Students who grasp how emotions drive their thinking are better equipped to cruise through life’s obstacles and reach top gear with confidence.
Among the more traumatic moments in my life was the first hour that I spent teaching my daughter to drive. The first hour was also the last hour. After which, we both then agreed that the rest of the task should fall to a trained professional, preferably with full life insurance. There is probably still a dent in the footwell of the passenger side of the car, where I stamped repeatedly on a non-existent brake pedal for most of that hair-raising journey. A tip for all would-be driving instructors – never say to a beginner, “When you get to the roundabout, just go straight through.” They may well take you literally.
Suffice to say, my daughter passed her licence test easily and, to this day, remains a very good driver. And whilst I can’t take much credit from my hour of white-knuckled terror, I do think that part of her success was my insistence that our kids learned to drive in a manual car, not an automatic. To drive well, you need to have some understanding of how a car works. Thinking it is as easy as mastering two pedals, one to ‘Go’ and one to ‘Stop’, dangerously oversimplifies things. Whereas driving a manual car requires not just the addition of a clutch pedal, but also an understanding of how to change gears. You can pour the power on and rev all you like, but if the gearbox isn’t engaged, you are going nowhere.
The same is true for a child navigating their way through school. Each has a powerful brain, coupled to an even more powerful personality. But assuming their learning works in a simple ‘Stop/Go’ fashion ignores the complex relationship between motion and emotion. Like good mechanics, neuroscientists armed with diagnostic scanners can now peer inside the mind at work. What they are discovering confirms what educators have long known: that children cannot learn until they are engaged.
“Feel the fear and do it anyway” may be a catchy book title, but it is also a psychological impossibility. No matter how much latent energy they may bring to school each day, no matter how desperately they (or their parents) desire them to drive forward, a learner will stand still until they are engaged. Which means that teachers, parents, and young people themselves, need to understand how the mind works when it comes to learning.
To engage in learning, we first need to release the clutch. In the case of the human brain, that is the amygdala, the most powerful controller of our lives. The amygdala is the root of all emotion, and nothing that we think or do happens without its say-so. Thus, even with the greatest will in the world, a child who is anxious, fearful, wary, or insecure cannot learn, no matter how hard they try. And their disengagement is not deliberate; the brain remains stubbornly out of gear until it knows it is safe. Safe to take a risk in displaying possible ignorance. Safe to propose an idea without ridicule. Safe to expose itself to something new and untried.
Engaging young people in learning requires expert tuition. Teachers who create a classroom environment where students can feel secure enough to ease off the brakes and try navigating on their own. Educators who know how to curate lessons that will bring success and self-belief. And pastoral expertise to ensure learning isn’t stalled by the distractions of friendship issues or a lack of confidence or self-esteem.
Likewise, engagement at school also requires parents to start letting go of the wheel. To be prepared to trust their child to steer their own lives, without denying how scary that can be for them both at times. As long as we persist in fixing every problem, shielding every criticism, or cosseting our children from any accountability, they will remain in the backseat. Engagement starts when a child believes that they are in control.
But perhaps the most important step in learning to drive their own brain is to teach young people to understand how its gearbox works. To see how the cogs of their mind revolve around the axis of their emotions. We help them most when we foster self-awareness. Teaching them to recognise how they are feeling and why. To gain insight into their state of mind. To master the regulation of their thoughts. In my experience, young people who learn to know their own minds tend to get up to speed faster and enjoy a smoother journey. Emotional wellbeing is the clutch that allows them to engage in learning and, ultimately, to hit top gear in their lives.
By Mr Peter Clague, Principal