Shifting School Culture, Words Not Needed

Whatever you do, it must be done often, frequently, and with consistent responses.

Your brain is not good with English. Mine either. That’s why it takes five years of immersion plus a decade of schooling for native English speakers to obtain a degree of mastery of the language.

What is the human brain good at?

It turns out a lot of things, but it excels in conditioning.

• While walking through the alley alone at night you hear a bottle rattle on the ground behind you. You don’t think. You don’t use English to speak to yourself. Your heart rate automatically increases…you might instinctively jump or run.
• While watching a movie the eery violins begin playing in a minor key with ample tritones. Your heart rate again increases and your body releases stress hormones. You’re scared.
• You’re at the cafe and hear the voice of a close friend from long ago. You instantly turn to look and your brain is in a state of hope and curiosity.

It turns out that conditioning is one of our strongest brain functions.

It shapes our feelings, our habits of mind, and our behavior. It creates reactions, both for positive and negative effects.

How can conditioning be used to shift your school culture? How can it be accidentally used to destroy the health of your school culture? How can this powerful neural resource be leveraged in schools?

Whatever your answers are to those questions, I’d emphatically add one thing.

Whatever you believe is important, must be done often, frequently, and with consistent responses.

Think walk-throughs, think celebration, think coaching sessions, think strategic improvement, etc.

And then remember, conditioning is more powerful than English.