Teaching from the Heart: A Pyramid of Needs

                              
Psychologist Abraham Maslow developed his “Hierarchy of Needs,” a model for psychological health, based on the yogic system of seven energy systems in the body, called “chakras.”

According to traditional educational practices, we build upward on a solid foundation codified in Maslow’s five-part pyramid: (1) safe walls, warmth, proper ventilation, food, water, time-outs, sanitation; (2) a safe place to park our cars, security systems, vetted teachers and staff; (3) loving teachers, staff, and friends;  (4) opportunities for high grades, awards, career opportunities; (5) support and appreciation for our individuality, originality, interests.


















            Naturally, I believe in creating an environment in which my students feel safe, secure, loved, confident, and special. But as a practicing yogini for almost 40 years and a certified yoga teacher, I decided to return to the original system of chakras to articulate more deeply where I believe contemporary education, imprisoned by assessment systems, stop teachers and students alike from reaching the stage of self-actualization.  I have adapted Maslow's pyramid to reflect on teaching  and classroom dynamics.
                  

           The chakras correspond to sections of the physical spine that send energy to various portions of the body. Starting at bottom center there are seven: root, reproduction, solar plexus, heart, throat, eye, crown of head.  To the left, I inserted the human need these chakras serve: Survival, Security, Power/Intellect, Love, Communication.  The top two chakras move us into what psychologist Mihály Csikszentmihályi calls “flow”—absorption, fascination, freedom. On the right, I wrote the predominant psychological state for each level:  anger/fear, manipulation, focus, generosity, honesty.  The top two stages lead to ultimate joy and bliss.  Bracketed, in the center, are my pedagogical correlates.  And here is where I want to focus for this post.SURVIVAL STAGE

Most of our educational practices focus on the bottom three chakra dynamics.  At its extreme, a class stuck in the survival stage is fraught with anger, fear, and frustration on both sides of the teacher’s desk.  Everyone will be constrained by strict requirements, grades, digitalized assessment, getting-it-over-with, and the need to escape.  Questions will tend to be of the yes/no or multiple choice variety. Entrained to be vigilant people-pleasers, students will be constantly afraid of being wrong. Teachers will, in turn, be afraid of the disapproval of their superiors and the possible loss of their own jobs if students don’t measure up to assessment criteria. Student and teacher will gossip about how awful each other is.  Negativity, robotic actions, and despair reign. 

SECURITY STAGE

            Bogged down in this stage, teachers will be focused on reproducing their own beliefs and ways of thinking in their students—attempting to clone themselves.  Teachers will chronically ask “guess what I’m thinking” questions.  The subject matter—whether science or literature—will be treated as normative systems; that is, built on a foundation of accepted laws, algorithms, and dogma.  Teachers will manipulate students to, as in the first stage, “get things right”—a.k.a. be me.  Some students will thrive at this stage, because, not having to think for themselves, they can just give the teacher what he wants and make the grade. Other students will balk at the lack of freedom and act out in different ways, mostly to their own detriment.

POWER STAGE

            All three bottom stages are about exerting power over others:  think what I think, do what I want you to do.  But in stage three we are introduced to the possibility of disagreement and intellectual discourse and argumentation (without the anger or manipulation of the Survival and Security stages).  Teachers will ask open questions and create an environment of lively discussion.  Nonetheless, there is still a hierarchy and power structure in place:  the teacher is, de facto, the ultimate expert: the last, and too often only, word.  Students who prefer the security stage will be more challenged in this stage because they will have to take some responsibility for their own thinking.

LOVE STAGE

            The very name of this stage will make those who are devoted to the bottom three stages balk.  But the bottom three levels are where our educational systems falter.  And there is nothing negatively “touchy-feely,” the usual slur on non-traditionalists, about the Love Stage.  What’s true is that there is nothing positive about students losing the sense that they have their own minds or experiences.  Stuck in the bottom three stages, students are more vulnerable to falling into addictive use of social networks, games, substances, YouTube, and Netflix. We have an innate need for freedom and these first three stages can imprison us.           

            Psychologist L. S. Vygotsky coined the term “zone of proximal development” to identify where learning happens: on the edge of what the student and cannot do for herself.  Teachers stuck in the Survival, Security, and Power stages rarely take the time to discover the zone where an individual resides—too desperate to get through their lesson plans and reassert their ascendancy.

One of the first things I ask my literature and writing students is “What do you love to read?”  The question stuns most of them.  Rarely has anyone, let alone a teacher, asked them that.  School has been about prescription and proscription: read this, don’t read that.  With some rare exceptions, they will not cite what they have read for classes.  They devolve into genres and texts that are not taught—it is an expression of the need for self-regulation.

            If we are in a course that promises certain texts—as in my Shakespeare or Emily Dickinson course—I ask them of the readings for the day Did you like it?  Where?  What did you not like?  Why? In this, I am decentering myself as the source of knowledge—given the climate of our education, that reads as an act of sharing of power, an act of generosity.  What they have to offer—their giving, their generosity—is encouraged (a word derived from corage—to give heart to).  The classroom becomes a place of mutual appreciation and discovery.

COMMUNICATION STAGE

In the Communication Stage, the classroom is based on trust and honesty.  Students and teachers alike openly express opinions, share experiences, are open about emotions. 

INTUITIVE STAGE

            In the Intuitive Stage, a class becomes a place of energy, creativity, experimentation. Students and teachers draw on their intuition.  The syllabus is adjusted to allow for spontaneous adventures and activities.

INSIGHT STAGE

            In the INSIGHT STAGE, a class scintillates with new ideas and inspiration.

Students learn who they are, what they need, and why.  They actualize their individuality.

ILLUSTRATION

To illustrate these stages, consider what happens in a literature class focused on the various stages:

          Survival Stage: Paraphrase, summary, focus on plot. Frequent short quizzes to proctor students’ reading and comprehension.

         Security Stage: Focus on teacher’s interpretations and canonical criticism.  Prescribed essay assignments with given points to cover in mechanical formats, such as what illustrator Sandra Boyton depicts as the five-paragraph dinosaur.

        Power Stage:  Prescribed discussion questions and detailed instructions for group work. Creative thinking is treated as an end point, not a beginning.

       Love Stage:  Student input on choice of texts, discussion direction, and self-evaluation.

      Communication Stage:  Creative and critical thinking, helping students individuate.

      Intuition Stage:  New perspectives and interdisciplinary projects.  Spontaneous activities and experiences.  In the proximal zone of development.  In the flow.

      Insight Stage:  Students, having formed a supportive community and gained confidence in themselves, are self-motivated and inspiring to others.

           

           

FLIP THE PROCESS

            Some will argue that, in the case of literature, we follow the normative model of sciences where there are strict protocols that follow what I posit as the traditional pyramid of learning. That was a political decision made in the last century, when the literary world was attempting to garner credibility so that they could form departments at universities.  If we must follow a Survival model that prescribes linear and hierarchical systems, let’s at least start at the Love Stage.  Ideally, education should have the heart at the heart and not devolve or be mired in the Security and Survival stages. Let education acknowledge children’s free, intuitive, synesthetic, and unguarded experiences.  Instead of instilling anger and fear—inspire trust, wonder, discovery, and love. Instead of manipulating them to be our clones—inspire them to realize their joy.

 

 

Works Cited

Boyton, Sandra.  Oh My Oh My Oh DINOSAURS. Boston: Boyton, 2012. 

Csikszentmihályi, Mihály. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.  New York: Harper, 1990.

  

Maslow, Abraham. Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences, Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State UP, 1964.

Vygotsky, L. S. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1978.