takes a different approach. He doesn't immediately take the whole exploration indoors. He doesn't take control of it. He supports the children to continue their own investigations without obviously directing them. That doesn't mean he's not doing anything. He still provides materials, outdoors and possibly even indoors, that create interesting shadows. Loose parts children can arrange and rearrange. He notes children's conversations and he captures their actions with photographs that might reveal their discoveries. But he doesn't rush. He reinforces children's interest by offering timely, relevant language, and he asks genuine questions about what they are noticing rather than explaining what shadows are. If appropriate, and when appropriate, he might ask children to share their experiences, their theories, and ideas within the group. Most importantly, he lets those children's investigations unfold over time at their pace and in line with their interests. He allows them to return to their investigations repeatedly so they can observe how shadows change with the sun's movement and as the thing develops, even with the seasons. But Joseph goes still further. He's aware that there are many other concepts embedded in this shadow investigation. He knows that shadows are about time, about seasons, about the role of the sun. He knows that encapsulated in this shadow play is the concept of energy, of how nocturnal animals and animals that live in the day are impacted. And there are many, many other concepts available to him. This awareness is really important because those are the potential for extending the learning. But Joseph is not going to swamp the children with these ideas because his reflective practice is going to have him hold those opportunities, keeping them alive, and waiting for the perfect moment where he can move into something that retains the children's interest and carries them along with him.

BRON: So what he's actually doing here is supporting the children's cognitive development through sustained investigation. He's building their capacity for focused attention and persistence. He's encouraging collaboration and communication as they work together. And all of this is quality early childhood practice.

LIL: And simultaneously, he's doing something else. He's helping children to develop a relationship with a specific interest, at a specific time, in a specific place, with particular trees, with particular shadows on a particular earth, with the movement of the sun across their sky. He is supporting them to notice patterns in the natural world around them. When children understand patterns, they begin to understand how the world works. They begin to develop a sense of what is predictable. He's modelling that their efforts, both indoors and outdoors, are worth revisiting, observing more closely and deepening their learning. Their experiences lead them to value and care for their place.

BRON: The children in Joseph's care are developing both their general capacities and their specific relationship with the natural world. These aren't separate outcomes, they're integrated development happening simultaneously.

LIL: You will have heard us in the past podcasts talking about this kind of integration. And this is what we mean when we say that you have a catalyst effect. Joseph isn't adding sustainability education on top of child development. He recognises that quality education is situated in the relationship with the world and particularly the natural world, and is already the most powerful sustainability education possible.

BRON: Now, I know some educators worry that they don't know enough about sustainability to take this on. So let's address that directly because it's a misconception that can often hold people back from taking action. So when we talk about sustainability, we're actually talking about 3 interconnected domains. So often people will come at sustainability from an environmental perspective. So the environmental domain addresses how humans interact with natural systems. But that's not the full story. There's also the social domain which considers equity and justice and the relationships between people and communities. And then there's the economic domain, which examines how resources are produced, distributed, and consumed.

LIL: Yeah, so these three domains are part of the Early Years Learning Framework in Australia's sustainability principle, but they are valid for any early years framework across the globe. The three domains, social, environmental, and economic, are interdependent. You can't really address environmental challenges without considering social justice, and you can't create equitable societies without viable economic systems. It's impossible to build sustainable economies without healthy ecosystems.

BRON: And here's what matters for early childhood educators. You're already working across all three of these domains every single day.

LIL: And you may not know that, or you may not recognise it entirely. But when you create an inclusive environment where every child feels valued as though they belong, you're building social sustainability. When you help children learn to share their resources, consider others' needs, you're laying the groundwork for economic thinking. When you provide opportunities to connect with and care for the natural world, you're nurturing environmental consciousness.

BRON: So you're not starting from scratch. You're recognising that your existing practice already addresses many of these interconnected systems. The shift is in awareness and intention rather than adding completely new activities.

LIL: Let us give you a practical example. Think about a common early childhood experience, which is growing vegetables with children. So this might relate also to herbs and plants in your classroom or an actual vegetable garden outside. And this happens in services everywhere. Consider what's actually occurring across the three domains of sustainability.

BRON: So environmentally, children are learning about plant life cycles, soil health, seasonal patterns, and interdependence between plants, pollinators, and decomposers. They're developing direct relationships with growing things. Socially, they're learning to share responsibility for caring for living things. They're negotiating who does the watering, discussing how to harvest and share the produce fairly, cooperating to solve problems like pest management or providing shade. Maybe even who's going to look after those plants during the school holidays or when the centre's closed. Economically, they're also discovering that food doesn't simply appear in shops. They're learning about production and how much work goes into growing food and how food is distributed. They might even explore questions about what happens to vegetables when they aren't the perfect size or shape.

LIL: All three domains are present in this one experience. You're not teaching about sustainability abstractly. Children are living within systems and developing understanding through their direct experience.

BRON: And this brings us to something that's really essential, starting small. The scale of global sustainability challenges can feel overwhelming. Things like climate change and biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are massive, complex problems. But how can early childhood educators possibly make a difference?

LIL: I know we have educators ask us this sometimes, Bron, when we work with them. How can me, me in my own home, me in my own classroom, how can we make a difference? Well, you make a difference by knowing that you're working with the children in your care daily. You make a difference by remembering that your work isn't at the global scale. It is at the scale of children's actual lives and your life. Your place, their specific place, your and their immediate relationships. The natural elements you and they encounter every day, just like Joseph, we discussed earlier, are working closely with children in your place.

BRON: So David Sobel, the environmental education researcher, put it perfectly, No traumas, please. Before the age of 11 or so, confronting children with adult-level environmental issues can generate anxiety and apathy rather than action and responsibility.

LIL: Yeah, learning about melting ice caps or endangered species on other continents is less immediate for children. They benefit from playing with the puddles in their own yard, in their own garden, creating kinship with the birds, the magpie that visits their outdoor area, and valuing the trees like that legacy gum tree right in the middle of their garden that's providing them with shade. Children are capable of understanding complexity. It doesn't have to be simple. But it needs to be direct experience in a familiar context. So direct experience is more impactful than abstract knowledge.

BRON: And this is what we mean when we talk about place-connected learning. Children need to fall in love with specific places before they can care about abstract ecosystems. They need to develop attachment to particular trees, particular insects, particular patches of ground that they know intimately. Place-connected learning is what provides the context for bigger, larger scale challenges.

LIL: And this connects directly to what we've already shared with you about child development research. Young children learn through their senses. They understand what they can see, touch, smell, and hear. Now, I'm not saying that children don't have abstract thought. They do, but they need to actually develop a concept through this experiential understanding before they can start to think about it and talk about it in an abstract way. So global problems that are distant, out of their context, may actually engender anxiety rather than connection. The relationship with specific places, these are exactly what their developing brains are designed for.

BRON: When children develop those strong connections to their local place during the grounding years, they're building neural pathways and emotional foundations that will later extend to caring about ecosystems they've never directly experienced. The specific becomes the foundation for the general.

LIL: So starting local isn't a limitation. It's pedagogically sound. You can help children appreciate that gum tree in their outdoor area and understand how it is part of an interdependent system, including plants, animals, the air, water, soil, and people. This work is more impactful education for sustainability than the one showing four-year-olds documentaries about deforestation.

BRON: Now let's talk about this, how this work happens in practice, because it's not about any individual educator having all the knowledge or doing everything perfectly. It's about using the strengths of your team.

LIL: Absolutely, Bron. And in our work with teams of educators, when we listen to their stories and when we hear what they can bring, it is incredible how their collective skill and interest can be launched in embedding sustainability. Every educator brings different knowledge, different interests, different capacities. So one might be passionate about gardening, know everything about good soil, good nutrients, and good ways to make plants grow. One might be expert at documenting children's learning to great effect. Another might have a deep knowledge of the local indigenous perspectives on place. And another might have community networks that will help to expand everyone's knowledge. There are those who are skilled at art, which is so important for children's ability to express their knowledge. And then there are those that just love investigating insects with children. All of these skills are valuable for sustainability.

BRON: So when you work collaboratively, these different strengths create a rich web of sustainability learning without any single person needing to be the expert on everything. Together, you're creating an environment where children encounter multiple entry points for connecting with the world around them. Different children will resonate with different aspects, and that diversity of approach strengthens your overall program.

LIL: And whilst we're addressing you here, obviously as educators and early years professionals, and talk about your skills, never underestimate the knowledge of the children you are working with every day, because they come with an incredible amount of knowledge, which often goes untapped. And now let's address another thing, the reality of time and capacity. We are not asking you to add sustainability as another isolated responsibility for you or any one person, particularly a sustainability champion. You're recognising how each team member's existing interests and strengths already contribute to sustainability learning when you view it through this lens.

BRON: And this brings us to something crucial about how we understand sustainability in an early childhood context. Nothing exists in isolation. Everything is connected and everything is interdependent. We talked a lot about how development occurs across all of those domains all at once, and learning is the same. Everything is connected, nothing is done in isolation.

LIL: When children water the garden, they're not just doing a task. They are participating in relationships between water, soil, plants, insects, birds, weather patterns, human needs, and seasonal cycles. When they collect fallen leaves, they're engaging with the ideas of decomposition, nutrient cycles, and the changing seasons. Now, as you listen, you're probably thinking these concepts sound very remote and very complex. But when children see what's happening and you describe in a subtle, interesting way how the leaves rot into food for the soil, children will easily understand that and come up with ways to make compost. You're giving them the reason the why for the activities that are often provided with no explanation.

BRON: So your role as educators is to help children become increasingly aware of these connections, not through lectures or adult-led activities, but about ecology and learning through noticing and wondering and investigating together.

LIL: Yeah, when you comment on how the worms help to break down the food scraps in the compost, you are highlighting this kind of connection. When you and the children notice that the birds visit more frequently after you've planted particular shrubs, you're drawing attention to interdependence. And when you explore with children how rain collects in different parts of the outdoor area, you're supporting systems thinking.

BRON: And here's what matters. Children can develop these understandings. We often underestimate young children's capacity to grasp these complex relationships. When those relationships are made visible through direct experience, that becomes so much more palatable and easy for them to understand.

LIL: Exactly. And research consistently shows that children are capable of sophisticated thinking about natural systems when they have rich hands-on experiences to ground that understanding. When they see it, they observe cause and effect. They notice the patterns, and then they can begin to understand why living things depend on each other.

BRON: So this brings us to something really important about how we view children in relation to sustainability. Children aren't just future citizens who will someday care about the planet. So sustainability is not just about their future. They are present members of our ecological communities right now.

LIL: Yeah, they have agency right now if we allow them, if we provide the opportunity. They make choices now that affect living systems. They develop relationships now that shape how they engage with the world. When we only frame sustainability in terms of children's futures, we miss their current significance.

BRON: So a four-year-old who insists on carefully relocating a spider rather than killing it is already exercising sustainability values. A five-year-old who notices the birdbath is empty and fills it is already taking environmental action. These aren't rehearsals for future activism, they're genuine expression of care happening in the present. Lil, I don't know if I've told you the story about my son, who when he was four years old and at kinder, he asked for a water tank for his birthday. And that was because they had just installed water tanks at kinder and he really enjoyed playing in the sandpit and water made that so much fun. And because they had that experience at kinder, he wanted to translate that to have that experience at home. So of course, we got him a water tank for his fourth birthday. And I can tell you they're very hard to wrap.

LIL: I love that story, Bron. And it just shows the impact young children have, because when they communicate with their families, like he did with you, you change your behaviour or do things that you hadn't anticipated. So children are highly effective change agents. And when you as an educator recognise and value children's expressions of care, you reinforce their identity as people who can positively impact the living world around them. Not someday, today.

BRON: And this matters because so much sustainability discourse focuses on the terrible futures children will inherit, the problems they'll need to solve, the damage previous generations have caused, and this narrative positions children as victims or future saviours, but not as present participants.

LIL: It's also not particularly motivating. When you get a dominant message that is doom and gloom, and giving you overwhelming responsibility, people often respond with paralysis or apathy rather than engagement. And that links to when an educator might ask, as one of ours in a team asked, how can I make a difference on my own?

BRON: But when children experience themselves, and we all experience ourselves as valued members of ecological communities during particularly these grounding years, when they develop genuine relationships with other living things, when they see their care making a visible difference in the lives of these plants and animals and birds and creatures that they know personally, that builds a very different foundation.

LIL: It builds a sense, yes, of connection rather than separation. It builds efficacy rather than helplessness. And research consistently shows that these positive emotions and relationships are what actually motivate sustainability action over time.

BRON: Let's bring this back to you as educators and your role as catalysts. What does it actually mean to work at this intersection where human development and sustainable futures meet?

LIL: It means recognising that you're not doing two separate jobs. You're not supporting child development and running a curriculum and doing education for sustainability. You're supporting the dual development of the whole child who understands themselves as part of and not separate from the living world.

BRON: Every interaction where you model curiosity about natural processes is simultaneously supporting cognitive development and environmental consciousness. Every moment when you encourage gentle handling of living creatures is simultaneously teaching emotional regulation and respect for living things. Every experience where children work together to care for growing things and conserving resources like water and energy is simultaneously building social, economic, and environmental understanding.

LIL: This is integrated practice, and it's powerful because it aligns with how children actually develop. They don't learn, as we've said many times, in separate categories. Their cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development, and their identity as stewards of the world around them are all interconnected.

BRON: So let's talk about the ripple effects, because your influence extends far beyond the children directly in your care.

LIL: Children who develop strong nature connections in early childhood settings bring those attitudes and practices home. Just like that request for the bird bath, Bron.

BRON: The water tank.

LIL: Oh, sorry, the water tank.

BRON: I didn't get the hot pink one that he requested, but.

LIL: Oh my gosh. Parents, like you, notice changes. Now, a child who wants to rescue spiders rather than kill them influences family practices. A child excited about composting, and my gosh, you won't believe how passionate they can get about it, advocates for it at home. And a child who loves the outdoor environment asks their families to spend more time in nature.

BRON: And as parents are often more receptive to ideas coming from their children than from others, there's lots of research showing that children can be powerful agents of change within families, particularly around sustainability practices.

LIL: But that influence extends beyond individual families. When early childhood services visibly prioritise outdoor play, nature connection, and sustainability understanding, they're influencing community norms about what quality early childhood education looks like. In one of the centres that I worked, they were talking about and had an exhibition actually about sustainability. One of the things that they spoke about was plastic waste in the oceans. A child from that class visited a local cafe where she noticed a jar of plastic straws on the counter. So she went up to the restaurant owner and asked whether she might bring, the following week when her family came back, a poster to put up in his window about saving the oceans. Well, he was so impacted that those plastic straws disappeared and they were replaced with paper straws within one week. So they really do influence community.

BRON: And other services notice what you're doing as well. Families choose early childhood services increasingly based on their nature programs and sustainability focus. So your practice creates permission and precedent for others to follow.

LIL: Absolutely. Your influence grows, and this is part of the catalyst effect. Your choices accelerate change, and that extends well beyond your immediate sphere of influence because you're helping to shift what becomes normal and expected in early childhood education.

BRON: And as this shift occurs across the sector, it influences policy and social norms and systems as well. So when large numbers of early childhood services demonstrate that nature-based sustainability-focused practice produces better developmental outcomes, that creates evidence for policy change.

LIL: And it supports arguments for outdoor space requirements, for professional development in education for sustainability, for the recognition of early childhood education as critical infrastructure for sustainable futures.

BRON: So your daily practice with children is simultaneously contributing to sector transformation and broader cultural change. The individual educator making intentional choices becomes part of a collective movement with systems-level impact.

LIL: I want to address, as you do, Bron, something practical. If you're an educator listening to this and you're feeling inspired but uncertain where to start, what is your first step?

BRON: As we said in our previous podcast, we want to start small. So start with observation. Spend a little bit of time noticing what's already happening in your setting, and I think you'll be surprised at how much you're actually doing. Where are the children already connecting with natural elements? What do they gravitate toward outdoors? So perhaps think about Lil's map that she referred to in the previous episode about mapping where children like to congregate or gather in the outdoor space. What questions do they ask about living things? What natural materials do they incorporate into their play?

LIL: Because you will discover you're already doing a lot more sustainability-focused work than you realise. Once you start viewing your practice through this lens, you'll notice opportunities everywhere.

BRON: Then you can make one small intentional change. Perhaps you might protect longer periods of uninterrupted outdoor time, or perhaps you introduce a new natural material for children to explore. Perhaps you start a small garden bed or bring some more natural elements indoors. Maybe you simply become more intentional about the language you use when commenting on children's discoveries in nature.

LIL: Yeah, there are two things there. Language is so important. When children have a word for something, they can do it. And the second thing is, you may be already much more advanced than what we are talking about. And in that case, start to think about how you can influence others beyond your garden gate. Any specific change matters much less than the intentionality behind it. When you make a deliberate choice to strengthen children's connection with the natural world, you're beginning to, or continuing to, operate as a catalyst.

BRON: And once you begin seeing the impact of small changes, you'll naturally identify lots more opportunities. This work builds momentum. So once you start, you build momentum and one change leads to another. What seems difficult initially becomes integrated into your practice.

LIL: You'll start to notice support systems also that you didn't know were there. Colleagues will share your interests and you'll find out more about them. Families who start to hear about what you're doing will value this approach and they will bring their experience. Professional learning opportunities will arrive that deepen your understanding and resources will come along that make the work easier. Awareness brings support.

BRON: But Lil, I think we need to address the reality that not all educators feel confident about their own relationships with nature. And some educators might be thinking, I'm not comfortable outdoors myself, I don't know much about plants or insects, how can I facilitate nature connection when I feel uncertain?

LIL: Yeah, we can't play this down. It is a very important point, and it can be a real barrier for some educators. But here's what we'd like you to hear. You don't have to be a sustainability expert. You don't have to be able to identify every bird, plant, or insect. You don't need to have all the answers.

BRON: What you do need is genuine curiosity and a willingness to learn alongside children. In fact, some of the most powerful sustainability learning happens when educators model being learners themselves.

LIL: That's so true. When you say, Oh my gosh, I wonder what kind of beetle this is. Shall we go and look it up together? You're teaching children that not knowing is the starting point for investigation and finding out. When you express genuine interest in children's discoveries, even if you can't name what they found, you're valuing curiosity and you will grow your expertise.

BRON: And your own relationship with nature can develop alongside children's. As you spend more time outdoors with them, as you observe what captures their attention, as you learn together about living things in your environment, your own confidence and connection will grow.

LIL: I can attest to this, Bron, because it happened to me. After we had a collaboration with a group of children at a school we were working with, and we concentrated on the value of the trees as a very important species in the garden, my sense of what trees were and how important, how beautiful they were just grew exponentially. And I come back so excitedly saying, I can't tell you how gorgeous this tree was that I saw when I was on my way somewhere. So it becomes infectious. And this is one of the very beautiful aspects of this work. It is transformative, but not only for children, it will transform you. Many educators report that facilitating nature connection for children has rekindled or deepened their own relationship with the natural world.

BRON: So if you're feeling uncertain, that's okay. Start wherever you are. Begin with small steps and learn alongside the children. Your genuine engagement matters more than your expertise.

LIL: One of the greatest things I ever saw was you hugging that big tree in the garden.

BRON: It was very huggable.

LIL: It was a very huggable tree. Now let's look at the bigger picture. Oh, I just needed to say before I carry on that the children continue to hug that tree, don't they?

BRON: They do indeed.

LIL: Now, let's look at the bigger picture of why this work is really urgent. Bron, what happens if we don't act during this critical window?

BRON: Well, we talked in the last episode about the extinction of experience and each generation with less nature connection than the previous one. So each generation with weaker emotional motivation to protect natural systems. And this happens at exactly the moment when humanity faces unprecedented sustainability challenges that require an unprecedented response.

LIL: The children currently in early childhood services will be adults around the 2040s and beyond. They will continue to have to make critical decisions about planetary futures. They are the ones who will be voting, consuming, advocating, leading during the period when climate change continues to impact and intensify biodiversity loss and other instances of environmental damage.

BRON: So whether they have the emotional capacity to care enough to act, whether they have the cognitive capacity to think systematically about complex challenges, and whether they understand themselves as part of or separate from natural systems. All of this is being shaped right now during these grounding years.

LIL: And we've asked this question before, who is present during this formation period? It is you, the early childhood educator, you are quite literally shaping the generation that will determine planetary futures. You might think about educators in the upper years, and yes, they will have an influence, but not as deep as your influence. It's not an exaggeration. It is what the developmental research tells us.

BRON: So when we understand the extraordinary convergence, the critical window for brain development and the critical window for nature connection and the critical period for human history in relation to planetary systems, the significance of early childhood educators becomes undeniable. So when society invests in quality early childhood education, when early childhood educators are properly trained and supported and resourced, and when nature connection and sustainability thinking are recognised as integral to quality practice, this isn't just supporting children's development. It's building the foundation for sustainable futures.

LIL: Let's bring this to a close by connecting back to where we started. Why are early childhood educators essential to both child development and sustainability? Because they are not separate domains, they are the same work viewed from different angles.

BRON: And the educator supporting optimal development during these grounding years is simultaneously the educator shaping how children understand their place in living systems. The educator building children's cognitive, social, and emotional capacities is simultaneously the educator nurturing environmental consciousness. These are integrated aspects of a single, powerful role. And this means your work deserves recognition. It deserves support, resources, and respect, commensurate with its significance. When societies understand that early childhood educators, what they're actually doing in terms of shaping both human development and sustainable futures during the most powerful window, the current undervaluation becomes indefensible.

LIL: So to every early childhood educator listening, you're not just preparing children, as we said earlier, for school. You're not just providing care while families go out to work. You are architects of possibility, working towards the years when foundations are laid that will support or limit what becomes possible across entire lifetimes.

BRON: So trust the significance of your work. Act with intention. Recognise that your daily choices are creating ripples that expand far beyond what's immediately visible to you.

LIL: This has been our series on the first 2000 days, Building Brain Architecture and Sustainable Futures. We really hope these episodes have helped you see the profound connection between child development and sustainability and recognise your extraordinary role at the intersection where both are shaped.

BRON: Now, we'd love to continue this conversation, and you can connect with us through the Project Sustainability Collective website, or join discussions in the Early Years Sustainability Facebook group, or explore our programs that support educators in this vital work.

LIL: Thank you for the essential work you do every day with children during the grounding years. The late John Schaar, political theorist and Professor Emeritus, said, The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.

BRON: We'll catch you next time on the Project Sustainability Collective podcast.