I was recently given two hand-me-down cast iron skillets. Apparently, when you have a glass cooktop, heavy cast iron might scratch it. So, lucky me!

The skillets were kinda rusty and yucky when I received them, but I dutifully followed the instructions for seasoning that I found somewhere on the Internet. Voilà! I couldn’t believe how beautiful they were when I took them out of the oven. They were like new.

The seemingly magical renewal of this cookware exceeded my expectations and got me thinking about the ways in which we humans take care of ourselves (or don’t).

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Middle school is a time of great change and upheaval in a person’s life. We can thank puberty for that, along with an adolescent’s growing self-awareness and sense of identity.

Many students try on different superficial identities, coming to school with a carefully cultivated goth, punk, or preppy look. If it doesn’t fit, they simply move on to the next one.

On the other hand, there are profound transformations that are possible when students are willing. They can let go of a lifelong antipathy toward math and become devoted to it; instead of being closed off and lonely, they can initiate friendships.

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“Just keep practicing! You’ll get it.”

Have you ever had a well-intentioned teacher tell you something like this?

It can be decent advice. But it’s limited.

“Just keep practicing” works when you’re on the right track. You understand the mathematical concept — you just need more experience solving similar problems. You are doing your scales with the correct fingering and just need to build speed. You have successfully completed one public speaking engagement and you’re gearing up for the next one.

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The human brain is extraordinarily good at optimization.

You do something a few times, and your brain goes, “Okay, I get it — we’re doing it this way from now on.” The neural pathways are strengthened so that next time, it takes less effort to get the same result. Meanwhile, unused pathways are ignored, like decommissioned highways.

Our nervous system facilitates and streamlines our learning. It gives us the so-called “muscle memory” we rely on when it comes to developing complex skills like learning a musical instrument, typing, or skateboarding. It allows us to chunk smaller pieces of information together, like recipes, times tables, and addresses, in order to memorize them.

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