The Heroes Journey: A story of Agency

Wilbur, a bright young scholar and promising athlete, was supposed to go to Yale—but fate intervened on a frozen pond during a hockey game. Wilbur found himself on the wrong end of a cocaine-induced rage at the hands of Oliver Crook Haugh, a future serial killer. Haugh smashed his stick across Wilbur's face, leaving him missing two teeth and with a nasty head injury. His college dreams now shattered, Wilbur was confined to his home for months, then years. To make matters worse, life dealt yet another difficult hand as he quietly assumed responsibility for caring for his ailing mother. Where most people might relinquish ambition, Wilbur chose instead to lean in, cultivating an inner determination and exploring books, ideas, and daring dreams that reached far beyond his modest room. In circumstances that could easily extinguish a weaker spark, Wilbur's quiet fire only grew, preparing him not just to face life's hardships, but to shape history itself. Years later, alongside his brother Orville, Wilbur would astonish the world as one of the visionary Wright brothers—forever changing humanity's relationship with the skies.

Wilbur Wright's story is inspiring, but it certainly isn't unique. Tales of overcoming the odds reach back into the throes of oldest history. Einstein famously was disengaged with school, Marcus Aurelius became one of the most famous Roman Emperors despite living through a devastating plague, fending off constant barbarian attacks, and losing eight of his thirteen children.

Consider also the case of Thomas Edison, whose formal education ended after just three months when his teacher declared him "addled." His mother took matters into her own hands, homeschooling the young Edison, who would later recall: "My mother was the making of me." When faced with 10,000 failed attempts at inventing the electric light bulb, Edison remarked, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." This persistent agency—this active decision to pursue a goal despite setbacks—would drive him to hold over 1,000 patents and revolutionize modern life through innovations that still impact us daily.

The classic idea of the hero's journey has roots dating back to early writing with the story of Beowulf. The concept of greatness through struggle has endured the test of time. It provides a universal lesson to everyone regardless of their circumstance to rise above and take charge of their situation. Control what you can control and shed the rest, as the Stoics would say.

It is puzzling that in today's cultural moment, we have all but removed the notion of the underdog overcoming odds from our society's discourse. This is predominantly evident in our entertainment, where heroes appear on screen fully intact and undefiable. The easiest place to find this is in the Star Wars franchise, where a once conflicted and untrained Luke Skywalker had to use courage, grit, and even humility to overcome Darth Vader. He also wouldn't have been able to save the universe without the help of a ragtag group of co-stars who had their own internal struggles.

The final three Star Wars movies were centered around a character who required no training, had no setbacks (other than being spiritually connected to the antagonist), and didn't at all seem to be in trouble throughout the entire adventure. The Critical Drinker best describes the current cultural moment in his YouTube videos, the most famous being "Why Modern Movies Suck" and "They Killed Our Heroes."
While the drastic change in the entertainment industry ultimately isn't the devastating end to the hero's journey culture, this mindset seems to have been erased from the broader discourse, especially in education. The rise of Social Emotional Learning, or SEL, has taught educators to center the feelings of the student over the curriculum or effort. Students who experience test anxiety are allowed to write the test in a quiet room or receive extra time. Many students have an Individualized Learning Plan that provides accommodations for assessments or adaptations when learning—allowing a fidget spinner or being permitted to use a computer instead of writing are just a few examples.

While proponents of classical education will say this is the result of a weak education system, I specifically shy away from that characterization. The education system isn't weak per se; it is stuck in a philosophical trap. If you believe that your feelings are the most important indicator of success, you will pursue that goal despite seeing evidence to the contrary. An example is the consistently disruptive student in class. If you constantly bend your teaching to keep the peace, you will be reducing your quality to the lowest common denominator.

How Can We Improve Agency?

As society begins to shift around us at an accelerating pace, educators should heed this warning and reject the factory model of education. With the rise of the internet and now AI, classrooms are quickly becoming obsolete in their traditional form. This has been demonstrated scientifically through Jonathan Haidt's work, which has shown that technology addiction is a real problem, along with shrinking attention spans and a reduction of general knowledge. Teachers are spending more time managing students who see school as a hoop to jump through to get to the end of the day, week, or year so they can indulge in things that make them happy like video games, extracurricular activities like basketball, and social media.
Educators need to reinvent what it means to come to school. Students should be faced with a changing blend of open-ended inquiry projects and rote learning. Math facts are still important and rigorous practice is necessary, but so is applying their knowledge to real-world problems. Students should learn to take risks in their learning without fear of ultimate failure.
In my science class, I conduct a class egg drop where students are tasked with landing "humans" (eggs) on Mars in a reusable lander. They must drop the egg from 5 meters successfully 5 times. It's pass/fail, meaning that if an egg breaks, you get zero. It's my job to provide agency to these students by providing instructions, freedom for creativity, and opportunity to test. We use microbit sensors on our landers before eggs so we can calculate the approximate speed of descent. We examine video footage in slow motion to find impact patterns. This helps build agency and confidence in the students to successfully complete the task.

While dropping an egg from our balcony is a far cry from designing and deploying an actual Mars lander, the students learn how a project works, how much planning is necessary, how much testing is needed, and how to manage their time. Some students struggle with this type of agency because they're so used to sitting at a desk and being told what to do. As we move into a post-industrial world, agency—a growth mindset—will be essential for success.

Students need to prepare themselves to work at jobs that don't even exist yet. The best way to do that is to take a page from Wilbur Wright and Thomas Edison and believe that the world is infinitely interesting. The person who can harness their curiosity and develop the agency to act on it will be far better positioned to succeed in this new world than one who has been taught that their feelings should dictate their learning journey.