"Scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne or EPFL in Switzerland investigated the effects of psychological stress in 43 young rats. Study co-author Guillaume Poirier says they found that the rat pups which were exposed to frightening situations during their early development, were more aggressive as adults than normal rats."
"An article on the impact of youthful stress on aggressive adult behavior is published in the journal Translational Psychiatry."
http://www.voanews.com/content/health-aggression/1586227.html
Let's get practical (a phrase you'll hear a lot here at S.M.A.R.T.):
Can you name a single course taught in teacher education on reducing stress in students? In avoiding judgment of students vs. judging their work? In making students self-esteem independent of their teacher?
Education is necessary for multiple purposes, but in our efforts, have we forgotten to apply our ethics to our methods of motivation? Children don't run from classrooms when they first come to school because it's a comforting environment. They are put on the spot, their self-esteem put into question, their value at risk, because we, as a people, teach each other that our personal value comes from "being right".
Go online; observe the comments section of any news story.
The degree of abuse of those who know less, the arrogance of those who think they know more, the rudeness, the name-calling, the insinuations we have more and more come to accept as normal in our daily lives, learned from the most recent "reality" show. The casual way we treat each other poorly due to errors.
How can such an environment be anything but fearful?
We have all experienced this system. We came out okay. Why wouldn't everyone?
We don't all have the same home life, and the vast majority of parents do teach the idea that a child is "good" if they are correct in their work, and "bad" if they make mistakes. Their entire self-esteem becomes based on being correct, and if they make mistakes? No matter how kind the teacher, each mistake is a blow to their self-esteem. As they learn methods to do so, they learn to avoid trying, avoid risk, avoid making mistakes. They end up in a cycle they cannot win in: try and risk being wrong, or avoid trying, and get treated bad that way as well. Even if the teacher does have a healthy respect for mistakes, the parents do not, the grade system does not, the consequences and punishments are plentiful.
However, the unfortunate reality is that no child stays in that state for long.
Eventually, they turn it around: The teacher is the one who is wrong; the parent is the one who is bad. The child is the victim and their anger righteous. One kind teacher followed by one with less empathy can result in a complete change of heart for a child, and not for the better.
Practical solution: Public education of what education is, how they are there actually to make mistakes, to try things that are a little too hard, to challenge themselves and encourage their children to challenge themselves.
Find ways to change education to be a spectrum, removing grades and levels, focusing instead on specific concept and skill masteries.
Train teachers to respond neutrally to success or failure, to cheer effort and exploration, to better see why students answer incorrectly to better respond in such situations. Ongoing training for teachers on how to become guides, coaches, mentors, rather than superiors, professors, lecturers, judges.
Don't let the subtle exaggerations of this post sway you. Look back on your own education. Look at the educational process we have. Look very closely at how you respond the next time your student or child makes a mistake.
Their response, the look on their face, their response to their mistake, will tell you just how important this research is, and how far your child has demonstrated it's application. It may be far more personal, and…practical…than any of us realize.
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