The Emotionally Connected Classroom

Wellness and the Learning Experience

Bill Adair

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781544356365
• eBook ISBN: 9781544356372
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

Engineer healthy interactions and repair dysregulation

Suicide rates, ADHD diagnoses, gaming addiction, and adolescent depression are increasing exponentially. It's difficult to ignore the number of children burdened by stress, anxiety, and unhealthy beliefs. Students struggle to cope in ways that reinforce labels defining them as difficult to teach. 

However, the brain is malleable and new experiences can rewrite the story! The Emotionally Connected Classroom helps educators create environments that promote healthy attachments and repair neural dysregulations that impair learning capacity. Readers will find 

• User-friendly explanations of neuroscience and human behavior
• Strategies and assessment tools to help teachers shift from content-focused learning and assessment to learning that prioritizes wellness
• Lesson templates to help "train the brain" 
• Strategies to address dysfunctional behavior
• Engaging stories and authentic case studies that bring theory to life

Written with the belief that educators play a critical role in students' lives, this book offers a new paradigm of connectedness that allows teachers to develop social-emotional learning practices that benefit all of their students. 

 

Chapter 1 Hunter-Gatherers, Survival, and the Classroom

The human world has never experienced constant change and motion in the way that it does today. Cultural beliefs, lifestyles, and the foods we eat are as fleeting as the latest great advertising campaign or fashion trend. Advances in science and the wonders of the digital age add to the belief that we have evolved beyond hunter-gatherer physiology.

Think About It

Hunter-gatherer physiology had 2.5 million years to evolve during the Paleolithic period. Only 330 generations have passed since the development of agriculture. Modern-day cultural shifts are measured in decades or less. That is a mere drop in the bucket in the eyes of evolutionary processes.

Evolution has not been able to keep pace, not even remotely so. Disconnection is an understandable side effect of this juxtaposition, and children experience this change fastest of all. The fact that they have the least control over these changes adds to their rising anxiety. They are ill prepared for the challenges this disconnection poses to their learning, health, and emotional wellness. Their hunter-gatherer physiology is in a fight for survival, and it is nothing less than a traumatic experience.

Children are struggling, and they need help bridging the gap. Human physiology will not change any time soon and the likelihood that unhealthy modern-day pressures will suddenly retreat is equally improbable. School environments are somewhat controllable, and individual classrooms are even more so. School may be the only opportunity for a child to embrace the natural truthful version of their biology.

Hunter-Gatherers and the Evolution of Connectedness

The environmental context of hunter-gatherer life is largely responsible for shaping the human brain and human behavior (Wright, 1994). Survival was a challenge in the world of the hunter-gatherer. In response, tribal communities evolved to mitigate potential threats through communal, stable, safe environments (Lee, 1988). Working together and sharing provided the regular food source needed to reduce the very real possibility of starvation. The physical safety and security of tribal connections allowed the hunter-gatherer to focus efficiently on their daily business, increasing their potential for meaningful contributions to the greater good. Cultures evolved to nurture, value, and celebrate beliefs aligned with tribal bonds and contributions. Working hard for the collective whole was important—as long as there was still ample time to share their stories and laugh around the campfire.

Survival was not the only reason they stayed together. Pleasurable emotions paralleled their dependence on tribal connections. Feelings of safety, love, and self-value were not coincidental occurrences. They were a product of natural selection and a physiological response to the need for connection. The link between connected beliefs, behaviors, and biochemical rewards strengthened. This important evolutionary adaptation supported tribal connections and allowed humans to experience love, belonging, purpose, and the joy of supporting others in very real ways.

Connection was important and played a role in every aspect of hunter-gatherer society. Opportunities to share with their loved ones and contribute to the greater good were never difficult to find.

Survival Mode

On a daily basis, the collective energies of the tribe provided a safe environment, but warfare, predatory attack, illness, and injuries remained significant threats. Sometimes these types of exceptional circumstances required an elevated state of alertness where the hunter-gatherer needed to think fast, react quickly, or deal with the pain of potential trauma. Desperate times initiated survival mode.

The release of stress hormones helped prepare the hunter-gatherer for the challenge ahead. Dopamine increased alertness and the desire to act quickly, cortisol optimized the most necessary bodily functions at the expense of others, and endorphins eased pain in the case of injury (Montgomery & Ritchey, 2008). Typically, the elevated state of alertness assumed one of three forms.

1. Fight response: Fight the lion.
2. Flight response: Run from the lion.
3. Freeze response: Hide from the lion.

Each survival response offered a strategy designed to optimize the ability to escape the survival threat. An incorrect choice or a casual response could result in a poor fight or a short race, but in general, the adaptation was quite effective in helping hunter-gatherers avoid or deal with temporary threats.

Survival mode was a purposeful survival adaptation, but extended exposure was stressful on the body resulting in uncomfortable states of chronic pain, illness, anxiety, and depression. Certainly, this would not be beneficial for the day-to-day life of the hunter-gatherer. Under normal conditions, hunter-gatherer physiology would rebalance once danger receded. The lion shows up and triggers a survival response. Fight hard, run fast, or hide really well, and survival is achieved. The problem is solved, and survival mode is no longer necessary. Hormone levels rebalance, and life goes on as normal.

How did the hunter-gatherer transition from terrified or intensely enraged to relaxed and balanced? One would tend to fixate on an experience marked by the warm breath and the jagged teeth of a lion, but the hunter-gatherer could always count on some help to bring stress hormone levels back to normal.

The Homeostatic Drive: A Team Effort

The homeostatic drive is an evolutionary adaptation designed to keep all living creatures within acceptable norms for optimal healthy conditions (Montgomery & Ritchey, 2010). When the human body is knocked out of ideal parameters, it attempts to self-regulate and rebalance. If we are too hot or cold, our physiology responds with sweating or shivering. There is no need for us to think about it or do anything. Things change considerably if we are so cold that our body cannot manage the circumstance. Conscious thought tells us to put on a jacket, sit by the campfire, or share a warm hug. A potentially life-threatening scenario is averted.

When we are emotionally out of balance, our body also tries to bring us back to relaxed norms. This can be a challenge if the trauma is particularly intense or conditions are such that the anxiety-inducing trigger does not go away. The most reasonable course of action would be to remove one's self from the imminent threat or stressor and embrace close connections with loved ones that inspire feelings of safety.

The hunter-gatherer was in all probability completely unaware of the physiological reflexes the homeostatic drive provided, but the powerful influence of tribal connections was a conscious factor in their efforts to rebalance in stressful times. In the life of an otherwise healthy connected hunter-gatherer, the anxious survival mode experience was less than pleasurable, and the desire to return to the more pleasant feelings of safety, support, and love of the tribe was significant. Strong connections with these healthy emotions were an attractive alternative that encouraged the hunter-gatherer to let go of the intense anger or fear associated with their survival experience. It remains true today that an important component of regulating painful emotions is cultivating positive ones (Barker, n.d.).

Hunter-gatherer children came into the world biologically bound to embrace love, support, bravery, and a willingness to contribute, but connections and the skill sets to make them effective still had to be nurtured. From birth through childhood, and into their adult lives, they learned and practiced connection skills, thought patterns, and behaviors as part of their daily lives. Connections and contributions, both large and small, were a big deal.

Natural physiological responses work in harmony with authentic connections to help humans rebalance in times of stress.

Tribal Connections, Survival, and Low Status

Reliable food sources, love, and belonging were very important aspects of a hunter-gatherer's life because they enhanced safety in both physical and emotional ways. If disconnected from the tribe, fearful anticipation of starvation or predatory animals and almost certain death became a significant threat. The loss of highly valued emotional connections was equally traumatic. Disconnection from the tribe was such a serious matter that simply the thought of separation could trigger a very real biochemical survival response.

Hierarchy and status were not usually significant components of day-to-day tribal life (Montgomery & Ritchey, 2010). There was no real personal wealth or accumulation of goods to say that one member was above the other. The tribe benefitted when all members felt safe and supported because this enabled them to contribute to the best of their ability. Self-worth helped them feel good about their prospects as a valued member and added to feelings of security. However, in truly difficult times when tribal survival itself was at risk, that belief could be tested.

In challenging times, survival of the tribe trumped individual needs, and the expulsion of members who contributed less or proved a liability was a possibility. Hunter-gatherers feeling less certain about their value or connection with the tribe would be highly motivated to try a little harder to prove themselves an asset. If they were unable to do so, anxious feelings limited the ability to function and contribute effectively, further exacerbating their plight.

Under these conditions, feelings of “less than” and the survival state that they would likely trigger could be unrelenting even if separation was not imminent or more bountiful times returned. Few things were more frightening than disconnection from those they loved or the safety of the tribe. Hunter-gatherers were fortunate this was an unusual scenario in their cooperative supportive culture.

Think About It

Status in school is an entrenched driver of the educational experience. Low status for many is the outcome. This is a stressful anomaly for our hunter-gatherer brains. Status-driven stressors at school:

• Competitive tests
• Assessment by grades
• Social hierarchies
• Separation by grade levels
• Separation by learning or behavioral capacities
• Principal, teacher, and student hierarchies

Evolutionary Mismatch

The cultural and social environment in which we live today is an anomaly or mismatch with our biological evolution (Lieberman, 2013). Our society has come a long way from the life of a hunter-gatherer. Gone are the threats of wild animals, starvation, and tribal warfare. Yet it remains true, biologically speaking, that our brains and bodies remain those of a hunter-gatherer.

One key variance is that we experience stress in a very different way. Modern-day stress is a consequence of social conditions—our jobs, unhealthy relationships, and unrealistic cultural expectations. For students, it may be the result of challenges with grades, peer status, belonging, bullying, or isolation.

Today we are rarely, if ever, in jeopardy of starvation or predatory death...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Title
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Prologue: Survival Mode
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Hunter-Gatherers, Survival, and the Classroom
• Chapter 2 Connection Intentions, the Good Wolf, and the Six Ps
• Chapter 3 Experiences, Emotions, Attachments, and Scary Kittens
• Chapter 4 Where Did My True Self Go?
• Chapter 5 Addiction in the Classroom
• Chapter 6 The Six Ps Attachment Strategies Rewiring the Brain
• Chapter 7 Drug Addicts, Gamblers, Classrooms, and Dogs
• Chapter 8 Relaxed Environments, Safety, and Structure
• Chapter 9 The Lesson and Unit Plan
• Chapter 10 Control, Drama, and Choice
• Chapter 11 A Bold Proclamation for Change
• Epilogue: Prayers in a Food Truck
• Supplementary Material: Connection Intentions and the Six Ps
• Supplementary Material: Sample Intention Unit Plans/Subject Intentions
• Supplementary Material The Kinderbuddy Lesson Plan
• References
• Index