Hey! Welcome back.
Today, I really want to think about what's the best way to teach teachers
about trauma without getting them distracted with all the technical stuff. And what's the most
important thing for them to understand and learn. And I thought that the best way to do
it might be to just make a difference between a learning brain versus a brain in survival
mode, so we'll just call it learning brain versus survival brain. And this is the difference.
So, learning brain is this brain that's open to learning new information, and it's completely
ok with ambiguity and grays and vagueness, and it sees the big picture. It like pulls back
and is on the balcony can look over the forest and figure out what's going on on an emotional
level. People in learning brain feel calm, peaceful, maybe a little excited about what
they're about to learn, maybe a little playful, and having fun too, and definitely curious, and
they're not afraid of making mistakes because it's just part of the learning process, and so
they're not really thinking about themselves, and they actually feel a little bit of confidence
that if they just apply themselves they might pick up what they're trying to learn.
Now, survival brain on the other hand is completely different. It's hyper focused
on threat. It doesn't like ambiguity. It wants clear hard facts. It thinks in black and
white terms. It doesn't want anything to be gray at all. And then emotionally, you can imagine
that survival brain makes people feel panicky, feel like a little obsessive, and afraid of
getting things wrong. And they don't feel calm and open to learning new things. They just want to
get things over with. And people in survival brain also really don't like making mistakes, and they
are afraid of looking stupid too, so students in survival brain don't want to be picked on, they
don't want to raise their hand and ask questions and look stupid. And so, these people are also
filled with doubt about their own ability to learn and stuff, and they're afraid that other
people can see how stupid they really are. Now it's really important to understand how
learning brain and survival brain interact because the survival brain always trumps learning
brain. And it makes sense because survival brain's just trying to save your life. And so, if it
thinks that there's something dangerous happening, you better pay attention to it, right? But the
tricky thing is that as survival brain stays on longer and longer, it's harder to get out of that.
It's harder to really go into learning brain. And the way I think about it is kind of like
the myth of Sisyphus. You know that guy who has to push a rock up a hill and then every day
it falls back down and he has to do it over and over again? Well, being in learning brain
is like being up on the high parts of that mountain. You can see the expanse of what's
going on but it also takes a lot of work to be up there and at any second if you're not
paying attention and putting effort into it, it's so easy to slip back into survival
brain again. And that rock that Sisyphus is trying to push up, well that's kind of like
stress, and the more stressed you feel the heavier and bigger that rock gets, and it just
pushes you back into survival brain quicker. Now the kicker is that for traumatized people
stress is a really rigid and intense thing and so with trauma any little stress makes
that rock grow way bigger than it normally would. And because people with trauma misperceive
ambiguous situations as threatening and stressful, that rock just stays big all the time.
Now the good news is that the more you control stress well, the easier it is to be in learning
brain, right, because that rock is a lot smaller, and what I really want to highlight for teachers
is that the best way to keep students in learning brain goes back to why I spent so much time
talking about attachment. Students best learn when they feel like they're safe and supported
by the adults around them. So it's kind of like a baby elephant. You know how like on those
nature shows the baby elephant is like playing with leaves or exploring a tree or something
like that and having a lot of fun. And the only reason why they can do that is because there's a
whole group of momma elephants around that baby protecting it and looking out for danger. So a
kid with trauma or who's stuck in survival brain, it's kind of like that baby elephant who
doesn't have protective adults around them. They can't play and learn because they're way
too focused looking out for threat and danger. So this is why I really believe that the most
important thing that schools need to focus on, way more important than any kind of techniques
or curricula, is really whether or not they are creating that environment where students feel like
they're surrounded by these big momma elephants who're gonna protect them and watch out for them
and make them safe. And when students have that, I bet you it unlocks their curiosity, their
eagerness to learn and play as a way to learn. So I hope that's helpful. Let me know if you have
any questions in the comments below. Thanks.
