Rule #8: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way.

I read this chapter twice it is an important topic to me. I also read it with two minds the biologist in me and as a person continually struggling with stress. Our body was designed to handle stress in short bursts. The fight or flight response, evolutionary speaking, is necessary for our survival. But now we experience long term stress lasting days, if not months.

We produce stress hormones they increase our heart rate, blood flow and nervous system function. Our bodies become optimized to function in a short emergency situation. But long term these hormones act like a toxin to our system. They facilitate scarring in the blood vessels, weaken the immune system and hinder brain function. They can injure cells and break neural networks.

“Specifically, stress hurts declarative memory (things you can declare) and executive function (the type of thinking that involves problem-solving). Those, of course, are the skills needed to excel in school and business.” (pg 178)

Stress effects learning and as a teacher this effect how your students perform. This is extremely frustrating for classroom teacher and made more so in this day of ‘accountability’. “One of the greatest predictors of performance in school turns out to be the emotional stability o the home.” (pg 183) Stress at home lead to poor performance at school. As a classroom teacher there is not much you can do about this. John Median has some interesting ideas on how society can address some of these issues. It is well worth a read.