The intrinsic sense that all people are connected to each other and to some grand opera is what some might call “spiritual.” I say this only to make this assertion: Across all generations and cultures there has been a common quest to uncover that mysterious thing within ourselves that is hard to define and yet defines us nonetheless. This thing evolves within us over time and speaks to us through an inner voice that shapes our core beliefs and our actions. We cannot deny it, even if we are not sure from where it derives.
Whatever we call this connection between things, between every single thing, it has not yet been adequately explained yet by scientists. It is an equation yet unsolved. Still, scientists, philosophers, and theorists across many disciplines now tell us that everything is connected to everything else. They have explored answers in the name of science that provide us some fascinating insights into matters of faith, a glimpse into the complex nature of things unseen.
As such, they implore us to step back a moment and take things in, for the world will come into spectacular view if we pull back the microscope a bit and gaze upon things from a more global view (sometimes called holism). This is the difference in perspectives, one might say, that Google Earth provides us and that we cannot see when we are down on the ground and counting the number of rows left until we are finished cutting the lawn.
In fact, we might surmise that there is nothing to behold at all in getting that close. We might decide that it is impossible to appreciate the vast wonder and beauty of Earth if we are too busy tugging at the weeds in the garden. This is probably a good time to remind us what Confucius said: “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
In Search of Wonder
The deep connection between mind and spirit is not a new concept if we dare to review what we have learned from ancient cultures across philosophical and spiritual traditions. In fact, for early philosophers (long before we were caught up in separating science from religion), there was no distinction between body and mind and between body and soul.
Across Eastern and Western cultures, we find words for breath like anima and spiritus in Latin, psyche and pneuma in Greek, and ruach in Hebrew. In their own ways, these are ancient conceptions of the soul. They express a sort of insight or intuition that is somehow breathed into each of us. This results in a high degree metacognition—self-awareness—that is unique to human beings and always has been.
This sense of feeling “most alive” and “totally aware of our environment” is often missing among our solutions in education and related social sciences. That is why we use terms like “systems” and “ecology” to describe a greater purpose and deeper connectivity among the work we do. These terms are designed to challenge our solution sets that are typically applied in fixing one crisis, one department, or one school at a time.
In fairness to our critics, our schools have come a long way from the cold and dreary places we knew of during the early days of the industrial age. Yes, we are no longer a Dickens novel. In many, many schools, promising experiments in student ownership and engagement are underway, even down to more comfortable furniture in our classrooms. Still, we might wonder what our students would say if we asked them about the last time they felt “most alive” or “totally aware.”
If we are to get it right, we must explore ways that schools and school districts can create this sense of wonder that we all share and that our children desire. In schools, this manifests itself in the material we teach, the ways we teach it, and the connections we form. If done well, we can create school experiences that are transcendent, not just transactional.
What may be lost on some is that these same desires are found among adults. This common sense of wonder and our common pursuit to understand it are things that make us living beings. In fact, they are lacking in many institutions throughout the world today, not just in schools. In large part, this is what is missing across the landscape of our political and social institutions. Politics that unite. Solutions that inspire.
In Search of Soul
In bridging the waters between the way things could be and the way things really are, a new social ecology must emerge that is considerate of the destructive nature of people in a world that is constantly searching for something it cannot find. In a uniquely human way, we seek social connections more than ever, even to the point of interacting with people we do not know through social media platforms we do not value.
In truth, we share a common bond because we are all spiritual beings. We are all searching for the same connections, whatever our love language may be. Appreciation. Approval. Admiration. Early Greek philosophers did not struggle with such things, in large part because they were not clouded by our modern insistence that we separate science from spiritual matters. They did not (or could not) separate the soul from the mind.
For the Greeks, the soul was provided a special rank that was unique to human existence. Think of the separation of mind and soul like the difference between memorizing something and actually knowing it, or the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Actually, some philosophers saw the soul as part of a grand force that moved the entire universe. Plato even gave it a name—anima mundi. The world soul.
Within our current corporate and political context, we lack a world soul. Unique to human experience is the ability to discover wisdom, which is much more than simple knowledge. Wisdom is often defined as the right use of knowledge, as the use of knowledge for the good of others. Wisdom as a virtue. If this is our definition, then we have a ways to go.
The path forward for leaders and managers of any organization is the same one available to those of us in education. Giving voice to people. Widening the system. Interconnectedness. Common understanding. Cultural respect. This might be best described as the ecology of people. Across the wide landscape of corporations, non-profits, political action groups, and civic organizations, we crave new structures that are people-centered and purpose-seeking.
This is where soulful leadership comes in. Our systems must be participatory. Our leaders must be servant-minded. Within schools and school districts, this is especially critical. We must build school systems that involve people and serve people, because that is the business we are in. Of course, relationships will be key because relationships are learning.
The next generation will demand innovations like these because the current system, as constructed, is not good enough to get us there. In the next generation, new systems will be formed that focus on things like engagement and empowerment, relevancy and connectedness. Teachers and students in these types of schools will form their own niches that are self-organized in support of their personal growth and advancement.
In response, industry will call on leaders in the new generation who have strong core beliefs and who live out those beliefs through word and deed. Not just sort-of, not just kind-of, but actually and genuinely. Maslow describes this as the difference between being something and trying to be something. The future will demand that our leaders, like our systems, remain nimble and forward-thinking. Highly competent and highly connected. Enlightened and empowering. Always learning, always caring, and always ready to take the system where it has never been before.
