Learning and the Brain by Wilson Hall Headmaster Brent Kaneft: On wind and roots

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how" - Frederich Nietzsche

During the early 1990s, an experiment was taking place in New Mexico called Biosphere 2.

It was (and still is) a closed ecological system - air, food, community, everything had to be generated in this biodome. Though now it's used to study the impact of climate change, Biosphere 2 was initially used to experiment with the possibility that we could build self-sustaining ecosystems in outer space. The project failed for many reasons, but one of the failures captured my attention. The eight-person team that committed to this project observed that the trees in Biosphere 2 grew quickly but were dying before they reached maturity. They didn't fully understand why until they discovered that the problem was wind. In Biosphere 2, there was no wind, which meant the root structures never grew, never had to grow, and because the roots never grew, when the trees got too big, they just toppled over. They had no foundation, nothing to help them find balance. In a closed ecosystem, where everything is perfectly measured out and conditions are stable, trees don't thrive. They require the stress the wind provides.

Stress is a gift, then, not a curse. Good stress, or "eustress," helps students grow deep roots. But parents and schools alike, out of an abundance of caution and care, forget this essential aspect of adolescent development.

Jesus often talks about trees in the Bible as a metaphor for the heart. In Matthew 7:18, for example, he says, "A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit." And later, to amplify his point, "The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil" (Matt. 12:35, ESV). What Jesus is referring to are the roots of a person, their heart and soul, which, if oriented toward the higher good, toward "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable" (Phil. 4:8), will be a "moveable feast" for our young people - will stay with them wherever they go, through the Elysian fields and through the valley of the shadow of death.

Independent, charter and public schools have fallen prey to a misalignment in this regard. We have amplified phrases like "college prep, college and career ready, etc." in our mission statements, and though well intentioned suggest to students that the "good" fruit is the goal, not the process of developing deep and strong roots. The "good" fruit - wins, SAT scores, GPAs, community service hours, accolades of all shapes and sizes - is easily measurable and so becomes the target for our educational ecosystem. Of course, as I said in my last article, "when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure" (Goodhart's Law), and so many students compromise their honor and integrity (by cheating or accumulating obligatory community service hours) to achieve short-term, finite goals: college and career readiness. This misalignment doesn't mean that college and career readiness are bad goals; they're just not primary.

The primary reason for education is the development of the soul. By "soul" I mean a person's being, their heart, what is shaped in a person by struggle and eustress, the development of "why" a person exists on this earth, which, when understood, helps them bear any conditions that come their way. Root development is key, then, in schools.

But why?

Because we don't know exactly what the future will be: Could it be ecological devastation? A crumbling democracy? An incurable disease for themselves, their spouse, their children? An economy that is completely driven by artificial intelligence? Who knows?

The future is uncertain, and many schools make the mistake of suggesting certainty in the face of the unknown. They'll tell you the future is in technology or finance or engineering and we have to get ahead of that now, so your child can be a successful economic unit. Consider our obsession with getting ahead - college credit before college! Save money and time! But when we put the cart before the horse, often our little fledgling trees topple over at the first signs of trouble. Good character, integrity, deep roots: These attributes are the only guarantee of a successful life.

If, for example, we identify that high GPAs and SAT scores are the way to get into a good college, which they are, and if college acceptance is our ultimate goal, then potentially, students will change their ethical behavior and their integrity to meet that goal. Similar to how the algorithms on our social media apps change our decisions about what we post (i.e., the posts that get the most views and likes). These finite goals, college and career readiness, are motivated by economics, not ethics. And they are fragile, which leads to a fear of stress, a fear of failure and a fear of each other (because my peers, in this system, are my competition, not my neighbor). And that leads to weak, rootless trees.

In "The American Scholar," Ralph Waldo Emerson argues that "[t]he state of society today is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters - a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man." He wrote that early in the 19th century: How much have we learned since then? Are we a culture rooted in wisdom or are we cut off? "The tradesman [or businessman]," he claims, "scarcely ever gives an ideal worth to his work, but is ridden by the routine of his craft, and [his] soul is subject to dollars." We don't want to graduate students who are prepared for the economy and sorely underprepared for finding meaning in their lives. We cannot graduate students who have no better use for information than to manipulate it for profit. Again from Jesus, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36).

Last month, I argued that the purpose of school is development, but let me add icing to the cake: The purpose of school is soul development. Last week, our Director of Curriculum and Instruction & Head of Upper School, Stacey Reaves, who has been a mainstay in Sumter's educational ecosystem, challenged our seniors to answer the question: "Who is it you plan to be with your one wild and precious life?" It was a slight variation to the famous line written by the poet Mary Oliver: "What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Her question is about a student's roots, and Mary Oliver's is about the fruit of those roots.

And this is the correct order.

Next month, I will focus on the role of stress (the wind in my analogy) in this pursuit of soul development.

Brent Kaneft is headmaster of Wilson Hall.