Maslow’s Hierarchy Was Never Just a Pyramid

Every educator has seen it. The pyramid – at the bottom sit physiological needs: food, water, shelter, sleep. Above that come safety, belonging, esteem, and finally – at the peak – self-actualisation.

For decades, Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has shaped educational thinking. It appears in teacher training, wellbeing frameworks, behaviour support models, and school leadership presentations around the world. The message is straightforward: children cannot learn effectively if their basic needs are unmet.

And that insight matters;

• Hungry children struggle to concentrate,
• Unsafe children struggle to trust,
• Disconnected children struggle to engage.

But there is a part of the story many educators have never been told.

Maslow’s ideas were influenced by time spent with the Blackfoot Confederacy in 1938, where he observed a society deeply grounded in community, belonging, collective responsibility, and cultural continuity. In later years, scholars and Indigenous educators have pointed to the similarities between Maslow’s developing ideas and Blackfoot understandings of human wellbeing.

What is especially interesting is that Maslow himself never actually drew the famous pyramid we all recognise today. The pyramid – with its upward climb toward individual success – became a Western interpretation of his theory. And perhaps in that interpretation, something important was lost because many Indigenous worldviews do not see human flourishing as an individual journey upward. They see it as relational.

The Problem With the Pyramid

The modern version of Maslow’s hierarchy is often presented as a ladder:

• First survival…
• Then safety…
• Then belonging…
• Then achievement.

Eventually, if all goes well, a person reaches self-actualisation – becoming the fullest version of themselves. But schools have absorbed this framework in ways that often reinforce individualism rather than connection.

Once students’ basic needs are acknowledged, education systems quickly shift focus toward:

• academic performance,
• achievement,
• productivity,
• competition,
• outcomes.

The underlying message becomes: Now that your needs are met, it is time to succeed.

Yet human wellbeing is not linear:

• Children can experience creativity while carrying trauma,
• Students can achieve highly while feeling lonely,
• Young people can comply academically while feeling culturally unseen.

Many First Nations perspectives understand wellbeing not as a hierarchy, but as an interconnected system of relationships – between self, community, identity, spirit, land, and purpose. Belonging is not a stage to move through. It is foundational.

What Indigenous Wisdom Offers Education

One of the most powerful distinctions in Indigenous understandings of wellbeing is the shift from individual fulfilment to collective flourishing.

In many Western systems, the highest goal is personal achievement:

• reaching your potential,
• standing out,
• becoming successful.

But Indigenous perspectives often place greater emphasis on:

• contribution,
• responsibility,
• kinship,
• cultural continuity,
• community wellbeing.

The question changes from: “How do I become my best self?”

To: “How do I strengthen the wellbeing of the community around me?”

That difference has profound implications for schools because schools frequently reward independence while undervaluing interconnectedness.

We celebrate high achievers, but often overlook:

• kindness,
• emotional safety,
• cultural identity,
• collaboration,
• service,
• belonging.

And yet these are the very things that allow human beings to flourish.

What Would Schools Look Like If We Truly Understood This?

If schools genuinely embraced a more holistic understanding of human needs, education might begin to look very different.

We might prioritise:

• relationships before results,
• connection before compliance,
• identity before standardisation,
• wellbeing before performance.

Students would not simply be prepared for exams or careers – they would be prepared for life in community.

Teachers would spend less time asking: “How do we improve outcomes?”

And more time asking: “Do our students feel seen, safe, valued, and connected?”

Because children learn best when they experience belonging. 

Not performative belonging…Not tokenistic inclusion…Real belonging.

The kind that says: “You matter here.”

Beyond Achievement

Many schools today are facing rising levels of anxiety, disengagement, loneliness, and behavioural complexity among young people.

We often respond with interventions, data tracking, wellbeing programs, and behaviour systems, but perhaps part of the deeper issue is that modern education has become disconnected from fundamental human needs.

Not just physical needs – but emotional, relational, cultural, and spiritual ones too. The Indigenous perspectives that influenced Maslow remind us that wellbeing cannot be separated from connection.

A child’s sense of identity matters…Community matters…Purpose matters…Relationship matters…And perhaps the greatest misunderstanding of the pyramid is that human flourishing was never meant to be a solo climb to the top.

A Different Vision for Education

What if success in schools was measured not only by grades, but by:

• empathy,
• contribution,
• resilience,
• belonging,
• cultural strength,
• and the ability to care for others?

What if education was not simply about producing successful individuals, but nurturing connected human beings?

Long before modern psychology attempted to define human motivation, First Nations peoples already understood something essential: people thrive through relationships and belonging to a community.

Perhaps schools have been looking at the pyramid for so long that we forgot to look around us. So perhaps the future of education depends not on climbing higher, but on reconnecting more deeply – to ourselves, to each other, and to community.