This summer, I traveled with one of my best friends to Italy, Montenegro, and Greece. In twelve days, we took three guided tours that left me with a lesson I haven’t been able to shake: belief changes behavior.
Venice: Belief as Survival
My first tour was through the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice and was probably my favorite. Our guide, a Venetian woman with magnetic eye contact, kept using the word: “Propaganda!”
At first, I thought of marketing. But as she explained, the mosaics of St. Mark’s, with walls drenched in tiny golden tiles telling biblical stories, weren’t just art—they were persuasion. They made people believe Venice was chosen, special, blessed. And that belief kept the city alive. With no natural resources, Venice needed commerce, tourism, and influence. Their survival depended on creating wonder.
Athens: Belief as Power
In Athens, our guide Marco embodied Greek pride. He reminded us that the Acropolis wasn’t built to be practical. Its perfection came from illusions—columns built with curves so the building would look straight to the human eye. It wasn’t just architecture; it was a message. The Athenians needed their people (and their enemies) to believe they were strong, chosen, and unshakable. Belief built power.
Santorini: Belief as Possibility
On Santorini, we toured the ancient city of Akrotiri. More than 4,000 years ago, this island had plumbing, marketplaces, and earthquake-resistant buildings. They weren’t just surviving—they believed life could be better, and they built for that future. Belief sparked innovation.
What This Has to Do with Teaching
So what do golden mosaics, optical illusions, and prehistoric plumbing have to do with teaching?
Here’s the hard truth: many students today don’t believe in much. They see systems unraveling. They’re growing up in a time of deconstruction. And maybe some systems should be torn down. But the question is: what will we give them to believe in instead?
Our guides weren’t just experts—they made us believe what they shared mattered. Their conviction made me want to lean in, to listen harder, to remember.
That’s our role as teachers, too. Not just to deliver information, but to help students believe:
- that knowledge matters,
- that learning can shape their future,
- that they have the power to create something better.
Venice, Athens, and Akrotiri remind us that belief is not fluff—it’s survival, power, and possibility. In our classrooms, belief can be the difference between disengagement and transformation.
So as we design our lessons, our routines, our words—what messages are we sending? What do our students walk away believing?
Tips for Teaching Today
Survival- Students belief learning is essential
Just as Venice needed people to believe their city was special in order to survive, students need to believe that learning is essential to their own survival in today’s world.
The mission of the Human Intelligence Movement is “to ensure all people have the human skills they need to thrive and succeed in an AI world.“
This is in no way suggesting that humans will not survive in an AI world, but it is to suggest that the way we will do that, is to remember the value of humans.
Their belief is that education should help everyone grow their creative talents, and that AI can elevate our humanness.
This is why it matters now: What are we doing to elevate the humanity in our classrooms? How are our students building belief in themselves in order to survive?
Power – Students believe learning shapes their future.
Athens built illusions into their architecture to send a powerful message: We are strong. We matter. Students, too, need to believe that knowledge gives them power—power to make choices, to change their circumstances, to influence others.
The classroom is a safe place. If students believe in themselves, and in their unique ability to create, how are we allowing them to share that with the world?
Are we explicitly naming the power of their thinking and ideas in the classroom on a regular basis? In order to name something, you must have an idea of what it is. Do you know what learning strategies are?
Take a look at this previous blog post for more information on learning strategies, and then name them every time you see a student using them.
Power is motivating. When students see themselves as active agents, not passive recipients, they start to believe their effort matters. Gradually release some of the control in your classrooms and trust that students will take the responsibility.
Possibility – Help students believe they can create something better.
At Akrotiri, people weren’t just surviving—they innovated. They believed life could improve, so they built earthquake-resistant homes and plumbing systems millennia before “modern” civilizations.
Students need to have a vision for the future. In a quick search for “how to help young people have a vision for the future,” I sadly found very little resources. I guess AI and Google are still struggling in this area.
Global Action Plan conducted a research project by interviewing lots of young people and found it disheartening that the majority of them had negative expectations for the future, and believed that things probably wouldn’t change, and if they did, it wouldn’t be for the better.
This sounds like a SCREAM for help. OR… its an opportunity to take action. What if we used a tool like a vision board, or Canva, to help them get started? This website gives teens a step by step guide for thinking through how to envision their own futures and create a visual representation of it.
Kids as young as kindergarten can also create a visual for what they hope for the future. We need to start bringing this into our conversations. We need to bring back the hope. Possibility grows when students see their ideas take shape in the real world, so don’t stop with a vision board, help them bring it to life!
Curiosity is the fuel for innovation. Ask those what if questions: What if you wrote the next great novel ? What if you could invent a game that helps younger kids learn fractions? What if you listened to the whisperings of your heart, leading you to the things you love?
Because if belief changes behavior, then the most important thing we give students might not be just knowledge, but the conviction that what they’re learning, and who they are, matters.
