Flight or Fight?

            Goleman in his book Emotional Intelligence explains how our thinking cortex can be hijacked by our reptilian brain in the classroom story of Jason, a bright student who could not control his flight/fight impulses when faced with a poor biology mark.
(See chapter 3)
 

Model

brain

          According to the model of neurologist Paul MacLean, director of the Brain Evolution and Behaviour Lab in Poolesville, Maryland, our brain is composed not of 1 unity but 3. Each represents an evolutionary level.  MacLean calls it the triune brain:

  • the neocortex is the recently evolved part of the brain and is common to higher mammals
  • the limbic system is common to many mammals
  • the cerebellum is the reptilian core brain which only allows either a fight or flight response.
 
         Each brain is connected to the others by nerves but appears to operate as an autonomous system.

         In a classroom conflict teachers will use low breathing techniques allowing oxygen to flow to the brain. They thus retain creative solution capacities.