An Annotation

Another outstanding book explaining the power of emotions in the human experience.  The idea here is that a person’s ability to recognize, harness, and/or control their emotions play even a larger role in determining happiness and/or success than intelligence (whatever that is).

As emotional intelligence relates to motivation, Goldman wrote two excellent sections entitled, Flow: The Neurobiology of Excellence (90), and Learning and Flow: A New Model for Education.  The idea is that “flow” is a state of mind occurring when a person is able to forget everything and live in the pure moment of whatever activity they are engaged in.  A state of super-concentration when time bends and a person loses themselves.  The motivation for these types of activities and states are entirely intrinsic.

Goldman also touches on gender and emotion issues in a section entitled, His Marriage and Hers: Childhood Roots, in which he explains a bit about the differences between how boys and girls are able to articulate the emotions they are feeling based on girls greater verbal skills.  He also touches on aggression and how girls often feel threatened by “a rupture in their relationships,” and boys feel threatened by “anything that might challenge their independence.”

Related posts:

1. Emotional Intelligence: Anatomy of an Emotional Hijacking
2. Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Csikszentmihalyi, M.
3. Odd girl out: The hidden culture of aggression in girls. Simmons, R.

A Chapter Club Annotation

Chapter Club is a practice that allows one to read, learn, and review books by chapter–and feel good about not having to read (or finish) an entire book before embarking upon valuable reflection.

Goldman breaks this book into 5 parts. Chapter two and three are still within Part 1, entitled, The Emotional Brain.

In Chapter 2, Goldman does a great job mixing stories, examples and research with a basic explanation of how the brain evolved, and how its different anatomical parts have different duties. About three years ago, I took a 3 credit correspondence class through St. Thomas called, Teaching With The Brain in Mind, by Eric Jensen, so much of Goldman’s anatomy lesson was review. The added bonus in Goldman’s approach however, was that it was sprinkled with stories and anecdotes that helped to drive home the lesson—the thrust of which is that the amygdala (from the Greek almond), two almond shaped clusters of interconnected structures nestled just above the brain stem, is the “specialist for emotional matters.”

But more than that, in this chapter, Goldman discusses the complex balance (or often lack thereof) between rational and controlled thought and the actions (as well as the horomonal responses) precipitated by the amygdala—which controls “rage and compassion alike.” And sites studies that seem to indicate that without access and control of an “emotional memory,” people struggle to make even simple decisions and often even “make disastrous choices in business and their personal lives.”

As a middle school teacher I’ve always recognized that emotions are constantly playing a role in what is going on during learning—often to an extreme degree. For example, I can point to at least two different students that shed tears in my classroom today. Neither incident had anything to do with me or my class (one girl had gum in her hair). But in both cases their emotions were so strong that they were somewhat distracting to other students. Last week emotions ran hot between some boys. The end result was that three of them were suspended for fighting.

And these are only the extreme cases. How many other students are waging internal wars with their emotions such that they are unable to focus or engage in the learning in my classroom?

The next chapter begins Part 2 of the book, and is entitled, When Smart is Dumb. I’m very interested in this topic so I stole some time and read ahead a bit. Next, Goldman begins a discussion of the merits of being smart with your emotions. I’d like to learn more about what happens when “smart” people (as defined by traditional IQ scores, SAT tests, or grades), lack the ability to recognize and/or manage their emotional responses.

Related posts:

1. Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. Goldman, D.
2. Teaching with the brain in mind.
3. What is Differentiation?

A teacher affects eternity; no one can tell where his influence stops. –Henry Adams

“It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it!” –my wife (more times than I can count)

Guys, let me tell you, I’ve been married for fourteen years now, and the moment you hear that, it’s pretty much over. Sure, you can debate semantics and linguistics all you want, and logically, on paper, I’m sure you’re on the money. Still, I hate to break it to you—you’ve got no shot. It doesn’t matter how airtight your logic. Your best option is to run up the white flag and surrender. Apologize as sincerely as possible and try to change the subject. Drop it and move on. This is fourteen years of marriage speaking. Trust me.

There is no way to win this fight, because what you said doesn’t mean a thing. The only thing that matters is what she heard. And what she understood about your meaning has a lot more to do with your tone of voice, facial expression, posture, and proximity than the words that came out of your mouth. Forget that you were in the process of pulling a bee’s stinger from your eyeball. It doesn’t matter.

I’ve noticed this to be true in the classroom as well. Regardless of how I feel on any given day, if I make a conscious effort to bring energy to my craft, the kids always seem more upbeat too.

It doesn’t matter what I say. If I say it with a smile, if my tone is upbeat, if I’m standing straight with my head up high, if I’m moving around the classroom, making eye contact—the kids are more engaged.

And thus, more learning takes place.

The opposite is also true. If I’m blah, to a certain extent, so is the rest of the classroom environment.

But this is all common sense stuff, right? Much like the stand-up comic, as teachers, we all know that our “delivery” matters . . .right? This isn’t rocket science.

Turns out, however—it is brain science.

How Feelings Are Contagious

According to research done at Harvard and the University of California at San Diego by Dr. Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, who have been mining data collected from nearly 5,000 people over a period of twenty years, “Happiness spreads through social networks like an emotional contagion.” So if you bring positive energy to your lessons, that energy is going to rub off on your students.

But why is this? Here is where it gets truly fascinating. They’re called, mirror neurons, and their job in the brain is to literally mirror observed emotions so that a person actually feels the pain and joy of others.

This truly astounding neural WiFi was discovered by neuroscientists in monkeys in 1992; but they have since also confirmed the presence of mirror neurons in the human brain through a series of experiments so sensitive it boggles the mind. It turns out we now have electrodes so laser-thin that they can be implanted within a single brain cell. Not only are they small, but these electrodes are so sensitive that they can measure the firing of a single neuron.

In his book, Social Intelligence: The Revolutionary New Science of Human Relationships, Dan Goldman reports of a remarkable study. After implanting and monitoring an electrode in a fully conscious person, scientists found that the same specific neuron will fire when a person anticipates pain (of a pinprick) as well as when watching someone else receive a pinprick. As Goldman puts it, the lighting up of that electrode is the equivalent of taking a “neural snapshot of primal empathy in action.”

But that isn’t even the most powerful discovery. To understand that, we have to revisit what Christakis and Fowler discovered about happiness. As it turns out, the energy you bring to the classroom doesn’t merely stay there for the benefit of only that class with only that lesson. It ripples outward and affects people you don’t know, have never met, and in places you may have never been.

According to Christakis and Fowler, if you project positive energy, you increase the chance of feeling good in those near you by 25%, but it doesn’t stop there. When your students leave the classroom, people close to them (friends, family, neighbors, etc . . .) enjoy a 10% chance of experiencing positive energy. Likewise, a person close to that person has a 5.6% chance of getting a positive charge.

Ever wonder what happiness looks like? Each node in the diagram represents one person (circles are female, squares are male). The lines indicate relationships (black = siblings; red = friends, spouces). Color represents degree of happiness, with blue indicating “the blues,” and yellow indicating sheer joy. Green is somewhere in between. Images by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, courtesy of BMJ

The Impact of One Teacher

What does this mean? Let’s just say, for the sake of simplicity, that you come in contact with 50 students a day, and each of those students then interacts with just five other people. That’s 250 additional people that you can affect–bringing your total to 300. But it doesn’t stop there. Remember, you still have a 5.6% chance to affect all those who connect with those additional 250. If we keep it simple and give those 250 each five contacts, that increases your potential outreach by 1,250–bringing your grand total to 1,550 people each day.

And that’s just based on the students in your classes! (Yes, yes I know you teach more than that, but, “Dammit Jim! I’m a Language teacher not a mathwiz!”) Now calculate, if you like (and you are a math wiz), the rest of your contacts in a day, and you’ll truly begin to understand the scope of your influence.

You should feel good about that. Still, guys, it would NOT be wise to bring that up during your next communication snafu with your wives or girlfriends. It won’t help. Trust me on this one. Sometimes it is what you say.

Image credit

Front page image credit

Technorati Profile

Related posts:

1. Inspiring active learning: a handbook for teachers. Harmin, M.
2. Visioning and the development of outstanding teachers. Duffy, G.
3. Teaching the Teen Brain.