The Evolving Adult Brain: Adults Are Still Becoming. How Are We Supporting Them?

If you were to look at a map of the western watershed without any borders, you would see a vast, interconnected ecosystem where water flows according to ancient, universal laws. Yet, we try to manage this organic system using artificial borders and rigid policies.

I find this remarkably similar to the fraught relationship between how humans actually develop and how school systems try to create change.

In my work with schools, there is a repeated mantra I hear from exhausted school leaders: "It's not the kids; it's the adults!" We impose rigid mandates, "one-size-fits-all" professional development, and static frameworks onto our teachers, expecting immediate behavioral shifts. We treat them like finished products who just need a software update. But just as water follows the natural laws of the water cycle, adults follow the natural laws of human development.

To build a thriving ecosystem in our schools—like a functioning Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)—we must stop trying to manage the water with artificial borders and start understanding the water cycle itself.

In part one of our new series, The Evolving Educator, we explore the myth of the "finished" adult, the mechanics of Constructive-Developmental Theory, and why asking teachers to shift to a restorative mindset requires a profound developmental leap, not just a behavioral one.