Picture a classroom. It’s high school. There’s a boy sitting In the corner. He is in the back, of course, leaning his chair against the wall. His eyes are down, and he avoids attention. The teacher has assigned work, which he does, or at least pretends to. Mostly, he just sits inactive, and appears simply to want to be left alone. Who knows what he’s thinking. But one thing seems obvious: this student is “checked out.” It’s the same thing every class: head down, hands still.

Hard to imagine? Hardly. Think back on your own experience. There have always been “those kids” in school, kids who just don’t get it, alongside those who see what’s being sold at schools and aren’t buying. Maybe they have always been there, but since COVID, the percentage of these students is growing.

For reasons that are complex and varied, we see new levels of despair, especially in our older students. Failure rates are astonishing, and absenteeism has reached epic proportions at many schools. Those students who have the means find other ways to learn, either by homeschooling or outsourcing. Others stay and endure, but at what cost?

Just business as usual?

Here’s another indicator: unlike in years past, it’s not just the students who are struggling. It’s teachers, too. Teachers are checking out, mentally if not physically. They’re leaving their jobs, and schools are desperate to fill these vacancies.

Between the students and the teachers, there is real concern we may be witnessing an exodus. Talk about a learning loss! When we lose our teachers, we lose the engine of the whole operation.

Most of us would agree: many schools are struggling still. I say “still” because we were supposed to be “back to normal” by now. I think by now we’ve all realized that particular outcome isn’t going to happen. (Even the phrase “back to normal” sounds tired and trite now, but still we cling.)

Many schools, and school districts, school leaders of all stripes, are currently stuck in a type of existential crisis. Who are we? What are we about? What are we teaching our children? And, most important: How can we do better?

Whether we see it or not, American public schools are undergoing a massive shift. As a society, we are currently in the process of remaking education.

Education has always been a process, but now we are more pressed than ever to restore it, to revise and reinvigorate this essential human endeavor, and recast it for a new era. But how? In what way?

Maybe a part of the answer is contained in the familiar phrase: “school spirit.” But before you go picturing pom-poms and goodness knows what else, let me pause you on the word “spirit.”

Recently, I read Dr. Lisa Miller’s new book: “The Awakened Brain.” In addition to being a best-selling author, Miller is a professor in the clinical psychology program at Teachers College at Columbia University. She is the founder and director of the Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology.

Miller has worked with leaders in the military, business and educational fields, and continues to be a beacon of light as she shares what we now know about the brain and the human need for spiritual nourishment.

If you are curious enough to read her work, prepare to get your socks blown off because what she has discovered can change the world, or at least K-12 education.

Simply put, what she has proven from a scientific perspective is what most everybody knows already: that there’s a mystery to life that we will never completely understand. That there’s something more ... something “out there” (or more accurately, “in here”). This is what Miller calls the spiritual section of the brain.

Everybody has this section; it’s built in, but we have let this resource grow dormant due to lack of understanding and use. What a concept! And it is here in this specific region that so much resides: our resilience, our connections with others, our awe and our sense of wonder.

The kind of spirituality Miller studies can come from living in a religious setting, but not necessarily. When we separate it out from the religious context that can get schools — and teachers — in all kinds of trouble, we may be able to share — and teach — some amazing facts about being human.

Imagine: What if we took students seriously enough to teach them the workings of the human brain? What if we could give them a kind of owners’ manual, including the part about having a spirit, and that there is so much more to human existence than just what we “think”?

Maybe if we began to engage students’ hearts and not just their minds, we might even draw out that boy sitting in the corner, who might finally sit up and take real notice, maybe even asking, “You talking to me?”

Gay Collins of Preston is a retired teacher in the Waterford school system who has a master’s degree from Connecticut College. She can be reached at yagspill@gmail.com.