When I was growing up in Colorado, in what some would call “the high desert,” there weren’t a ton of trees. While the Rocky Mountains are covered in forest, the plains to the east are, well, plain. So when I moved to Arkansas as an adult, I was stunned by the lush greenery dominating the landscape. Even in the middle of town, the roads are lined with dense woods. Nearly every neighborhood has what seems like hundreds of trees—many of which long predate the houses beneath their branches.
As the leaves have begun changing here in Little Rock, I’ve been thinking about trees—or, more specifically, about forests. It’s easy to think of a forest as a collection of individual trees, but that’s not the whole story. According to the research of Canadian scientist Dr. Suzanne Simard, “forests are deeply connected and collaborative places.” Simard’s work attests that trees can actually share resources like carbon and nitrogen through fungal networks in their roots. “Mother Trees,” the oldest and biggest trees in a forest, act as central hubs for all these resources, storing and distributing them to their younger, smaller counterparts.
It’s vital to the health of a forest to protect and preserve its oldest trees. But a healthy forest isn’t made up of only Mother Trees; it’s a mix of young and old. If a forest doesn’t have any smaller saplings, that’s a potential indicator that the soil conditions aren’t conducive to growth. Younger trees also pull carbon dioxide from the air at a faster rate than older ones, helping to slow the effects of climate change. The point is: You need trees of all ages to create a healthy environment.
The same principle is true in your school community. In your classrooms, you need experienced teachers and leaders with institutional knowledge they can share with everyone—but you also need the energy and new ideas of those in their first few years of teaching. You need your students to feel valued and heard, but you also need retirees in your community to feel connected to your school system. If your district is going to thrive, it needs a network much like that fungal network between the roots of trees, connecting stakeholders of all generations.
So when we say this issue of SchoolCEO is focusing on generations, that’s what we mean. It’s not all about the break down of who’s a baby boomer and who’s a millennial (though we cover that, too)—it’s about how to connect people of all ages with your school system and with each other.
As always, thanks for reading!
When I was growing up in Colorado, in what some would call “the high desert,” there weren’t a ton of trees. While the Rocky Mountains are covered in forest, the plains to the east are, well, plain. So when I moved to Arkansas as an adult, I was stunned by the lush greenery dominating the landscape. Even in the middle of town, the roads are lined with dense woods. Nearly every neighborhood has what seems like hundreds of trees—many of which long predate the houses beneath their branches.
As the leaves have begun changing here in Little Rock, I’ve been thinking about trees—or, more specifically, about forests. It’s easy to think of a forest as a collection of individual trees, but that’s not the whole story. According to the research of Canadian scientist Dr. Suzanne Simard, “forests are deeply connected and collaborative places.” Simard’s work attests that trees can actually share resources like carbon and nitrogen through fungal networks in their roots. “Mother Trees,” the oldest and biggest trees in a forest, act as central hubs for all these resources, storing and distributing them to their younger, smaller counterparts.
It’s vital to the health of a forest to protect and preserve its oldest trees. But a healthy forest isn’t made up of only Mother Trees; it’s a mix of young and old. If a forest doesn’t have any smaller saplings, that’s a potential indicator that the soil conditions aren’t conducive to growth. Younger trees also pull carbon dioxide from the air at a faster rate than older ones, helping to slow the effects of climate change. The point is: You need trees of all ages to create a healthy environment.
The same principle is true in your school community. In your classrooms, you need experienced teachers and leaders with institutional knowledge they can share with everyone—but you also need the energy and new ideas of those in their first few years of teaching. You need your students to feel valued and heard, but you also need retirees in your community to feel connected to your school system. If your district is going to thrive, it needs a network much like that fungal network between the roots of trees, connecting stakeholders of all generations.
So when we say this issue of SchoolCEO is focusing on generations, that’s what we mean. It’s not all about the break down of who’s a baby boomer and who’s a millennial (though we cover that, too)—it’s about how to connect people of all ages with your school system and with each other.
As always, thanks for reading!