A teacher once told me about an argument he used to have with his dad. He was a teenager, frustrated, slogging through Latin homework.

“This is pointless,” he’d say. “I’m never going to use it.”

His dad didn’t disagree. He just replied, “You’re not learning it because you’ll need Latin. You’re learning it because it’s hard. And learning how to do hard things is really important.”

At the time, it sounded like a non-answer. But decades later, that teacher finally understood what his father meant.

The content wasn’t the point. The challenge was.

The Future We Can’t See

That story captures something we teachers know intuitively but struggle to articulate – especially in a world that demands relevance, efficiency, and clear learning outcomes.

We’re asked to prepare students for their future. But whose future are we preparing them for? Ours, or theirs? The one we know, or the one we can’t yet imagine?

Consider this: Most of today’s Year 7 students will work in jobs that don’t exist yet. They’ll use technologies we haven’t invented to solve problems we haven’t encountered. While foundational skills like reading and basic mathematics remain timeless, much of our specialised knowledge faces what researchers call the ‘half-life of knowledge’ – the time it takes for half of what we know in a field to become outdated. In medicine, this used to be 50 years; now it’s closer to 5-10 years. In technology, it can be as short as 2-3 years. Even in education, teaching methods that worked a decade ago may no longer serve our students.

But their capacity to learn? To persist when things get difficult? To think flexibly when the first solution fails? That’s timeless.

If our job is to equip students for the world ahead, then the most important thing we can give them isn’t more knowledge. It’s more capability.

Not better answers. Better learners.

To be clear: This approach doesn’t replace your curriculum. You’ll still teach ancient civilizations, quadratic equations, and photosynthesis. What changes is how you design challenges within that content—creating conditions where students must develop their problem-solving superpowers, not just demonstrate knowledge.

The Habits We Hang on Walls

Walk into most classrooms, and you’ll see the Habits of Mind displayed prominently. Persistence. Flexible thinking. Managing impulsivity. We teach them. Define them. Sometimes we even assess them—asking students to identify which Habit they used in a task.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: naming a Habit isn’t developing it.

It’s like giving someone a list of musical notes and expecting them to play piano. Or teaching someone the theory of bicycle balance without ever letting them wobble down the street.

That’s why I’ve started calling them what they really are: Problem-Solving Superpowers. Because that’s what students actually care about—not abstract habits, but concrete powers that help them solve real problems. Maya thought persistence was about ‘not giving up.’ She hadn’t yet learned it was a problem-solving superpower—one that helps her solve certain types of problems. (We’ll explore exactly which problems demand which superpowers in a future post.)

If you’re new to the Habits of Mind: Costa and Kallick didn’t invent these patterns – they discovered them by studying people who are characteristically successful at solving problems. Not just any problems, but the kind where the solution isn’t immediately apparent. These aren’t just dispositions successful people use – they use them skilfully and mindfully. Download a complete overview here.

Because

The Habits of Mind aren’t things students have. They’re dispositions they grow – through use, yes, but more importantly, through challenge.

You don’t develop persistence by completing tasks you already know how to do. You develop it when the task demands more than your current skills can offer—when sticking with it means stretching beyond what’s comfortable.

This is the Learning Zone—that space where comfort ends and capability begins. It’s where the familiar gives way to the challenging, where “I know this” becomes “I need to figure this out.” And it’s the only place where the Habits of Mind truly develop.

But here’s what matters: Challenge alone doesn’t guarantee growth. A student can face challenges all day and just get frustrated. Growth happens when challenge meets support – when students are stretched but not overwhelmed, when they can reflect on their struggles, when they see their progress.

Challenge shows us WHERE the Habits grow. Teaching, scaffolding, and reflection show us HOW they grow.

Using vs Growing

Here’s the critical distinction most of us miss: there’s a world of difference between using a Habit and growing it.

When Sarah uses flexible thinking to solve a maths problem she’s seen before, she’s using her existing capability. But when she’s stuck – truly stuck – and must find a completely new approach? That’s when flexible thinking grows.

When Jack persists through his homework because he knows how to do it, he’s demonstrating persistence. But when he continues despite confusion, frustration, and the temptation to quit? That’s development.

Using the Habits is the first step. Growing them is the real goal.

The difference matters because we often praise students for applying the Habits of Mind when what we really want is for them to improve them. And improvement only happens in one place: the struggle.

Think of it this way – growth isn’t a switch that flips on when we name a Habit. It unfolds across dimensions, deepening and strengthening through challenge. We’ll explore exactly how that happens in the next post. And later in this series, I’ll show you a tool that makes this invisible growth visible – revealing exactly where students are truly developing their superpowers and where they’re just coasting.

Preparing for Any Future

This brings us back to that Latin homework. The father understood something profound: in an uncertain world, it’s not what you know that keeps you relevant. It’s your ability to learn what you don’t yet know.

The Habits of Mind aren’t academic nice-to-haves. They’re the mental muscles students will need when:

• Their first career becomes obsolete
• They face problems without clear solutions
• Life asks more of them than they think they can give
• The rules change and the old ways stop working

We can’t predict what specific challenges our students will face. But we can ensure they have the dispositions to meet them.

Not by teaching the Habits of Mind as content to be learned. But by creating the conditions where they must be developed.

Because whether the future brings opportunity or adversity, it will bring uncertainty. And when it does,

The students who thrive won’t be the ones who knew the most. They’ll be the ones who know how to grow.

Your Monday Morning Questions

Look at your next lesson plan and ask yourself:

• Where’s the genuine challenge – not just hard work, but the kind that demands students develop new capabilities?
• Which of your students are stuck using the same strategies they had last year?
• How will you support their growth without removing the productive struggle?

Start small. Pick one moment in one lesson where students will need to stretch beyond their current capabilities. That’s where growth begins.