Emotional Intelligence Begins Early
Most emotional intelligence is learned in the first year as children learn how to react in hundreds of simple cause-and-effect situations with parents. They guide them about how to feel pleased, disappointed, anxious, sad, proud, ashamed, apologetic and more. This is a process known as 'attunement'.
As far as temperament goes, the author beleives that about half is learned and half is inherited. The first "24 months of child-raising provides the difference between several dramatically different and possible futures." (Kagan 1994).
Our vision develops most in our first year, especially between the ages of 2 and 4 months. A variety of objects, games, and responses from parents shape the way vision develops. Television is not a good option as it's better to talk to children directly to provide them with more of a hands-on approach.
Sleep Time
The natural time for a teenager to sleep is between midnight and 8 am, stimulated by the hormonal changes during puberty. The interesting fact here is that sleep experts discovered that teens COULDN'T fall asleep early as their parents tried to encourage them to do. The research here suggests, in other words, that we need to push back the start of classes to maximize their potential for learning. A time suggested in the book is around 9:30 for high school level students. For elementary, the suggestion is that as early as 7:30 is appropriate.
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
How do you feel about adjusting the time of the school day? At the present, it's geared toward the adults in the school and the conventions of society. Given that students aren't developed yet in that area, are we causing them difficulties that they don't need to face?
Eating to Learn
Not surprisingly, what we eat has an impact on how we learn. Too many kids eat too much saturated fat, sugar, and simple carbohydrates without eating enough fruit, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates. That's insufficient for basic learning and memory (Wurtman 1986).
What is good to eat? Leafy green vegetables, salmon, nuts, lean meats, and fresh fruits.
Another surprising but obvious issue is dehydration. To be at their best, learners need water. With less fluids, stress levels and blood pressure go up. In addition, "if water is available in the learning environment, the typical hormone response to the stress is markedly reduced or absent."
Suggestions:
- Talk to students about better nutrition
- Do projects on nutrition to increase learning
- Keep a private journal of what they eat to help them link up to learning in school
- Arrange for guest speakers
- Model good eating habits
- Influence what gets served at school cafeterias
The fact about dehydration and water availabilty is amazing.
ReplyDeleteNow I feel bad about stopping them from leaving for water so often!
ReplyDeleteIf I had to decide which was the greater issue, I would definitely say that providing proper food to teenagers (any school aged child for that matter) is way more important than changing school start times, an idea I don't buy for a minute. In the States a lot of high schools begin classes as early as 7:30am! I truly believe access to proper food is what will help our kids brains develop properly to facilitate learning. I wonder about the sleep and brain studies that go on related to teenagers. Being a science teacher with a biology background I understand the ebbs and flows connected to brain growth, but I also know that many teenagers are not affected by the 8:30-9am start and, from my experience, the ones that are affected seem to have issues all day long, not exclusively in the morning.
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of talk about changing our school start time to benefit teenagers. We currently start at 8:05 and the elementary school next door starts at 9:00. The times couldn't be changed because of bus schedules and parent input at the elementary school level, but, I would have liked to have seen the change. In some ways I agree with the summary you have provided, Brian, but in some ways I agree with Adrienne. Don't you think that if high school started later, teens would simply go to bed later and wake up later?
ReplyDeleteAs far as times go, I think we need to look at the idea of flexibility at the very least. At my school, we have an hour a day called 'clinic' where students get to sign out to go visit various teachers for extra help. Maybe if we can't push back start times we can mix it up with more time during the day to get things done?
ReplyDelete