Why I will be in George Town on 14 and 15 November, and why I hope you will be too.
Children notice everything.
They notice when we say one thing and do another. They notice when the adults in the room are talking about them, rather than with them. And they notice, very quickly, whether their questions are welcome or merely tolerated.
As a mother of three, I have learnt that children rarely lack ideas. What they often lack is a room where those ideas are taken seriously.
That is what I keep coming back to as O-Earth 2026 draws near.
A question I cannot put down
My work has taken me through law, public service, coaching and the classroom. Different rooms, different rules. But the same question follows me into every one of them:
Are we preparing our children to fit into the future, or empowering them to create it?
In Malaysia, we are very good at preparation. We prepare for the next exam, the next stream, the next entry point. We prepare children for systems built by past generations, and then we are surprised when those systems do not fit the world they are walking into.
The future they need may not exist yet. If that is true, the most important thing we can give them is not a map. It is the confidence, the character and the company to draw one.
The right action, at the right time
On 14 and 15 November, O-Earth 2026, A New World Movement, will gather students, educators, parents and business people at One Garden, the historic Shih Chung site in George Town.
I find the setting fitting. Built in the 1880s as Goh Chan Lau, the Five-Storey Villa, it has been a residence, a consulate and a hotel. But generations of Penang families remember it as a school. A place where children learned and grew.
Its name, Shih Chung (時中), means the right action, at the right time.
I cannot think of a better description of where we are with education today. We do not lack awareness. We lack shared, timely action.
Not for them. With them.
O-Earth is built around three loves: love for people, love for all life, and love for the Earth.
These can sound abstract. They are not. They look like putting our phones down at the dinner table. Asking where the food on our plates came from. Treating a river as something that belongs to our grandchildren too.
At the heart of the gathering is the Future Earthling Initiative, and its principle is simple: build with the next generation, not for them.
Young people see possibilities that many of us have stopped seeing. But they should not have to carry the future alone. Our experience, joined with their courage, can build something neither could build by itself.
That is also why we are launching the O-Earth Founding Schools Circle, a voluntary platform that brings national, vernacular, private and international schools into the same conversation. Each school keeps its own identity and curriculum. No one is asked to become the same. We are simply asked to learn from one another.
For a country that has long sorted its children into separate streams, I think that matters more than we realise.
Journey 7
On the second day, participants will set out across Penang on ten Experience Journeys. I will be leading Journey 7: Are We Preparing Children for the Future, or to Create It?
We will ask what every child truly needs in 2050. Not only grades, but self-awareness, creativity, empathy, adaptability, courage and responsibility. And we will ask, honestly, whether our classrooms give children enough room to grow them.
I am grateful to be joined by Suria Zainal, President of Protect & Save The Children, who brings three decades of experience across national policymaking, coaching and child protection. Alongside her are Amiee Tan, Dionne Tan, Elfin Ng, Karmen Tan Yit Sin and Kangie Tan: educators, facilitators and founders who work with children's emotions, art, music and learning every day.
But the most important voices in that room will not be ours. They will be the children's.
A beginning, not a conclusion
Too often, adults speak from the stage while young people sit below and take notes. When it ends, everyone goes home, and very little changes.
O-Earth is designed differently. Every journey ends with a next step, an owner and a way forward. Children are recognised not only for their results, but for their curiosity, leadership, collaboration and contribution. And the work continues after the weekend, through school partnerships, community projects and mentorship.
I am not asking for a better conference. I am asking for a more honest one, where children are not just the audience, but co-authors.
So if you are a parent, an educator, a school leader, or simply someone who still remembers being a child with a question nobody had time to answer: come.
Come to listen. Come to be challenged. And come ready to build.
The future is not theirs alone. It is ours to co-create.
O-Earth 2026: A New World Movement
14 and 15 November 2026 · One Garden, Shih Chung Heritage Site, 11 Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, George Town, Penang
More information: www.oearth.org (opens in a new tab) · love@oearth.org