As a result, communities ask schools to “prepare students for the real world,” while resisting reforms that would require schools to model the different or more humane version of that world. In this way, schooling tends to lean towards reproducing society as it is, rather than helping imagine what it could be. The Bottom Line: Schools don’t just "prepare students for the real world". Schools prepare students for the version of society they determine is legitimate.

Our work is not to check off needs one tier at a time, but to create overlapping supports across school and home so children can develop fluidly among all tiers without losing ground. The most powerful way to do this is by intentionally weaving together school strategies and home strategies to create a bridge between them.

The secular triad is composed of three interdependent forces: Thought, Response, and Meaning. Together, they represent a dynamic system—one that mirrors the complexity of human experience, much like the famed three-body problem in physics, in which three entities in motion continuously affect each other in unpredictable ways.

In these three sections, we will explore how school leaders can integrate MI principles into their leadership practices, understanding Motivational Interviewing and its principles with specific elements of culture and core values according to the Mullen Bioecological Model for Who We Are and How We Learn.