“Understanding the structures of the brain and how they can be integrated and regulated is crucial,” writes Dr. Ruby Payne in Emotional Poverty. “So is understanding what it looks like in the classroom when that integration and regulation fails–or worse, what it looks like when it was never fully developed in the first place.”
During the three LCRB-funded Emotional Poverty keynote presentations offered to Lincoln County public and private school personnel and community leaders on Aug. 14, hands filled the air when Dr. Payne asked whom in the room had encountered a student experiencing emotional dysregulation.
According to Dr. Ruby Payne’s research and book, emotional poverty occurs when: The brain is not integrated or regulated. The inner self is underdeveloped. Bonding and attachment is not secure. The external environment repeatedly reinforces “less than” or “separate from” status.
Dr. Payne reviewed:
- The brain’s structure and its relationship to emotional development
- Differences in the male and female brain, including how information and stimuli are processed and communicated
- The effects of chronic activation of the stress system in the developing brain
- How to recognize a student who is emotionally dysregulated
- Effective, practical strategies to reduce conflict and promote learning
With the national emergency declared in children and adolescent mental health exacerbated by the U.S. educator exodus, the LCRB’s investment in emotional poverty helps equip educators with proven strategies to minimize classroom disruptions and reach and teach modern students … so they choose to remain in education.
According to Dr. Payne’s Before you Quit Teaching, when teachers feel “undervalued, underequipped, and unprepared for the reality of high-poverty classrooms, the result is frustration, fear, and a loss of idealism and enthusiasm–fatal flaws for someone facing 30 fourth graders and a besieged principal every day. Hopelessness can set in fast.”
In the closing chapter of Emotional Poverty “What Can We Do: What does all of this mean for my classroom and for my life,” Dr. Payne writes: “Given the research findings, we know it is possible to develop emotional competence and strength in students. We can teach students about a regulated, integrated brain and how to calm themselves…. We can construct classrooms in which the emotional noise is lessened…. Education has always been and will always be a human endeavor, a social interaction. By paying more attention to the emotional well-being of our students and ourselves, we ensure a high-quality education that is safe–not dangerous–for students in every demographic.”
Thank you to our supporting sponsor Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Missouri.
