Stress

4 thoughts on “Stress”

1. Jim Tripp

   November 8, 2011 at 6:57 am

   That’s interesting Ben, I always suspected those at the top were the ones who incurred the most stress, as a result of all their overlording so to speak.

   So does this mean that our students, lower on the hierarchical chain that we the teachers, are even more stressed out (if they let it all get to them) than us?

   In light of this, the message that students need to slow down, actually stop (some guy at a conference was saying this, relayed to us by one of our members… who?) seems even more important.

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   1. Ben Slavic

      November 8, 2011 at 10:06 am

      I would think that yes the students would be more stressed than us. This was mentioned in the film I saw, where young baboons actually had to leave their community and go try to get in with another group and then adapt to the ways of the new group. I don’t think we have any idea of the stress on our students. Maybe because their bodies are able to withstand so much stress naturally due to their young ages. But eventually they crack, many of them. They quit the language. They conclude that they can’t do it. Many of us blame traditionalists on that kind of dropping out, but when we fail to go slowly enough in our CI classes, we create possibly even more stress on them. Have you ever been in a TPRS class as a student when the teacher went too fast? That is stressful.

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   2. jen

      November 8, 2011 at 11:28 am

      Mighta been me. Talking about Satish Kumar, who was a keynote speaker at Connecting for Change this year. Here is the link to his talk:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EQ1HtzXxQU

      I have not had time to go back and pick out specifics, but it’s well worth 25 mins to hear/see him. He had a separate session in the afternoon, and I was astounded at how many of our kids attended, when they could have chosen any number of more “youth-oriented” activities. It made a strong impression on me. They are crying out for tools to help them manage their crazed lives. I don’t remember if he said this in the keynote or in the session, but he said “The first step to healing is to stop.” And two of the most wound-up females in the school REALLY HEARD this message. Maybe for the first time in their lives. Two totally different kids, but same dynamic of hyperdrive. They heard this and now are trying to create some space for themselves. One girl is going to present to the high school staff an idea for a “no homework weekend.” Truly radical coming from someone who normally defines herself by how much homework she does.

      Mosst compelling/relevant to what we do is the need for silence in any form it takes, whether the silence between the question and the response (or vice-versa) or a 3 min conscious silence practice. Anything we can give them is a real tool for their lives. And I’m saying all of this coming from a place where I believe it deeply but have a hard time shutting up in class. Starting second quarter with the mantra of SLOW and SILENCE!

      Here is another related link:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6RwkD5vnVs&feature=related

      Again, well worth the 22 mins!
      🙂

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2. Ben Slavic

   November 8, 2011 at 6:49 pm

   I’ll go watch the clips but jen is there anything in them about how we kind of allow people to do this to us, both when we are kids and also teachers? It makes me think of Nazi Germany when otherwise sane people are made insane by the culture around them. Then, like in my case, we go through an entire career trying to get the approval of our superiors and feeling not quite valuable or valid unless we go into a super achieving mode and not mess anything up in our work in case somebody found out that we are flawed. Do you know what I mean? I spent my whole career overachieving, trying to get people to like me and tell me I was all right. That is what the kids are doing that attended Satish’s session. I’m just slow on the uptake I guess. Now I just have to stop, I guess, and I’ll go watch the clips now to see what that means.

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