When Marcia and I retired from teaching over four years ago we still had the passion for education and a predilection for providing support for those children whose behaviour was so dysfunctional it inhibited not only their learning outcomes it also stifled the learning of their classmates. Our special interest in focusing on this specific feature of the characteristics that must be considered in any classroom has its geneses in our years working is special education settings that catered for these disruptive kids.
When faced with a cohort of students where the vast majority are classified as conduct disordered or at least oppositional defiant it made sense to look for the cause of their self-destructive behaviours; it soon becomes obvious they really don’t want to be in the situation they find themselves in, they want to be what we would call ‘normal’. We soon realised that almost without exception these children suffered from early childhood abuse and/or cruel neglect.
With that, as our motivation we started this journey over four years ago offering resources, training and development and a regular free Newsletter, at last count we are at Number 158! We have also written books specifically aimed at supporting this work. The first ‘The Impact of Modern Neuroscience on Contemporary Teaching’ and ‘Insights into the Modern Classroom – the Getting of Wisdom for Teachers’. We are pleased to announce the publication of the third in this series ‘Neuroscience and Teaching Very Difficult Kids’ shown below.
This is a time to take stock and ask you our supporters for guidance as in how to proceed from here! Could you please take the time to provide feedback on how we can improve our service and importantly inform us of topics we should explore or re-examine.
This Newsletter follows on from the last posting ‘Tips for Teaching Teenagers’ where the specific changes in the brain structural formation and the consequences of these changes influences the way adolescent students learn and behave. This essay expands on this work outlining the more particular arrangement of these changes and what motivates this change of intent of future behaviour.
As mentioned, the onset of puberty marks an explosion of neural activity where excess myaline and supportive neural materials focuses on a particular part of the brain to produce conditions that support a specific brain location that will service a particular cognitive capability. This occurs predominantly in the prefrontal lobes but also in the limbic system but the manner in which the changes occur over the period of about age ten to sixteen is quite different and this explains some of the peculiarity of the teenage behaviour.
The prefrontal lobes mature gradually slowly tiptoeing toward the desired skills such as the ability to show good judgement; to critically analyse information that is exposed to them. This is the work of what is referred to as the executive part of the brain, that part where our working memory operates to examine what we have learned and applies this to a problem to be solved.
The other part of the brain under renovation is the limbic system. This is where the social/emotional part of the brain is organised. This is where we are conscious of our position and acceptance in our social group as being very important and rejection becomes so painful. This is a time when we develop our social synapses that deal with our mutual interactions and these exchanges go a long way to establishing our status and self-respect which is our important sense of self. The problem is the changes in the limbic system is not gradual but is in spurts. You can see this when you look at the behaviour of Year 7 and compare this with Year 10 and make a further appraisal of Year 12. The advances are more in steps rather than gradual.
Another consideration is that the maturity of the brain’s connectomes is under construction. In 2009 the US National Institute of Health commissioned a project to identify the memory centres, our schemas in the brain, The Human Connection Project to understand the interconnectedness across all the memories held in the brain. The resulting network is referred to as our connectome. They identified 180 areas, hubs if you like that were connected, 97 more than previously known. Each area has a dense internal array of neural connections. Each hub has access to the others via connections of axonal pathways allowing them to share their information. This sharing process is our working memory in action.
In adults these connections may vary across their life as their experiences and beliefs adjust to their environmental circumstances but at any given time they are relatively distinctive, they have a consistency in how they interpret their environment. In children these connections are less distinct and so the inconsistency leads to the confusions so typical of children and adolescents. This ordering between hubs takes place in concert with the prefrontal lobes.
A characteristic about this maturity of the connectome is that this occurs on average a year to eighteen months earlier in females than males and this confirms the attitudes of girls and boys that any secondary teacher will have experienced.
This time of transition is about becoming a functioning adult. Like all things about being an adult the skills needed are many and varied however, the following illustration contains the broad categories that define an effective adult.
Down the left column are the deficits with which children come into the world. They make the change by acquiring the skills that make them effective in dealing with the challenges in life. These are as follows:
Relating Skills – At birth, human babies are the most dependent of all mammals. They also take the most time to accumulate the self-awareness and confidence to stand on their own two feet.
Comprehension – Children have to be taught how things work especially the social skills so important in negotiating within a community.
Decision Making – Like relating skills children need to have the confidence to make decisions and stick to them when they think they are right. Of course, they need to be flexible and accept an alternate view if they are wrong.
Social Skills – This is also similar to relating skills but this is the ability to recognise how the ‘others’ feel in a given situation and take their standpoint into consideration. Sometimes it is necessary to put the group’s needs first.
Interested – This is a critical skill that is most ‘at threat’ in the teenage years. Curiosity enhances all parts of a person’s life decisions and makes things very interesting.
Developing these skills in adolescents is not a simple matter of just telling them what to do! One of the worst things you can do is come across as the expert ‘just do this because I know best’. This is a time when teenagers are moving away from the control of adults and this is healthy and necessary however, if you engage them and say things like ‘this is what I think about the task’ you give the advice without threatening their emerging independence.
Creating a supportive classroom also assists in this transition. Previous Newsletters (The Tribal Classroom – 1 August 2018 and The Tribal Teacher – 29 July 2019) give excellent summaries about how to create strong group cohesion and attachment where the conditions of equity, fairness and trust underpin the classroom environment.
So many children miss out on supportive conditions in their first three years. Our work focusses on these abused and neglected students. A supportive teacher in a caring school can make such a difference for these kids – it is never the last chance but it is the next best chance after the early years to create new behaviours. If they miss out change is still possible but for those children in low socioeconomic areas, access to mental health professional is rare.
For years it was the assumption that children were born with a certain number of neurons and how these were arranged predetermined an individual’s fate. The statement, ‘Give me a child for the first seven years and I will give you back the adult!’ is commonly attributed to Mark Twain but it is a cliché that can be traced back to Aristotle and used by St. Ignatius Loyloa to underpin the Jesuit Order’s emphasis on educating the youth. This is faulty belief Number 1. Of course, the early years are critical in the development of a child’s sense of self and their subsequent approach to life but this is not decisive.
The second inadequate truth is that early intervention is the only effective time to attempt to modify dysfunctional behaviours; if you miss this time it is too late. Of course, it is much easier to change behaviours before they become entrenched in a child’s repertoire but this is not the only time this can be achieved. When I started working with dysfunctional teenagers I experienced unintentional reluctance to support my work. My supervisors looked at my school as somewhere to park these dangerous kids while they placed their meagre resources on working in early childhood.
To be clear, I agree early intervention is very much the preferred option when helping those kids who struggle to control their behaviour. All our work is about supporting such endeavors but I refuse to give-up on any child or any adult just because they missed out during this time. The conduct disordered and oppositional students, I was charged to look after deserved every chance to change the way they behaved and take their rightful place in our society.
In 2007, Deborah Yurgelun-Todd published a paper, ‘Emotional and cognitive changes during adolescence’ which demonstrated that the onset of puberty marked a significant stage in the development of the brain. At about age eleven there is a surge of growth in the Brain’s ‘grey matter’ and a significant increase in the presence of myelin in the prefrontal lobes; these are the conditions for development of new areas of cognition and therefore new ways to control behaviour.
This is the period where the prefrontal lobes begin to mature eventually allowing us to consider decisions through the use of our finely matured working memory. During this transition from behaviours regulated by our concrete thoughts or raw emotions to more measured decision making there is a period of adjustment. This is particularly marked around the interpretation and expression of emotions.
Up until about age eleven the interpretation of the emotional state of an individual is carried out in the amygdala and this informs the individual’s response to this non-verbal message. Eventually, the emotional message from the environment goes through the prefrontal lobes for evaluation and, unless the situation is extremely stressful the decision on how to react is more controlled. Of course, when any situation is potentially threatening to our survival the amygdala provides instant response.
During this time of change the child will become less capable of identifying how others are feeling as emotional interpretation function shifts from amygdala to frontal lobes. A ten-year-old child can more accurately identify the emotions of others at a high level than an eleven-year-old. The drop-in accuracy is considered to be in the order of 20%. This frustrates both parents and teachers who, when expressing their great displeasure are confronted with an adolescent who ‘just doesn’t seem to care’.
Another form of annoyance for the adult is that having given clear instructions about what to do, and receiving a message that their teenager understands the directions and is willing to comply, when they come to inspect the ‘finished task’ nothing has been done and the teenager doesn’t understand why you’re upset; more frustration!
However, this is the developmental period of the prefrontal lobe which, in times of tolerable levels of stress:
• Controls how we are interacting with our environment
• Manages how we make judgments about what occurs in our daily activities
• Directs our emotional response
• Organises our expressive language. Assigns meaning to the words we choose
• Involves word associations
• Controls memory for habits and motor activities
This is our working memory in action.
The following is advice for teaching all adolescent students and is the same for those who we focus on, those with dysfunctional behaviours resulting from childhood abuse and/or neglect. The environment you provide must be consistent, persistent and supportive as always but a bit more patience is needed through these years. On top of this, the following suggestions will help:
1. Don’t let the challenges of puberty lower your expectations. Just because your children may become moody or resistant doesn’t mean you should let them pull back on their efforts in their activities or their schoolwork. Continue your encouragement and involvement, you can still be appropriately angry when they fail to ‘do their homework’. It’s all about finding the right fit.
2. You have to gradually pass the control of the environment from you to them. One of the hardest things to do is to hand over the responsibility from it being your duty to having them fulfil their obligations to it being their responsibility. I understand how hard it is to let go and watch them make choices that we might not necessarily make; to watch them make mistakes. But, without going through the process of learning to be self-responsible they will never take their rightful place in our community.
3. Organise reasonable routines for your students. Allow time for the very demanding academic work or schoolwork but make sure you give them plenty of time for other, more social activities. The amount of time put aside for school work will increase throughout their time at secondary school but the growth should synchronize with the maturity of the prefrontal lobe.
4. Don’t be surprised if your students focus more on socialising during this time. This is customary and important but friendships aren’t the only significant aspects of their lives and should not displace their other important activities and responsibilities. Be vigilant around their use of social media, this can become a substitute for students who struggle with face-to-face relationships. It’s best to limit the use of these activities.
5. Expect students to grow and change. Encourage them to seek out new activities to replace ones they outgrow. Some young teenagers stick with the same activities that they’ve done since they were young children; others go through radical changes; both are normal.
6. Accept, in the senior years you may have to take more of a back seat in the driving of their education. But, back seat drivers can be effective in making sure the course they are on is steady and safe! Teenagers are still hearing what you say even when they seem not to be listening.
I have included, in the resources section of our site a chapter form my book ‘The Impact of Modern Neuroscience on Contemporary Teaching’ – Chapter 8 - The Second Chance: The Teenage Brain, that gives a much more detailed explanation of this stage of their brain’s development. It is just as the chapter says, a second chance and I have argued that dealing with those damaged adolescents at the time of puberty is a powerful form of early intervention.
At the heart of any community is the acceptance and tolerance of all members in that society. Therefore, the best start we can give our emerging citizens is an educational setting where children from all experiences and socio-economic levels attend as equals. This by definition is in a local comprehensive public school. The failure to address the current calamity that is testing the federal government comes from the fact that 70% of the male Ministers in cabinet attended private schools and the Prime Minister went to an all-boys, selective school. They were educated in an environment that lacked contact with children from circumstances of which they have no experience, they are raised in a mono-culture.
Mono-Cultures have long been known to have an adverse effect on the production of food. Although the economic advantage is obvious, planting, harvesting and packaging are relatively uniform resulting in increased profit margins that benefit the few. However, there is a cost to the health of the plants and the surrounding environment.
The continual use of one type of species means there is a concentration of the nutrients extracted from the soil and this needs to be replaced by specific fertiliser that is sourced from another area. Further, the practice of mono-culture farming leads to mutation of the plants with a reduction of resistance to any disease that is encountered.
The practice on mono-culture farming is perhaps more disturbing when we consider it’s practice in the farming of livestock. Of course, there is the same economic rationality: specialisation leads to profit maximisation but like the species concentration in plants, animals suffer from lack of diversity. Studies have shown that the use of a specific genetic strain in a bovine population leads to a decrease in the fertility of the herd, a reduction in the resistance to disease and a loss in vitality.
The extreme catastrophe of this in-breeding is seen in the world of dog shows. Breeders have selected pairs of dogs that are closely match up with the view of getting a more exaggerated physical character that is admired, especially by the judges. The most tragic case is in the breeding of the British Bulldog. These poor dogs are now so disformed they live in continual discomfort struggling to breath, susceptible to disease and are depressed. The deformity is so pronounced that bulldogs bred for showing can only give birth via caesarean section, their head is so large it won’t fit down the birth canal!
So, what is the point of this information? I will argue that the lessons from the natural world do apply to our social world and this mono-culture approach to the nurturing of our children particularly with regards to schooling.
Just like any biosphere the step-by-step brain development of any child depends on the environment in which it is raised. We develop our behaviours by addressing the problems we confront in ways that satisfy our sense of belonging within that environment. If I attend a ‘selective’ school of any kind I will be limited to the culture of that school.
It’s not hard to appreciate that, if I attend a wealthy boy’s school, one that has the best facilities, an ‘inbred’ culture that has evolved over many years I would develop the behaviours that reflect those values.
The first public recognition of the toxic masculinity of these schools was seen on the ‘4 Corners’ 2020-episode exposure of the hyper-masculinity of the boys from St Kevin’s school in Melbourne. Despite attempts to downplay this as a one-off incident, the activities of an ex- Kambala School student, Chanel Cantos has revealed otherwise. Ms Cantos sent out a partition asking for girls that had experienced forms of sexual harassment and rape. She was overwhelmed by the response with over 100 testimonies indicating that a significant number of boys from the Sydney elite schools had little or no respect for the girls.
I would argue that these boys had their ethics and character nurtured in a culture that lacked healthy exposure to girls in their formative years and as a result, they never developed the neural pathways that lead to a healthy respect for girls.
This is the most sensational example of the destructive effect mono-culture schools have on the boy’s social development. Attending such a school encourages this sort of behaviour and so impressionable adolescents conform to the presenting social norms to belong.
However, this is not the only example. Another issue is the presence of schools with a religious bias. Around the middle of the last century I attended a public school. I had heard about a nearby Catholic School but had no idea what that meant. They were ‘different’ to me and as I found out later ‘they’ had the same opinion about us. One weekend with my mates I came across a group of these ‘cathos’ and to all our surprise we were very much the same. However, the identification of a group as being ‘other’ of the foundation of prejudice. The student within that religious school will think of public schools as others and public-school kids think of, say Muslim kids as others. The creation of ‘others’ has fuelled the major atrocities throughout history with an extreme example being the holocaust perpetrated in during the Second World War!
It is human nature to want to be better that ‘others’ and when children are separated on religious grounds it will be because the parents see their religious norms as being better that those outside that religion; this creation of a mono-culture at a school weakens the student’s ability to socially integrate with their whole society. I expect there will be a strong protest about that statement but what else can happen!
These same arguments can be easily applied to the creation of selective schools for ‘gifted’ students just as they can for ‘special schools’ for the ‘disabled’. Whenever you create a school culture that identifies those outside that school as ‘others’, as being different you depreciate the social health of both the child that attends that school and the ‘other’ and that has huge life-long consequences.
So, why are these schools still in existence and growing? Why do our governments continue to fund, at ever increasing levels these schools? Well its not to get a better learning outcome! In January, Trevor Cobbold of the Save our Schools organisation demonstrated that these elite schools do no better than the less wealthy public schools in the NAPLAN tests when socio-economic factors are included. There is no logical answer for the existence of a type of school other than the comprehensive community public school where the whole complex human diversity resides and as the World Health Organisation concludes regarding nature, this exposure to diversity is the foundation of a healthy and strong society!
Whenever people talk about the qualities of successful people they always cite a healthy sense of ‘self’. This is described in terms like positive self-esteem or self-confidence and there is no doubt that how we feel about our selves really does impact on our performance. The same relationship holds for our students; if they feel confident they approach their lessons with a positive attitude. But, what about those students in our classes who suffer low levels of self-esteem, those who has suffered abuse or neglect or those who come into the system with undiagnosed disabilities. These kids are already at a disadvantage even before they start the lesson!
The emergence of our sense of self occurs in our childhood. In the first three years there is a massive period of learning through trial and error and, because our cognitive memories do not take shape until the hippocampus becomes active all these memories are emotional. This explains the degree our sense of self is based on emotions; we ‘feel’ confident.
At about the time a child reaches the age of eight their sense of self is reasonably stable. At this time, we ‘know’ who we are and that ‘who’ is the aggregation of the emotional and cognitive memories. However, as stated earlier this sense is highly skewed to our emotional sense. It is my understanding that this emotional dominance over our sense of self is the reason cognitive interventions are limited in their success when dealing with those children who have suffered early childhood abuse.
For children who have suffered abuse or neglect, the consequence they received for their actions produce levels of fear and anxiety no matter what they tried to do to get their needs met. Eventually they will either accept their inability to succeed or cease trying and disengage from their world. This feeling of worthlessness and incompetence underpins what I refer to as toxic shame.
Many, or most of these damaged kids suffer from this toxic shame, that is they expect to fail, they don’t make mistakes, they believe they are mistakes (see Newsletters Toxic Shame – 3rd July 2017 and Faulty Beliefs – 6th November 2019). The challenge for the teacher is to refute this negative mindset by producing a classroom atmosphere where the lesson is no threat to their sense of ‘self’, eliminating the negative impact of their faulty beliefs! By consistently presenting an environment that esteems the student their attitude will change but this is not a quick nor easy solution. Remember, these beliefs have been formed over many years so it may take many years to make a change. The teacher has an opportunity to make this happen.
All beliefs are just memories that are formed in response to our needs and the environment in which we find ourselves. The illustration below crudely explains how this process functions.
The student comes into class from home with a certain attitude, they might be feeling great after a big breakfast and positive encouragement from mum or they might be hungry leaving home early so they didn’t get hit by their angry father who was abusing their mother; this is how they come to the class, their ‘antecedent condition’. The situation is the classroom and the lesson and this is where the teacher has some control. The decision on whether or not to participate depends on how they feel about being in class, do they feel secure and accepted and how the teacher frames the lesson, is it interesting, do they think they can do it!
From then on, the process is much more difficult for the teacher to influence. The student will decide on the action they take and the efforts they make to complete the task. The quality of the results of their work may vary but how the teacher reacts to their effort provides the affective consequence of their actions and that feeds back into their memory, especially their emotional memory! Knowing how this process works and using all your teaching skills you can build a positive sense about their efforts. This acceptance of their attempts can change their sense of ‘self’!
We need to create an environment around building, or re-building their sense of ‘self’ in stages. The first stage is to get a predictable connection between the child’s actions and the consequences. The more we can make this a successful and importantly a pleasurable experience, that ‘experience’ will feedback into the emotional and cognitive memory bank, their sense of self, the second stage! This takes some creative manipulation of the curriculum and lesson delivery.
There will obviously be times when their actions will be inappropriate and they should get a predictable, negative consequence. It is at these times the feedback is delivered in a way that addresses the behaviour but respects the child. If this approach is adopted eventually the child will understand that ‘they made a mistake’ but they’re NOT a mistake!
As always, the skills the teacher needs to have, other that their pedagogical knowledge is to be able to:
Have a structured and persistent discipline and welfare policy
Set understandable expectations for the behaviour and class work
Develop strong professional relationships with their students
The following Newsletters have detailed descriptions of these features:
Creating Structure - 12 August 2019
Structure - 15 June 2020
Be Persistently Consistent - 26 October 2020
Expectations - 17 February 2020
Relationships – They Know What You’re Thinking - 25 June 2018
Special Relationships - 10 February 2020
The road to recovery is incremental, as the student experiences success their memories will be changed, their sense of self will change and the student will attempt to take on situations they denied themselves previously. They will say yes to opportunities and more notably they will say no to those who try to deny them what they need.
Authenticity, what is it and why is it important? In our modern world to be true to yourself is almost considered the principle of living a good life. But, modern examinations have brought into question the value of living such a life. In this space we are concerned with your influence on your students and how does authenticity, being yourself play out in the classroom.
If you look at definitions of authenticity they may vary in detail but are generally about the ability to be genuine, acting in a way that is consistent and true to your beliefs. This is important for the conclusions I will draw but the journey to that resolution will clarify what authenticity is for any leaders such as teachers and principals, not to mention political and bureaucratic leaders.
If you look for a description of the characteristics of an authentic person you would arrive at the following broad statements:
They are realistic about their contributions in any given situation
They accept their self and the independence of others
They take responsibility for their actions and readily admit to mistakes
They know what they are doing and why they are doing it
So far things are straight forward however, most research on authenticity and in fact consideration about our own authenticity is based in self-evaluation. This means we appraise our level of agreement with the above characteristics based on our own beliefs and how our actions have influenced our emotional response.
An example of this type of authenticity would be the President of the USA, Donald Trump. I believe Trump would consider himself to be authentic, surprisingly many others must also see him as genuine but I would argue that for many others Trump is far from having the characteristics outlined above. In fact, in my assessment he would fail on all counts. I would consider him inauthentic and so we have to conclude your own authenticity is not based on your assessment but on that of others. In the case of the president, his legitimacy depends on us not his own judgement.
This is when it gets troubling, people are not so simple, they will be driven to get their needs met and these needs will vary from situation to situation from time to time. An appropriate action in one circumstance will be a misdemeanour in another but both could be considered authentic within that circumstance.
If we accept that, then a teacher who believes he/she must take charge of a class, adopt a command/control belief system into their decision making then when they ‘lay down the law’ to misbehaving students they are authentic. Their connection between feeling good about how they have acted is a convincing confirmation of their authenticity but how do the students feel about this?
So, we come back to our original definition and authenticity is the ability to be genuine, acting in a way that is consistent and true to your beliefs however those ‘beliefs’ must be shared by the people we are dealing with. In our case it is our students; do we all share a common set of principles that apply in our school/classroom?
Throughout these Newsletters, remembering our objective is to assist teachers dealing with difficult students we have consistently repeated the mantra be consistent and persistent. But, the thing is what are you to be consistent and persistent about? Referring back to Trump, he is nothing if not persistent and consistent. So, we have to have a shared set of principles on which we can act and the students can judge our authenticity. These principles are:
Structure – the student and the teacher know what is most likely to happen when a student acts in a certain way. We are talking about consequences for actions. When we mention consequences, it is generally considered we are talking about the link between dysfunctional behaviour and negative consequences. This is understandable when you consider the students we are targeting but just as important is to have the same predictable consequence when the students act in an appropriate way.
Expectations – this is like structure but it is providing the conditions that build up the memories that allow the student to predict what will happen in the lesson. This includes them knowing the ‘behaviour rules’ but also what the classroom is for. What happened last lesson will allow them to imagine what will happen next lesson so it is important to build up a positive set of expectations for your class.
Relationships – this is invariably identified as the dominant characteristic in the evaluation of effective teaching. There is so much to having a successful student teacher relationship but there are dangers if that relationship crosses professional boundaries. However, the real expression of a successful relationship is the ability for the teacher to reject the inappropriate behaviour of the student while maintaining their mutual respect.
In a sense your authenticity is rapped-up in the sharing of beliefs between yourself and others and your consistency in acting in a manner that is directed by those beliefs. When you do this, you will not only enjoy the pleasure of feeling authentic you will also have the benefit of your students sharing that sense of authenticity. But, keep in mind you will make mistakes and if you accept these with good humour you will only enhance your humility and that is at the heart of authenticity.
A footnote: This newsletter refers to many previous blogs and so I have provided a bibliography.
Relationships 26th February 2018
Consequences – Neither Punishment nor Reward 2nd April 2018
Question About Controlling the Structure 4th June 2018
Transference 14th August 2018
Trust – The Glue That Sustains Relationships 3rd December 2018
Empathy 18th February 2109
What’s the Chances 13th May 2019
Relationships – They Know What You’re Thinking 25th June 2018
Whenever politicians who reflect the opinions of the press are faced with criticism of the education system, they immediately adopt the knee-jerk reaction and put an intense focus on numeracy and literacy. In an already crowded curriculum this intensification requires cuts somewhere; the easy answer is in sports and the arts. In our culture, sport is revered and does have physical benefits meaning it is the arts that face the chop! This view degrades the arts, if examined closely they contribute massively to the economy and importantly to the psycho/social health of the nation. This Newsletter will focus on one aspect of the arts, music.
There has long been an understanding that the study of music increases a child’s intellectual capacity. However, even though studies from Harvard have not been able to confirm this hypothesis, they still acknowledge the benefits of musical studies. Primarily, it promotes healthy development of the brain which leads to an increased efficiency of a child’s basic ability.
In a most simplistic descriptions of brain development, we learn to achieve desired outcomes. Attempts at acting in a particular way initiates the connection between the brain’s neurons to direct the movement of the body (the only thing the brain can actually do is initiate movement). The more the action is repeated the stronger becomes the neural pathway and as more and more behaviours are learned; we develop a network of pathways that can be accessed to help us navigate through life. The governing maxim for neural development is ‘the more the neurons are fired together the more they are wired together’. Therefore, the richer the networks the more resourceful the brain.
Learning a musical instrument is the great connector right across the brain; it not only recruits both sides but the ‘independent’ behaviours primarily regulated on a particular side, have to be synchronised to create music. The benefit is that the neural pathways are not in a specific section of the brain as is the case for some behaviours they are across the whole brain especially in the:
Occipital lobe - for reading and interpreting rhythm
Parietal lobe – integrates incoming senses
Temporal lobe – processes sound
Frontal lobe – integrates incoming senses
Anterior corpus collosum – coordination across the brain
The synchronisation is not only across the cerebrum but incorporates the lower levels of the brain. When the rhythm matches that of the brain’s alpha waves it creates a sense of calm.
The cerebrum has areas that specifically oversee specific tasks and it is in the cerebrum that new learning takes place; this is the most important cognitive consideration for schools. The synchronised necessity to create music forces the expansion of potential cognitive connections and that influences our intellectual performance. These benefits are reinforced through practice, the consolidation of the networks and increased connectivity!
The benefits for the students have been demonstrated over the years and are numerous. The increased formation of networks and the connectivity across the brain through the unique demands required to produce music result in:
Improved short and long-term memory
Better results in cognitive tests
Increased ability to focus on a task
Improved gross motor skills
Enhanced physical and psychological health
More effective language development
The result is the students have better learning outcomes, healthier sense of self and they approach their lessons with more confidence.
The power and importance of music is bluntly illustrated in an examination of dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease, afflictions that devastates the brain. There is some belief that music, like all enhanced cognitive activity helps delay the onset of these ailments but there is no dispute about the importance of music as a lifeline for these patients. It is the procedural and explicit memories that are first lost, things like events, knowledge and reasoning but the memories of music remain.
The value of music in calming an individual’s levels of distress has been demonstrated by David Akomo from Weber State University. His team confirmed the value of Shamic drumming by reducing their levels of anxiety when dealing with Vietnam Veterans who suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The use of rhythm is an integral part of all music and dance therapy to deal with all forms of mental disturbance.
Music is undoubtedly important to us as a species, all cultures practice it and there is a common predicable structure that has a soothing effect. There is evidence of it being performed for over 30,000 years with artefacts such as percussion instruments, bone flutes and jaw harps being found in archaeological digs. It really is a primitive but deep form of communication that not only conveys the message, it assigns a level of importance through the emotional content of that message. Historically it has been used in most cultures as a healing process or an appeal to some god.
Music has always been a cohesive element in any community. It is used in all ceremonies such as weddings, funerals and the like and it brings special meanings for couples and individuals; music moves us all. Why this is so is unclear but it is probably due to the beat. Humans prefer the repeated regular sound – it is hard not to link this back to a heart beat a not unimportant sound! In music this beat can come through different rhythms such as 4/4, 2/4, or 3/4 but it is in these divisions of eight both for the pitch and rhythm!
Education systems are, or should be always looking for ways to improve the learning outcomes for their students and it is no surprise that Finland, that country that is always held up as an exemplary model has made music compulsory for students throughout their whole school career.
But, what about those students, who have suffered early childhood abuse or neglect we are most interested in helping? Oliver Sacks said it best; ‘music evokes emotions and emotions bring with it memory … it brings back the feeling of life where nothing else can’. He was referring to dementia at the time but I contend it equally applies to those kids who have their feeling of life ripped out of them. It provides a structure and predictability, two pillars to help these kids regain control of their lives. Music will help them gain the benefits outlined above without the threat of their emotions being publicly examined. Music, and dance is used as a tool for therapeutic interventions. Perhaps the rhythm of the music mimics the soothing rocking of a mother who was there just to make them feel alright!
In the last Newsletter (The ‘Gas-Lighting’ Gambit – 22nd February 2021)we discussed how students can use the technique of lying to avoid facing the consequences of their behaviour. Unfortunately, teachers will have to spend a significant proportion of their time solving school-yard crimes never mind the increase demands for investigations of disputes made on school executives. Despite the protests of many parents, who insist that ‘their child would not lie to them’ it is a fact of life that kids will lie on occasion especially if they are trying to avoid trouble!
I recently came across an article in Scientific American by Roni Jacobson ‘How to Extract a Confession … Ethically’ and, I thought the process used by President Obama’s High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) which meets the standards of the American Psychological Association might be of interest. These ‘standards’ were a result of the reports of torture in the Iraq War. You are not being asked to investigate real crimes, that’s not your job but the techniques will help you solve the inevitable disputes.
Just a note of caution – if a real felony has been committed or you suspect one may have been perpetrated you must not investigate the crime, refer on to your departmental supervisors who may engage the professionals. Any investigations you may try to make can contaminate the evidence that may later be required.
The following are the steps developed to get to the truth of the matter in an effective and still ethical way:
Build Rapport
Think about the ‘good cop – bad cop’ scenario you see in all the movies and then eliminate the bad cop. Develop an empathetic approach to the student you are questioning. You want to build an atmosphere of cooperation as you approach the problem. Explain why you are interviewing them using neutral non-verbal cues and a calm steady voice.
This is the important step, not only to get to the truth but because you are genuinely concerned for the student. The all-important relationship between you and the pupil can survive even after you establish their ‘guilt’. Remember the child is not the behaviour, we want to find out what happened and if needed provide the consequences, this is how we teach responsibility so it is their actions that are being investigated not their worth.
Fill in the Blank
Reduce their tension by asking some closed questions not necessarily related to the purpose of the meeting, this will get them used to answering. Later, these ‘closed’, yes/no questions should be avoided when we are investigating these yes/no answers allow them to avoid addressing more complex issues. Then lead into the interview by telling what you know about the situation in a manner that suggests you already know what happened. As you go on with your narrative the guilty student will often start to add details or correct part of your story without realizing they are doing so. These are usually as a way of defending themselves but by providing additional information they are establishing their presence at the incident.
Don’t go ‘in for the kill’ when this starts to happen – you are building a case, be patient. Research conducted in 2014 indicated that people who are interrogated using this method tended to underestimate how much they were telling the interrogator.
Surprise Them
If a group of students are involved they know they are under suspicion and try to get their stories coordinated, they may even rehearse their answers ahead of time. In the age of mobile phones, I have seen texts between students where their stories are ‘coordinated’. Never interview all the students as a group but question them independently and keep them separated until you have finished your interviews. This way they will be unsure if their partners in crime have stuck to their story.
However, under the pressure of the interview individuals must try to keep ‘the story’ intact while they struggle to remain calm and relaxed. This is the time to ask them something unexpected, something out of the blue about the incident or suggest a different scenario. This is when they often slip-up while they try to fit these ‘new facts’ into their fabricated story. It will be impossible for all the students to fabricate the same explanation.
Ask Them to Tell the Story Backwards
It might appear counter intuitive but students who are telling the truth will add more details as the retell their story, this is why surprises work so well. Those students who are lying will try to stick rigidly to their story being careful not to make changes. However, memories are never consistent, every time you recall an event your memories change this is how memory works. This is why you should be suspicious if everyone’s story is exactly the same.
This technique of getting them to tell their story in reverse order exploits the difficulty liars have reconstructing their story from the back to the front. Again, the HIG investigation found that liars produced twice as many details when telling their story in reverse order often contradicting their original story.
Withhold Evidence Until the Crucial Moment
On some occasions the participants will immediately ‘spill their guts’, they will confess but these types of students will tell the truth eventually; they are not the difficult students we are talking about. These more problematic children require a more skilled approach to finding the truth.
In a follow-up study following, the HIG report it was established that when people were confronted with evidence of their wrongdoing early in the interviewing process they either clammed up or became hostile. This is why you never present all the evidence at the beginning. If you do this the process of ‘gas-lighting’ becomes the go-to behaviour and you will have a much more difficult time getting to the truth. But after a period of time, when you have established the conditions the release of evidence will often be accepted because they give up trying to sustain the lie.
There will be times when you ‘know’ what happened but you can’t prove it but at these times keep in touch with reality. It’s more important that you are seen to be caring, trying to solve the problem in a fair-minded manner. In fact, the victims will eventually understand this but more importantly the perpetrators will accept that you are fair and knowing they may have a small sense of victory you move on with your integrity intact and relationships in one piece. You live to fight another day!
In recent months the term ‘gas-lighting’ has come back into use thanks to the behaviour of ex-president Trump. His continual claims of a rigged election, and his ‘overwhelming victory’ has resulted in a fatal attack at the very heart of America’s democracy. Despite repeated denials, the presentation of overwhelming evidence to the contrary and the failed courtroom appeals, numerous people have chosen to believe his lies and still refuse to accept that this whole outrageous event is based on a lie! The question is how does this tactic of lying apply to dealing with dysfunctional students?
The purpose of these Newsletters is to help teachers deal with student’s dysfunctional and destructive behaviour. The use of gas-lighting is not obvious but if you haven’t already experienced a version of this practice to avoid responsibility, sooner or later you will.
The name ‘gas-lighting’ came from a 1938 play of Patrick Hamilton called Gas Light which told the story of a husband who manipulated his wife though lies and deception until she was convinced she was going mad. This is a form of coercive, psychological manipulation to undermine another’s perception of truth allowing them to be deceived. Kids often use this technique when they are caught doing something inappropriate and their ‘defence’ goes something like ‘No I didn’t’, ‘It wasn’t me’; even when you have personally witnessed their behaviour they will continue to deny it was them. I remember working with conduct disordered adolescent students who were frequently in trouble with the police. Their advice to each other was always the same - ‘just deny it, never own-up’ and unfortunately this often worked.
So, why does this tactic work? First, they project an air of confidence, being certain about their story. Then, when you protest they may attack you both personally implying you don’t know what you’re talking about or they will accuse you of picking on them. They will stick to their story rarely conceding the validity of any evidence you present. On those rare occasions they do concede they will acknowledge a part of your evidence but this is rarely decisive, it never alters the basis of their lie. However, when they do this, they will use their concession as proof they are telling the truth – ‘see I’ll admit when I’m wrong’! Their whole motivation is to get you to doubt your version of events!
This doubt is a natural response when we are challenged; it works because healthy adults understand that everyone sees the world through our own eyes. We appreciate we all focus on different things in the environment so we must interpret events differently. It is well known that, if you ask four different people to describe a road accident you will get four different stories, in fact if the stories are identical the statements will be suspected as being colluded.
Not only do we perceive things differently we indorse what we see with our memories of similar events confirming our truth. But these memories are as personal, just as what we perceive is personal, both sides of the perception of an event is highly influenced by our history. You need to realise that everyone’s judgement about any event takes place in their brain and it is impossible to verify what you see any other way. The result is we should have some doubt about our point of view and be prepared to change it when faced with evidence! This is what mentally healthy people do. This mature approach to life is exactly why ‘gas-lighting’ works!
The student’s use of this deceitful form of ‘gas-lighting’ is primarily to avoid the consequences of their behaviour. If students realise you are vulnerable to self-doubt they will keep on using this tactic. This continued doubting leads to a fall in your confidence you can become isolated, confused and depressed. The other kids in your class can see what is going on and your status as leader in the room will be threatened. You need to take control of the situation.
First of all, trust yourself, if you are reading this I am confident you are the sort of person that wants the best for all the kids, particularly those we focus on in our work, those abused and neglected kids who have never had a real chance until they get to a good school. Counter their monopoly on the conversation and control over what is the truth. Be like a broken record (for those younger readers, a record is a plastic disc that has grooves and a needle that move around to produce music – a broken record gets caught in one track and repeats the line of music over and over until you stop the record) just keep repeating what you know and what is going to happen. When they complain acknowledge their complaint, maybe say we will talk about that later and repeat what you know and what is going to happen.
One tip is to trust your emotions, even if you have good intentions and a clear understanding of what happened when the students attack you, you will feel threatened. Take this as a sign that you need to put on your psychological boundaries (see Newsletters Boundary Considerations - 22nd October 2018 and Respecting Other’s Boundaries – 26th November 2018) to protect yourself. Ask the ‘boundary questions’:
What is really going on?
Who is responsible?
What do you want to happen in the future?
Addressing these questions helps you keep grounded.
The ‘boundary questions’ will also make you confront the evidence and unless there is a very strong case stick with your beliefs. You may be wrong on rare occasions but what you lose by making a mistake is not as significant as the loss of authority if you change just to avoid a difficult situation. Another thing about evidence, it will never convince another when emotions run high – you will be wasting your time. At these times the importance of your relationship is paramount because it will be this that will allow you both to move on.
Until recently, kids learned to use the technique of ‘gas-lighting’ from their parents. They watch their mother or father lie to get their way and if it works of course they will do it. Other kids turn to lying as a survival mechanism. If their parents dish out severe punishments, physically or psychologically children will lie to protect themselves. Unfortunately, lying has become part of our daily life almost celebrated in newspapers and television. Why would we expect our children to respect truth when we see lack of consequences for poor behaviour on a daily basis.
This is why your work is so important, not only will you teach the importance of truth you will teach them to recognise ‘gas-lighting’ when that technique is used against them.
It won’t take long in any teacher’s career before they have a student or a class that behaves in such a dysfunctional way it can be called a crisis. For the unprepared, this is a time that will really test your character and, in some instances the resulting trauma can leave you and many of the students with long term psychological or even physical damage.
A crisis rarely, if ever is a single-time event there is a beginning, climax and an end. The illustration below charts the progress of such an emergency.
It starts with a trigger, something that sets the event into motion. It is not always easy to see what is the cause but on investigation there will be something. The next phase is the escalation where things ‘heat-up’ until we reach a crisis that can be a single event or as illustrated come in waves. Eventually things will calm down but everyone involved is left in need of repair. So, what to do about this? I was recently alerted to a procedure called the Haddon Matrix that deals with crisis management which provides a useful scaffold that can be applied.
William Haddon was a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health and in 1960 was the lead author of the book ‘Accident Research: Methods and Approaches and later became Supervisor of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 1970 was faced with the problem of reducing the number of traffic accidents in his state. He approached this multifaceted problem by organising all the statistics in a matrix that sequenced the data based on personal attributes, vector or agent attributes and environmental attributes; before, during and after an injury or death. By utilizing this framework, one can then think about evaluating the relative importance of different factors and design interventions.
The Matrix has been originally organised along two dimensions, the first based on the sequence of an incident, pre-event, event and post event based against the factors that are likely to initiate an incident, things that will influence the event and finally what conditions shape the final outcome of the event. When applied to the analysis of a classroom crisis the following elements must be considered:
Pre-Event
What is it?
This is hard to really know. Each of us come to any situation already in a state of expectations, this is natural. However, for some students they can arrive with an already heightened level of emotions. I would have confidence in that the real explosive events the students are highly charged and perceive a threat to their wellbeing. This may or may not be observable but possible signs are the student may be emotional on arrival at school or after recess/lunch break. They can be restless or argumentative. Their body language indicates heightened levels of stress, tense muscles, tight fists etc.
What to do?
Early reassurance or distraction may prevent any escalation
Acknowledge their feelings and ask what’s wrong “I can see you’re angry, what’s up?”
Listen and let them get it off their chest
Discuss solutions where possible
Be supportive, calm and friendly
Respect their personal space
Encourage them saying you know they’ll do the right thing even though they’re upset. “You were angry but I can see you’re working hard at calming yourself …. Good for you!”
Remind them of expected school rules
Direct them to an activity to engage their thoughts or discharge energy build-up. For example get them to complete some school work you know they enjoy, carrying things for you, send them on a message to another teacher
Don’t react in the early stages to minor challenges such as dirty looks or a mumbled comment under the breath.
Escalation
What is it?
They are preparing for the fight/flight/flee response and you can see evidence for this in their body language which reflects escalating stress:
Face – eyes narrow or wide, tight mouth, menacing look, red or paling skin, jaw or head thrust forward
Breathing becomes more rapid, shallower or deeper
Their behaviour changes, they become:
Body language becomes threatening – fists clenched, tapping feet or fingers, chest and shoulders puffing up, hands on hips
Defiant, disobedient, use insulting comments (these can usually be about weight, age, parentage or sexuality of another student or the teacher)
What to do?
At this point avoid antagonising them:
Don’t stand too close or touch them
Model non-hostile body language, hands off hips, fists unclenched, no finger wagging
Remind them of previous success they have had in gaining self-control; acknowledge their strong emotions but show confidence
Consider physical activity e.g. a supervised run
Crisis
What is it?
At this stage the child is incapable of rational thinking. You will observe the following:
They may spit, push, kick, choke, head-butt, bite, pull hair, pinch, punch etc.
They may flee from room or grounds
They may use objects as weapons to smash, break or throw
The child has lost self-control and may harm self or others
What to do?
At this time there is not a lot you can do except keep everyone as safe as possible.
In a firm, low voice, use their name and give a short clear instruction and repeat it several times if needed (broken record). Keep tone and volume of voice consistent
At times you may need to stand back and let a tantrum run its course. It may be necessary to remove other students/audience
Don’t attempt to intervene in a playground fight without back-up. Say STOP and send for help
After outburst get child to time-out ASAP
Be aware of your own reactions, take some slow deep breaths.
Recovery
What is it?
At this time everyone is calming down, returning to some states of equilibrium. This involves:
The student’s body chemistry is returning to normal
With the battle over the muscles become progressively more relaxed
Ritual behaviours become less frequent
It is important to note that the student is not yet at baseline and is vulnerable to re-escalation
Child should be in a quiet place with no audience
What to do?
Allow calming down time for the child and for yourself. It is a time when you can show concern and support. You will be understandably upset but avoid anything that could be seen as being hostile don’t lecture, reprimand or even rescue the child.
Post Crisis
What is it?
The level of exertion required during the crisis phase now exacts its toll. The student may:
Go through a stage of emotional withdrawal, crying, exhaustion, fatigue, depression, muscles relax and they may slump forward
Be thirsty, hungry or need to urinate
Feel remorse/regret and worry about consequences
What to do?
This is the time to engage with the child using the following techniques:
Use open ended questions with a long wait time and LISTEN. You don’t need to fill the silences
Discuss with the child what they could do differently next time. Let the ideas come from the child … don’t give them the answers
Have the child be specific about what they will do next time, telling you how that will look and sound. This helps them move towards change and growth and avoids “parrot responses”
Be sure you don’t reward the student for the outburst. This is tempting by giving too much TLC, special activity, food afterwards but for some this is seen as positive feedback for the behaviour which is not appropriate!
Now is the time to talk about what happened but not why. Stick with what you saw and heard and focus on how the child calmed down … what was helpful?
The advice given applies to the crisis as it unfolds but the point of Haddon’s Matrix is to plan for the possibility for that same or similar crisis to occur again. In the first instance you should look after yourself:
Write a report stating who, when, where, what happened, injuries, follow-up ASAP. This can be quite cathartic! Date and sign it
Don’t take it personally. The child has complex problems … it’s not about you
Look after yourself at home too … exercise, relaxation, music etc.
Revisit your crisis plan with a support person and make any necessary adjustments.
Then review what happened using a matrix to facilitate a plan for future events. It is always good to devise your own way of making such accounts. I would use something like the following:
The principals of the company have had long careers in education with a combined total of eighty-one years service. After starting as mainstream teachers they both moved into careers in providing support for students with severe behaviours.
