We are suffering from an epidemic of helpfulness. Kids are constantly being helped by some adult with everything from tying their shoes to figuring out the meaning of the Shakespearean sonnet. We are so afraid to let our students struggle that we have made it our job to make sure it rarely ever happens.
This need to constantly help our students comes from a well-intentioned place, but it is not what our students need. When we step in during a problem or struggle and save the day for our students we are not being helpful; we are actually robbing them of their evolutionary right to become problem-solvers.
David Rock, in his book Quiet Leadership, explains what happens in the brain when someone solves her own problem. When a person encounters a problem she needs to solve and goes on to struggle to figure out a solution, a synapse is being formed in the brain. That is basically a connection from one area to the next. The brain actually builds a new map and gets smarter. As this synapse is forming and the solution has arrived there is a "light bulb moment," a feeling of eureka. This eureka feeling is actually a release of chemicals that are being produced by the brain-- dopamine, adrenaline, and serotonin. These chemicals give you a high feeling as wonderful sensations arrive in your body. We have all experienced the learner’s high.
When we step in and help our students solve the problem we are actually stealing their high. We mean well. We think we are being helpful, but in fact we have robbed our students of two important evolutionary and learning experiences. We have not let them form the synapse in the brain that forms true learning and connections. Second, we have not let them have the high of problem-solving, which is designed to reinforce their motivation to problem-solve in the future.
Another way to see this is in my own life as a runner. If I did not get the runner’s high at the end of a long or intense workout I would not want to continue my running practice.
Being helpful often makes the helper feel better and not the one being helped because we stole their high. As teachers we may inadvertently be walking around high on the dopamine, adrenaline, and serotonin we get from solving our students’ problems.
We created dope learning to spread the word-- let your students get high on learning and receive the gifts of problems.
I concur. When we provide "the answer" - it just that - Our answer, not their answer. Maybe their answer will be better...
ReplyDeleteAs an adult in the work place it is vital to be your own problem solver. Everyone is so busy doing their own job there's no time to pass the "problem" along for someone else to solve. Learning the skill to solve problems at an early age is instrumental in your everyday activities. Let’s not deprive the next generation the right to exercise their brain. Josette
ReplyDeleteThe Wellington Elementary School in Florida has been discussing this very thing for a while. I am sure many others have been involved as well.
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ReplyDeleteThe gift of a problem...beautiful. One way to invite students to shift could be through the literature they read. I am thinking about "Thank You, M'am," by Langston Hughes. Could we see being robbed a gift? Hmmmmmm...
ReplyDeleteThink about this-
ReplyDeleteOutside schools, we tout opportunities that offer our youth countless "gifts of problems." Take camps, for instance. They are grounded in nourshing our young with challenges and chances to get their own highs. One adventure after another affords problems to be solved. Have you noticed how campers relish these rigorous activities, meet them head on, and therefore LOVE their camp experience?
What boggles my educator's mind is how parents are not making the
connections. They pay a small fortune to send Johnny off to camp, to "grow his
self esteem, to become independent, to face new challenges, etc." Without a second thought, they leave Johnny to struggle, to portage his canoe over rough
terrain.
Yet, they don't transfer these expectations over to schools. Instead, they hover, fret, and agonize over Johnny's every academic breath. Why don't they have the same confidence for their schools as do for their camps?
If schools reimagine themselves to be more campish, wondering more about how they could nourish leaners with adventurous gifts of problems, parents would readily drop Johnny off, morning after morning, without a glance back.
Brilliant Gravity! Well done!
ReplyDeleteGreat job, Gravity!! In my experience as an intuitive healer, problems are hidden opportunities> karyn salvatore, consciouslivingwellness.com
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