February Storyteller: Diving Into the Delta, A Liminal Moment in Education

Thank you for subscribing to Storyteller, a monthly digital series about faith, family, life, and learning. If you enjoy Storyteller please help the community grow, like, follow, and share.

One of the biggest professional challenges I have faced in my administrative career is getting people’s attention about the urgent need to change how we educate our students.  I remember, back in the late 1990s, while working at an elite private school, suggesting to a strategic planning team that we try integrating the subject areas in our upper school.  The response?  We are sending students to Harvard and Princeton, why would we change anything about how we teach?  I understand that it is hard to see a need for change when things are going well.

The standard curriculum in high schools across the country dictates that Geometry comes after Algebra unless you have an honors student and then they can be taken simultaneously, and Chemistry is typically a Junior level course.  No high school education is complete without a cursory study of The Canterbury Tales, and a good deal of time should be spent learning the motives, dates, and major battles in all the notable wars.  Strong GPAs, high test scores, and success in extra-curricular programs are the admission cards to top-tier colleges and the Ivys, and that's all that matters.  The funny thing is that I no longer believe most of that.  That is not all that matters in education, neither is sequential, segregated learning the only way to teach.  

I recently learned a new term that captured my attention. I was reading the Winter 2025 issue of the Independent School Magazine published by NAIS when I came across this subheading in one of the featured articles, it read, “Our Liminal Moment.”  I have to admit, I was not familiar with the word liminal and had to look it up.  Here’s what I found when making a query in ChatGPT, 

A liminal moment refers to a transitional phase, often experienced as a period of ambiguity, change, or transformation. The term "liminal" comes from the Latin word limen, meaning "threshold." Liminal moments occur when you're in-between two states, stages, or experiences—no longer where you were but not yet where you’re going.

Our liminal moment in education is the threshold on which we are currently balancing from which the model of industrialized, standardized teaching gives way to a four-dimensional, skills-based, curriculum.  The illustration that resonates most with me is that of the Mississippi River flowing downward throughout our country (representing the educational model of the industrial age) to the delta of swamp and marshland, gathering and waiting to flow out to the Gulf and into the Ocean (representing the forward path for education). Once the river hits that delta, the river ceases to exist, and the delta begins its slow swirl.  

Education now sits poised on that precipice of change.  Turning and flowing back up the river to re-engage in past practices is not an option.  As we poise in the churn of the delta, we need to answer the overarching questions of how to make education relevant and sustainable. What skills do our students need most to have them ready to meet an uncertain future? The delta is as exciting as it is uncomfortable. It's messy and it will take fearless educational leaders to chart the course forward and provide a skills-based, experiential education that has our students ready to navigate the flow into the waters ahead with confidence, wisdom, and discernment.  

Look for the next story to learn some great first steps in the journey out into the metaphorical Gulf!

Until next time!

Merry

---

Don't miss the latest Storyteller LIVE with special guest The Reverend Dr. Michael Kuhn. In this episode, we discuss two stories, The Truce, December 2025 and Divine Love Can Always Find Us, 2024. Fr. Michael is legendary in New Orleans; having spent over three decades leading Episcopal schools and serving in churches in New Orleans, New York, Boston, and Maine. Fr. Michael is well known for his incredible wit, wisdom, humor, and way of spreading the Word. 

Storyteller LIVE is more than a podcast, it's a community of friends connecting over faith, family, life, and learning. Don't miss this episode!

Listen now on Spotify

If you enjoy being a part of the Storyteller community of friends,

share this issue with those you know and help it grow!

Subscribe to Storyteller