When a tree dies naturally or falls due to extreme weather events, new life springs forward. Fungi communities flourish on dead wood, salamanders create breeding grounds, and saplings grow on the nutrient-rich bark. But this doesn’t happen overnight. According to researchers Harri Mäkinen, Jari Hynynen, Juha Siitonen, and Risto Sievänen, it can take up to 100 years or more for wood to decompose, depending on the species and forest type.
This reminds me about something I wrote in regards to the growth of trees as a metaphor for learning:
I think that in some respect learning is comparable with the growth of a tree. Too often we wonder why students are not straight and elegant, that they don’t learn in the prescribed manner. Too often we only recognise the trunk, when in fact many trees have numerous branches in order to help them prosper, some even without any discernible trunk at all.
I never thought about the trees that died and what place that might serve in regards to the wider rewilding of education. I wonder what is lost in regards to fungi and nutrients when so much is prescribed? I think that this capture some of what Mike Crowley touches upon in his rethinking of the story of schools.