We don’t blame lettuces for not growing well. We look at the conditions they are growing in. We question whether they have the right nutrients, the right amount of water, light, and heat.

But when students are having trouble we too easily allocate all the responsibility to them: they must not be smart enough, or not trying hard enough, not motivated or not serious.

We hear a lot about the plasticity of the brain. But if we want the brain to be able to change, to learn new things, then we need to create conditions for “relaxed alertness,” for students and teachers alike to avoid the numbed space of freeze, and the frenetic space of flight and fight, and find the middle-ground, the “sweet spot” where learning is possible.

How safe are the conditions in your learning space? How do you help students to create the conditions in which they can learn? What changes can you make to support each student to find the sweet spot where they can feel safe enough to learn?    

(“Relaxed alertness” is used by Renate and Geoffrey Caine in many publications including: (2005) 12 Brain/Mind Learning Principles in Action: The Fieldbook for Making Connections, Teaching, and the Human Brain, California: Corwin Press. “Sweet spot” is used by Louis Cozolino in many publications including: (2013) The Social Neuroscience of Education: Optimizing Attachment and Learning in the Classroom. New York: W.W. Norton.)

Photo Credit: Pxhere

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Dan Siegel used a version of this image to illustrate mental health. He explains that when we are stuck on either side of the river, or flip between the two we may be given labels of mental illness. Susan Tiihonen redrew it to help reveal that all of us—whatever race, class, gender, or ability—can get caught in overwhelm or chaos, or equally easily on the other side: in rigidity and control.

The image helps us see there is no big divide between those of us with labels and those without – it’s more of a continuum of whether we can find our way back into the flow without too much delay. In the current in the river we must accept we have some control, but not total control. When we understand a little about how our brains work to help us survive and learn, we can move more quickly out of shame. We can stop feeling bad, stupid, wrong—like we don’t belong—and become more creative about what will help each one of us return to the flow and learn what we hope to learn.

Do you notice your own patterns? Do you help your students become aware of their patterns? Do they learn how these patterns, or habits, help survival, and how they can get in the way of learning what we choose when we choose. Do you teach students how our brains work? How do you help those you support to explore what works for them to calm old patterns and return to learning? 

(Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson (2012) The Whole Brain Child. New York: Little, Brown Book Group)

Illustration Credit: Susan Tiihonen

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See me! See me! Oh my goodness they see me, I need to hide….

Real connection is vital, healing, whether the connection is to another human being, an animal, nature, or even to an idea, to understanding, or to a skill, any honest connection can be life-giving. Trauma “embeds in us” because we feel “emotionally unsupported in the midst of fear and pain that exceeds our ability to integrate the experience with our own resources.”

The latest neuroscience is showing just how important connection is for human beings to thrive. Without connection learning is not possible. Connection is exciting, but also terrifying.  We crave real connection and yet we sometimes run from it, hide, especially when connection has been dangerous.

How do you foster deep caring connection in your setting?

How do you stay in connection with yourself whatever erupts?

How do you help students connect to themselves, to each other, and to the material they are trying to learn?

(Bonnie Badenoch (2018), Healing Trauma Summit, Sounds True. And (2017) The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships, New York: Norton.)

Photo Credit: Judy Murphy

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