Neufeld and BCAEA Conference
This past February I attended the British Columbia Alternative Educators Conference in Vancouver and was fortunate to take a two day course with Gordon Neufeld. I have taken a number of courses with Neufeld, a clinical and developmental psychologist from the Vancouver area, and they continue to guide my teaching practice. The course, The Heart Matters, connected to the soul of my inquiry and research. I have started data analysis and decided that I needed to go back to my personal notes, re-read the Powerpoint slides, and see what I notice. I have written some analytic memos reflecting on how my ideas have evolved, and teasing out which parts confirm the beginning of my findings.
These are some of the insights or nuggets that stand out to me:
Emotion is the study of the spirit but somewhere along the way, researchers have changed that lens to study behaviour. Part of me wonders if this is the result of researchers feeling the cultural shift towards research that needs to be scientific, quantitative, and measurable to hold any merit.
Emotion is like electricity. It cannot be created or destroyed. Emotions are always there and cannot be turned off. When someone cannot move through their emotions and release them, then this is the point where struggle occurs. It’s not the feeling (frustrated, despair, grumpiness etc) that creates mental/physical stress but becoming static or finding yourself unable to move through the emotion. We all have felt despair, loss, or immense sadness but our ability to acknowledge, express, and release these emotions lets us move through and come out the other side. If we were to stay in those moments, unable to access support, then this is where you start to see flattened affect or depression.
Children who are “black and white” thinkers also struggle with being impulsive. If a child does not have mixed feelings, then they cannot see the other side. When it seems like a student has not thought something through before acting, it is usually because they are black and white thinkers, and why they seem so impulsive. They are currently lacking the skill to see the “grey” of the situation, and most things in life are complex and are not solved only one way. It is usually only until an adult, who the child is attached to, can offer up alternative reasons/views that the child can see the grey in the situation. I find that when I debrief with a student, after an incident, that I hear comments like: I didn’t think about it, I didn’t think about it that way at the time, I couldn’t see how anyone else would be affected at that moment etc.