Teachers often feel blamed for everything from the achievement gap to a top student’s floundering in their freshman year of college. Teachers know that the world around their classroom is much bigger than they are. As an individual influence on each student, could they be expected to overcome things like poverty, hunger and pressures to overachieve simply within their limited time in a classroom full of 30-plus students?
Yet the microcosm that is the classroom can in reality be a buffer from the turbulent, unjust and sometimes traumatic outside world. This is not to enhance the blame game but rather for educators to feel emboldened by the scientific data supporting their efforts at creating a fertile ground for learning and social/emotional growth; even if only for that short period of space and time with which they have to interact with their students.
Take a brief three-part journey with us as we use addiction for a metaphor (not much of a stretch-you’ll soon see) for the threats and toxins that children face in their worlds outside of the classroom.
Contrary to popular belief, animals, including humans, are not always at the whim of drugs of abuse; ready to fall into the dee
p chasm of addiction at the first taste. To get rats truly addicted you have to stress them out by leaving them confined and alone (scientists aren’t cruel enough to intentionally make humans addicts). Rats in cages with lots of social interaction and toys like balls, wheels and tunnels, have to be forced to imbibe the drug by removing other sources of liquid. And rats already addicted to opiods, who are placed into one of these enriched environments with friends and play, will suffer brief symptoms of withdrawal. These previously addicted rats will now choose to drink only non-opiod-laden water, as compared to addicted rats who, in remaining in isolated cages, will drink opiod-laden water continuously despite having the same choice available to them.
An analogous story exists in humans. Vietnam War troops had high rates of heroin use while in the theatre of war. Doctors warned of the impending social catastrophe that would be the return of the addicted vets to their normal lives and families. And while of course the experience of war can be traumatic and wreak havoc on emotional and psychological health of a soldier, the massive opiod addiction among returning vets didn’t come to pass. Like the addicted rats who recovered easily when moved from isolated cages to more engaging environments, the vast majority of Vietnam vets upon their return home had moved to cages worth living for.
One view of addiction is the use of a drugs to alleviate emotional pain (which as you know from another post of ours, is similar in the brain to physical pain). Can a classroom serve as the same sort of buffer as the rats cages and the vets home-lives that insulates a child from emotional stressors for long enough to promote academic success?
We think so, and we’ll give you the science behind why in PART II. In the meantime we have some homework for you:
- We ask you to reflect upon what types of learning environments do you remember most positively from your childhood? We are using learning environment very loosely here of course. It could be your 4th grade teacher or the time your elderly neighbor taught you to knit during one summer or an orchestra experience. Or even when your older cousin taught you a choreographed version of ‘Bust a Move’.
- Talk with a colleague about this, engaging them in a discussion of what types of learning environments they remember most favorably into adulthood.
- If you are comfortable sharing, we’d love to hear from you in the comments below.