Hey educators, guess what. What you teach in your classroom won’t matter if there’s no respect.
Let me explain with a story.
If I had to describe my 9th grade math class in a word, it would be ‘scary.’ Every class I was afraid. For starters I was afraid of my teacher. He looked scary, he talked scary, and he often made fun of students who couldn’t produce the correct answer. I’m sure he thought he was being funny. But I was 14 and he scared the heck out of me. I also dreaded the humiliations and punishments that 4 or 5 students in that class inflicted on the rest of us. Getting drilled in the arm when our teacher wasn’t looking. Pen jabs in the back of the head. Kicks in the shin. Desk weggies. Being called names that I probably shouldn’t repeat here. You know, typical 9th Grade stuff. And these kids never got in trouble. They weren’t bad kids. If anything, it was developmentally appropriate. But they knew they could get away with it. So they did it. And I dreaded it. When I looked at my Math 9 textbook at home, I only thought about the next class … with fear!
And how much did I learn in that class? Like how much did I really learn? Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
Sure hormones got in the way. Sure a class full of imaginary audiences got in the way. And sure I wasn’t the best at math to begin with. But it’s true, I learned next to nothing in 9th grade math. But that experience made me a better educator. Why? Simple:
Respect first, learn second.
Let me explain. When we perceive a threat, our brains get hijacked by our fight or flight response. Our brains – specifically our amygdala’s – pump adrenaline and other hormones throughout our bodies. We sense the threat, and our brains optimize our bodies for a fight or a flight. Now this is important to understand because the ‘human’ parts of the brain – the parts of our brains that allow us to do human-like things (like learning in schools), are way up in the cloudy-looking part of the brain called the cortex. In fact, there’s a general rule that the closer a part of the brain is to the spinal cord, the more primitive its function is. Breathing, for example, is taken care of by the brain stem (right above the spinal cord). And you can see that the amygdala – our fight or flight center – is way down low with the rest of the primitive brain stuff (for more, click here).
The amygdala is where fear happens ... way down by the primitive brain stem.
For educators, this is important, especially the word “perceived.” In my 9th grade math class, I was never going to die. My teacher wasn’t going to kill me. I knew my classmates would never beat me to a pulp. But each and every day I was afraid nonetheless. I perceived a threat, and my amygdala got me ready to fight back or run away. My cortex was hijacked. I couldn’t learn a thing.
Had my teacher made us feel comfortable, had my teacher insisted that everyone in the room treat one another with respect, had my teacher punished those who were being disrespectful, none of us would have been as afraid as we were. We would have felt safe (or safer), and we may have been a little more able to learn.
Educators must demand respect in their classrooms. They must be willing to come down hard on students who are being disresptful. And they must – more than anything – be respectful themselves. We can all think back on one or two teachers who we learned so much from. Not necessarily the ones who we liked the most, but the ones we learned lots and lots from. And I’m willing to bet that somewhere near the top of that teacher’s rulebook was a “Be Respectful” rule. It may have been explicit. It may have been implicit. But if you learned lots, I’m betting that you felt safe. You felt respected. You felt dignified. Your cortex was operational. And you learned … a lot.
This is interesting. I’m curious how the time spent on the blog works toward your overall goals. A great sideline nonetheless.