Trust
"Social learning is a powerful tool, but children who grow up in danger and fear learn not to be curious. Living in a state of mistrust leads people to turn away, and they stop learning from others. By contrast, if trust can be established, the brain is better able to create new neural networks." -- From The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature by Sue Stuart-Smith (p. 178)
Yes, I'm still working my way through this. I get side-tracked by other things and other books. I usually have multiple non-fiction books going at one time, so if one gets buried in the pile, it is ignored for a bit.
Once again, though, this book contains really interesting brain information. (I really need to buy my own copy to mark up.) This 'social learning' which is referred to is the idea that human brains are primed to learn best in small groups of people. It seems there is even a special channel in the brain which fast-tracks information shared between close-knit people. This special channel can be accessed when a person feels trust. The flip side of this closeness and sense of trust is the quote I began with. A lack of trust inhibits learning.
Now, I surely didn't need a book or a cognitive scientist to tell me this. I have experienced this personally with my children who have had difficulty letting go of their fear and letting themselves trust me. All this does is confirm and give me fancy language for something that was exceedingly clear. I do love it, though, when my personally developed theories are confirmed by scientists. One of the great joys of parenting my children from hard places is watching them begin to learn as they gradually lose their fear. Once they get a taste of learning new things, it is as if the switch to their curiosity turns on. Now, of course there is a spectrum and good days and bad days as this process happens, but it is wonderful to watch.
I do also wonder when modern pedagogical theory will catch-up with modern brain science. If children do best with smaller groups and more intimate social and learning circles, then it makes no sense to cram as many children as possible into school buildings and classrooms. If having trust in the people around a child allows them to learn, then how on earth do those horrendous behavior charts (i.e. Is your clip on green, yellow, or red today?) create any sense of trust? A child who is already having difficulty due to a wide array of causes is not going to be able to develop a sense of trust in a system which continually and publicly shames that child for communicating distress in the only way he or she knows. How is high stakes testing or even days of standardized testing developing a relationship? Please note it is not teachers receiving my ire, but the system they have to work in. I'm sure the vast majority of teachers would be thrilled to work intimately with a small group of children in a meaningful way.
For too long our society has swept to the side the basic idea that an emotionally healthy child is able to learn, while a child who is afraid, regardless of the cause, will only be able to think about their fear. There is not room for anything else except survival. If we care so very much about the performance of our children in school, then we need to step back a few steps and address the fact that there are children who live in fear and no amount of testing or good curricula or standards is going to change that. Instead we need to address the fact that there are children who are hungry; who are homeless; who are worried about their parents' safety; who are worried about their own safety. If we want to have children who are able to learn, we have to be sure that they are safe enough to develop trust with the adults in their lives and are free to learn.
Yes, I'm still working my way through this. I get side-tracked by other things and other books. I usually have multiple non-fiction books going at one time, so if one gets buried in the pile, it is ignored for a bit.
Once again, though, this book contains really interesting brain information. (I really need to buy my own copy to mark up.) This 'social learning' which is referred to is the idea that human brains are primed to learn best in small groups of people. It seems there is even a special channel in the brain which fast-tracks information shared between close-knit people. This special channel can be accessed when a person feels trust. The flip side of this closeness and sense of trust is the quote I began with. A lack of trust inhibits learning.
Now, I surely didn't need a book or a cognitive scientist to tell me this. I have experienced this personally with my children who have had difficulty letting go of their fear and letting themselves trust me. All this does is confirm and give me fancy language for something that was exceedingly clear. I do love it, though, when my personally developed theories are confirmed by scientists. One of the great joys of parenting my children from hard places is watching them begin to learn as they gradually lose their fear. Once they get a taste of learning new things, it is as if the switch to their curiosity turns on. Now, of course there is a spectrum and good days and bad days as this process happens, but it is wonderful to watch.
I do also wonder when modern pedagogical theory will catch-up with modern brain science. If children do best with smaller groups and more intimate social and learning circles, then it makes no sense to cram as many children as possible into school buildings and classrooms. If having trust in the people around a child allows them to learn, then how on earth do those horrendous behavior charts (i.e. Is your clip on green, yellow, or red today?) create any sense of trust? A child who is already having difficulty due to a wide array of causes is not going to be able to develop a sense of trust in a system which continually and publicly shames that child for communicating distress in the only way he or she knows. How is high stakes testing or even days of standardized testing developing a relationship? Please note it is not teachers receiving my ire, but the system they have to work in. I'm sure the vast majority of teachers would be thrilled to work intimately with a small group of children in a meaningful way.
For too long our society has swept to the side the basic idea that an emotionally healthy child is able to learn, while a child who is afraid, regardless of the cause, will only be able to think about their fear. There is not room for anything else except survival. If we care so very much about the performance of our children in school, then we need to step back a few steps and address the fact that there are children who live in fear and no amount of testing or good curricula or standards is going to change that. Instead we need to address the fact that there are children who are hungry; who are homeless; who are worried about their parents' safety; who are worried about their own safety. If we want to have children who are able to learn, we have to be sure that they are safe enough to develop trust with the adults in their lives and are free to learn.
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