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Education

What makes a good teacher? Rather than imposing new information on unreceptive minds, a good teacher first of all enters their pupils’ mental worlds to discover what they already know, then, from that, finds ways to build on new knowledge and/or skills, thus expanding the learner's model of reality. In other words, what is already in them has to be drawn out and extended.

It is through this subtle attention exchange process, which is very different from rote learning and conditioning, that a child's mind is best prepared for the world.

If real teaching is to take place, there is no other way. All children have an innate need to be stretched and enabled to perceive more of reality. It is a psychological law of nature. 

That is why, when factors in children's home environments are preventing them developing well (such as emotional or physical violence; insufficient adult attention, resulting in insufficient opportunities to be mentally and physically healthily stretched; or having their attention span attenuated by watching too much TV, scrolling through social media or endlessly playing computer games*) they will need additional psychological help before they can develop the spare capacity to learn.

This ancient insight applies as much to teaching struggling adults as it does to teaching children and is reflected in effective counselling and psychotherapy. Counselling for emotional distress and behaviour problems is, after all, a specialist form of education.

Both children and therapy clients fail to learn/fulfil their potential if they lack the capacity to do so because essential needs are not being met outside the school or therapy room. That always has to be addressed when anyone shows problem behaviour.

Mental health practitioners and teachers also need to ensure they have enough spare capacity themselves to help and/or teach others, by meeting their own essential needs healthily elsewhere.

 

Further learning

Continue learning about education and children's wellbeing with Human Givens College...

Also see:

> How the human givens approach informed a school for autistic children

 
*For further information, see Remotely Controlled: How television is damaging our lives and what we can do about it, by Dr. Aric Sigman and Ivan Tyrrell's interview with Dr Aric. Sigman in Vol 13, No 1 of the Human Givens journal – more back issues available here

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Date posted: 14/02/2024