The Kindness Factor

Research in neu­ro­science and neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty is show­ing us new ways to think about learn­ing and schools. Help­ing stu­dents social­ly and emo­tion­al­ly enhances their aca­d­e­m­ic learn­ing. When stu­dents feel safe and enjoy their school envi­ron­ment, their brain state is more attuned to learn­ing. Dr. Daniel Gole­man, author of the inter­na­tion­al best­seller, Emo­tion­al Intel­li­gence writes:

The cen­ters of the brain are intri­cate­ly inter­wo­ven with the neu­ro­cor­ti­cal areas involved in cog­ni­tive learn­ing … When a child try­ing to learn is caught up in a dis­tress­ing emo­tion, the cen­ters for learn­ing are tem­porar­i­ly ham­pered. The child’s atten­tion becomes pre­oc­cu­pied with what­ev­er may be the source of the trou­ble. Because atten­tion is itself a lim­it­ed capac­i­ty, the child has that much less abil­i­ty to hear, under­stand, or remem­ber what a teacher or a book is say­ing. In short, there is a direct link between emo­tions and learning.

Dr. Gole­man argues that prac­tic­ing kind­ness devel­ops hard­wiring in our brains, mak­ing com­pas­sion and kind­ness more nat­ur­al and our rela­tion­ships more pos­i­tive. In his webi­nar, “Why Com­pas­sion Mat­ters Today and Tomor­row,” he claims that the more we prac­tice kind­ness, the more we change our behav­ior, mak­ing our homes and schools more pos­i­tive, kind, and com­pas­sion­ate places to be. (Watch Dr. Goleman’s lec­ture.)