Shiny leaves are distracting

One way to make a plant grow quickly is to pump it with fertiliser. It’s an intervention that seems to work if we look at what we can easily see.

The problem, though, is that dosing individual plants with fertiliser wrecks everything else around them: soil composition, rivers … Slowly, steadily, we need to use more and more fertiliser to get the same rate of growth.

This is why organic and regenerative farming practices focus so much on the space between the plants — the richness of the soil. While growth is slower, the plants grown this way are more robust and nutritionally complex.

So sure, your approach to teaching can target the individual but don’t think you’re making them strong and independent. In neglecting to enrich the space between the learners, you’re making them weak and dependent, no matter how shiny their leaves.