What if learning is as much about aligning with brain functions as it is about hard work? What if success in school is not about being brilliant but about encouraging more and correcting less? When we imagine education through this lens, we open doors to innovation, joy, and real human flourishing.
Meet one of our six fictional brain friends, a namungo called BAS, who lives in the basal ganglia. BAS is like a storehouse keeper who collects our habits, routines, and memories. BAS means well, holding onto what kept us safe in the past, but sometimes slows us down by clinging to old ways, repeating unhelpful routines, and resisting change.
Now imagine what happens in education when we see BAS not as a barrier but as a guide. When schools understand that BAS stores ruts and resists change, we begin to build classrooms where learners are encouraged to take small, supported steps rather than being shamed for mistakes. Instead of demanding instant brilliance, we design repetition with encouragement so that BAS can gently upgrade to new possibilities.
When we notice that BAS holds both good and bad habits, we stop overloading learners with criticism and begin reinforcing valued habits of curiosity, persistence, and joy. Rather than labeling struggles as failures, we teach learners that BAS naturally fails to upgrade easily, and that is perfectly normal. With patience, encouragement, and practice, upgrades do happen.
BAS also loves comfort zones and resists risks. What if our education systems welcomed that tendency? Instead of punishing risk-takers for missteps, we could celebrate courage as the spark that rewires BAS. Instead of leaving learners stuck in fear of failure, we could invite them into safe experiments where risks are seen as the path to growth.
BAS also stores facts faithfully. This can be a gift if we teach in ways that connect facts to meaning and purpose. When facts are woven into stories, experiments, and experiences, BAS becomes a treasure chest of wisdom rather than a dusty attic of forgotten information.
Finally, because BAS holds onto past problems as well as solutions, we as seniors can step into classrooms, or even into conversations, with fresh fireworks of encouragement. We know what it feels like to get stuck in a rut, and we also know the joy of surprising ourselves with a new discovery. We can model what it looks like to live beyond burnout by aligning with how BAS works rather than fighting against it.
Imagine schools where teachers see BAS at work and adjust learning around brain truths. Encouragement would replace much of the old correcting. Practice would be re-framed as progress. Habits would be celebrated when they spark curiosity. And every learner, regardless of brilliance, would be free to flourish at the pace our brains were designed for.
When we align education with our brain’s design, BAS no longer slows us down. Instead, this quirky namungo becomes a trusted guide, reminding us that real learning is not about perfection but about progress, persistence, and possibilities.
Let’s reflect and discuss BAS further to discover how we might align our brain’s basal ganglia to our learning behaviors to improve our learning success.
- Because BAS reminds us that learning grows not from instant brilliance, but from repeated encouragement that rewires habits into hope, we get up and try again when we fail.
- When BAS is guided by encouragement instead of criticism, our stored ruts become stepping-stones to new discoveries, so we sidestep a critical inner voice in favor of practicing a kinder self-talk.
- BAS may cling to old tired or broken ways, but with patience and practice, we turn resistance into resilience and repetition into success, in fun and playful ways.
- In the hands of grace and growth, BAS transforms our comfort zones into launch-pads for possibilities we grow confidence to follow.
- Learning soars when we honor BAS as both our keeper of habits and our key to unlocking fresh potential, simply by developing an awareness to recognize the difference.
If we guide BAS with grace, our habits spark success. Our BAS turns ruts into roots of growth, when we nurture its seeds and cultivate change. Encourage valued skills in BAS, and we can ignite learning. BAS holds habits and hope rewires them. With BAS aligned, our learning progress becomes possible in the setting this opens.
