Available October 27, 2026
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In this Member View EDU episode, host Andi Gabrick, editor of NAIS’s Independent School magazine, sits down with Brent Kaneft, head of school at Wilson Hall in South Carolina, to get his thoughts on how AI is impacting schools, and how Brent approaches his headship in an era of rapidly evolving technologies.
Key Questions
Some of the key questions Andi and Brent explore in this episode include:
- It seems like AI has really pushed things from “rapidly evolving” to “changing at the speed of light.” As a head of school, what practices are you engaging in to stay on top of how quickly things are changing, and to be able to respond as proactively as possible?
- There’s no denying that students today are growing up in an overwhelmingly digital landscape. What do you think the role of schools should be as far as equipping kids for the future in this type of environment? How do you view college, career, and life preparation when you’re balancing the real world against cyberspace?
- How are you seeing these tensions or challenges play out in your school community?
Episode Highlights
- “And what I am finding in independent schools is one of maybe the biggest challenges we have right now, is that we're in this cycle where we should be rebirthing, we should be recreating and reimagining what our purpose is, what our structure looks like, what we're doing in the classroom, what learning entails. But we're, actually we've been caught in this trap. And that trap is that all growth is good, that abundance means success, that progress is very narrowly defined as, you know, immediate and short-term versus looking at long-term second and third order effects of our decisions.” (3:09)
- “My guess is most schools are going to, you know, if they can optimize, if optimization is already their value, they're not going to use that extra time for things that we would love to do, you know, like be slower in the classroom, take a walk with a student outside and just talk to them, maybe have a teacher reading a book, for goodness sake, you know, and just you know, enjoying themselves on campus. They're not going to do that. They're going to say, What else can you do? What other program can we add? Because we've got to be competitive with Joe Blow across the street.” (9:00)
- And head to 16:40 for the lightning round, where Brent shares what he’s reading, what he’s listening to, and what he does at the beginning and end of each day as a head of school.
Resource List
- Subscribe to Brent’s Substack, The Ouroboric Gag.
- Read Brent’s writings for NAIS and IntrepidED News.
- Check out the work of CANDLE, which Brent refers to in this episode.
- Get copies of books on Brent’s recommended reading list:
- Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira
- Outgrowing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira
- The Psychopathic Selection Process by Greg Michael Elliott
Full Transcript
- Read the full transcript here.
Related Episodes
- Episode 93: Educational Design in the Age of AI
- Episode 92: Reducing Harm in a Digital World
- Episode 91: The Digital Delusion
- Episode 90: The Future of Digital Literacy
- Episode 81: How AI Changes Everything and Nothing
- Episode 78: The Power of Transcendent Thinking
About Our Guest
Brent Kaneft is head of school at Wilson Hall, a PK–12 independent school in South Carolina, and has been appointed head of school at Holland Hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beginning in the 2027–2028 school year. He holds a master’s degree in literature from James Madison University and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Indiana University Bloomington, which he earned in 2022.
Since 2016, Brent has led teacher workshops on translating Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) research into classroom practice. Since 2020, his work has increasingly focused on research-informed approaches to instructional reform, belonging, and adolescent development. More recently, his writing and professional work have turned toward a question facing independent schools with increasing urgency: how do schools navigate the metacrisis—the convergence of interconnected educational, economic, environmental, technological, political, cultural, and spiritual crises—and what might that mean for the future of education? Brent writes regularly about independent schools, education, leadership, and the challenges facing institutions in a rapidly changing world. His writing has been published on a range of independent-school and educational platforms, and he explores these ideas further in his Substack, The Ouroboric Gag.