Three Dimensions of Learning: Where Resiliency and the Whole Child Rule

By Carolyn Teague

In "Three Dimensions of Learning," Nooks Teague offers a new enlightened approach to learning. It guides readers through the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual development of the child from life inside the womb to life in the school and provides tips that can help parents and educators recognize the symptoms that flag hidden disabilities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReadersMagnet LLC
• Release date: Jun 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781957312675

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Three Dimensions of Learning .

Copyright © 2022 by Carolyn Teague

Published in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of ReadersMagnet, LLC.

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Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction Perspectives of Silent Majority: How Did We End Up Here ?

Part I....... First Dimension of Learning: The Journey Begins in the Womb with the Blueprint

Chapter 1 – Learning and Development in the Womb: The Making of the Whole Child 

Chapter 2 – Taking a Closer Look at Brain Development: A Blueprint for Learning 

Chapter 3 – Senses: The Glue That Holds Us All Together 

Chapter 4 – Vision, the Amazing Sense 

Chapter 5 – Science Should Inform Parenting and Education 

Part II…… The Second Dimension of Learning: Learning in the Home Where Parenting Makes the Difference

Chapter 6 – Emotions and Sensory Integration 

Chapter 7 – That Very Special Milestone 

Chapter 8 – The Role of Emotions and Social Interaction Newborn to Age Three 

Part III…… The Third Dimension of Learning: Addressing the Needs of the Whole Child in the School

Chapter 9 – EQ vs. IQ 

Chapter 10 – Learning in the School Should be Brain-Compatible 

Chapter 11 – The Brain Compatible Classroom: Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles 

Chapter 12 – Hidden Disabilities: Vision Dysfunction 

Chapter 13 – Hidden Disabilities: Auditory Processing Disorder 

Chapter 14 -Hidden Disabilities: Sensory Processing Disorder 

Chapter 15 – Hidden Disabilities: Gender Confusion 

Chapter 16 – Hidden Disabilities: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 

Chapter 17 – The Role of Water and Diet in Academics and Behavior 

Chapter 18 – Education Courses Need Tweaking 

Chapter 19 – The Big Ideas 

Glossary of Terms

Reference

Figures

About the Author

Preface

It is now the Spring of 2021, and I am being guided by God to share what I have learned as a parent, teacher, doctor of education and Christian, about teaching and learning as it occurs in the womb, the home, and the school. I am being guided to share what I have learned about Covid-19 and how our children are being mentally impacted. Many of our children are suffering from PTSD , which must be navigated with love, patience, and especially resiliency.

I represent the unheard voices of the Silent Majority who have a vested interest in the future of our children, but little to no say about their education.

I dedicate this book to my mother, Gladys Pennie-Nooks Reed, my role model, who was an elementary teacher and taught me to be patient, compassionate and resilient, my husband, Will Teague Jr. , who supported me through all my endeavors and extra years of education, my children, Lauren Teague Payne and Will Ryan Teague, who taught me the true meaning of unconditional love and my grandsons, Robbie and Chase Payne, Axil and Bowie Teauge, who are the lights of my life, Angela Nooks Byrd, my sister, who was and still is always there for me, my niece and nephew Ashara and Joe Brockhaus, for their technical support and last but not least, Salvatore Zabatino, who was so instrumental in helping me with the technology involved in earning a doctoral degree in Education.

My love and compassion for the whole child’s overall development is the catalyst that inspires this work. The resistance of college professors of education and scientists to be informed by one another is what saddens and frustrates me, and the dedication of our teachers, in spite of having to work in an atmosphere of political greed and ignorance and misguided visions, is what drives me to write this book.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Iwould be remiss if I didn’t g ive kudos to the schools and their leaders that had the inclination to include school programs that verify the importance of teaching the whole child. They saw the value in embellishing the social-emotional, spiritual, physical and cognitive facets that make up the child from inside the womb to inside the school and beyond.

Two schools in Chicago, Illinois, Bryn Mawr, Elementary, and Wadsworth Elementary, both inner-city public schools and two schools in Cincinnati, Cameron Park Elementary in the Winton Woods public school district and CHCA (Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy), a private Christian school, all played significant roles in preparing me for my purpose in life.

Jean Connelly Junker was the principal of Bryn Mawr when I began teaching there. The school was in upheaval due to a sudden increase in enrollment. New classrooms had to be put in place without any of the supplies needed for teaching. As a new teacher I was placed in one of those rooms and had neither reading books nor funds with which to buy any. Fortunately, Ms. Junker allowed me to teach my class with methods of my choosing, so I decided to teach in a way that would allow my children to have fun while learning. With my mother’s lesson plans in hand and my love of music and dance inspiring me, I began teaching those second graders how to read. I wasn’t aware of the Brain –Compatible classroom because that terminology wasn’t in existence then, but I was blessed enough to be in a school in which the principal thought outside the box.

Jack Perlin was the principal at Wadsworth Elementary and was part of The Woodlawn Organization’s Experimental Schools Project. There I was encouraged to teach the whole child, through implementing a multi-sensory approach. Uncovering Hidden Disabilities, both physical and emotional was an important part of the curriculum and crucial to reaching the whole child at an emotional level. These two public schools in Chicago, Bryn Mawr Elementary, and Wadsworth Elementary played important roles in my journey and purpose for the future.

Gladys Black, principal at Cameron Park in the Winton Woods Public Schools district, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, was an unforgettable leader. She supported my desire to include music, movement and dance in my modified curriculum because she realized that I could reach children at an emotional level by involving them in activities that were self-expressive. She instinctively knew that their involvement in activities they loved would lead to their motivation, increased desire to learn and ultimately, academic success. Her vision as an educational leader allowed her to see the importance of teaching the whole child. Due to her insight and people skills, many children’s lives were changed for the better.

Dr. Mark Beadle was principal at CHCA in Cincinnati, Ohio for the first eight years that I taught there. He was very open and receptive to my unconventional teaching style. As the principal of a Christian school, Dr. Beadle was understandably concerned with the spiritual as well as academic parts of the child, but because of his visionary leadership style, was supportive of curricula that were designed to emotionally engage the child. He was receptive to the music, movement and dance that I brought with me, realizing that it would involve the growth of the whole child and result in the child’s academic success. Their academic success was reflected in their test scores.

Sandy Breitholle succeeded Dr. Beadle as principal and was just as supportive and encouraging as he had been. Her accommodative spirit in addition to her trust and faith in my endeavors were the catalysts I needed to reach my lofty goal, to earn a doctorate in Brain-Compatible Learning. CHCA played an important role in my growth and development as a teacher, a Christian and an educational leader. What I realize now is that CHCA was and still is not only founded on Biblical principles, but is an entire community of teachers and leaders who believe that validating the physical, emotional, social and spiritual parts of children is just as important as developing their cognitive and academic parts.

I was blessed by all of these school leaders and their visionary leadership styles. Without them, I would never have been able to share my authentic experiences as a classroom teacher. Because of them the path that I was to follow was made clear and the success I experienced while following this path was made possible by faith and the guidance I received from God.

Introduction

Perspectives of the Silent Majority:

How Did We End Up Here?

As adults, we are all responsible for our future, and developing the children that will become our leaders is part of that responsibility. As parents, our role is crucial, for learning begins in the womb and continues in the home, so what we do as caregivers to prepare or maybe not prepare our children for life in general, and school in particular, determines the future of us all.

As teachers and educators, it is our responsibility to love children unconditionally, regardless of race, religion, or ethnography, and accept them where they are academically and help them grow. It is our responsibility to seek knowledge about the child’s physical, mental and emotional development, and how the many facets of each child are all interconnected. As university department heads, it is your responsibility to be objective as well as open to new research-based science that could possibly inform and even reform educational practices. It is your responsibility to be able to insure future educators, that what they are learning is cutting-edge information, which will impact the nature of education, even if only to a small degree. You must inform our future teachers about the importance of addressing the child’s brain-body-spirit-connection, and the need to reach the child at an emotional level. Every teacher needs to understand how the brain learns, how the body and brain connect, and most important, how emotions control it all. Being aware of and addressing the connectedness of the dimensions of the child is crucial to all who interact with children throughout the dimensions of learning.

Education is incomplete when it only addresses the Linguistic and Mathematical Intelligences of the child. It becomes complete when it validates the whole child by giving him the opportunity to express his passions, develop additional intelligences and interests, and be made to feel valuable within a community of learners.

The three dimensions of learning to which I am referring, intrinsically involve the connectedness of the child’s brain, mind (spirit), and body development, but specifically examine the development of the brain, and how it impacts learning in the womb, the home, and the school. There is a fourth dimension, but that’s another book.

Some of you have read books and articles about the science behind learning, written by medical doctors, cognitive psychologists, and college professors, but have you read anything from the classroom teacher or parent’s perspective? Well, I am sharing information as a parent, a teacher, and a doctor of education with a strong interest in the science of learning. I am not a scientist, I’m just a parent and a teacher who is passionate about our children’s lives.

I decided to write this book for the Silent Majority, composed of parents, teachers, and last but not least, children. I call these groups of people the "Silent Majority because we have neither voice nor input into educational practices and programs, even though we are the ones to be most affected by their implementation, or lack thereof..

In today’s educational culture, all of the learning that takes place from conception in the womb to graduation in the school, boils down to a child’s test scores, not his moral development, creative genius, or social aptitude. What did this child do to help our global educational rankings?" is the question that drives educational policies.

In spite of what we have learned in the last two decades about the way the brain develops and functions, the way children learn, and what environmental conditions provide for optimal learning, we seem to be going in the wrong direction. Legislators who know little about proper educational practices, driven by global educational rankings, and the promises and prerequisites of political gain, make decisions about what’s best for our children. The fear of not being first or at least the top ten on academic success lists has landed us in the quag-mire of testing frenzy. As a result, we teach the test, not the child.

You might be asking yourself, What the heck does this testing frenzy have to do with the dimensions of learning? What does it have to do with the dimensional connectedness of the whole child, the brain, mind (spirit) emotions and body? It has everything to do with this connection and the role it plays in a supportive, educational environment. It has everything to do with viewing the whole child, instead of the part of that child that makes him a good candidate for test-taking. It has everything to do with how our curricula and educational programs should be designed, and how our schools should reflect and be guided by acknowledging all dimensions of learning, as well as the dimensions of the child. Maybe, educating the whole child could result in better test scores and higher rankings , since twenty years of what we have been doing, hasn’t seemed to work.

When children enter school for the first time, we (teachers) begin the year with testing to see where children are academically. You know what I mean, kindergarten teachers need to assess children according to whether or not they know their colors, recognize the letters of the alphabet, can count to ten, etc. Some of these children have emotional melt-downs and so begin their future in school on a negative note.

How many teachers actually take the time to learn about a different dimension of the child, one that is crucial to his/her academic success? How many teachers actually have the kind of time it takes to get to investigate the physical, social, spiritual, and emotional states of the child’s being, before the hard core academics begin?

In their defense, teachers are underpaid and under pressure to follow strict guidelines; they are directed to do certain activities in the classroom that center around core curricula that omit opportunities to learn and know the child in more than one dimension. In some instances they are actually instructed to follow a script. Teachers, against their better judgment, have been ordered to take play time out of the daily schedule, they’ve been directed to decrease time for recess, and in some districts, to omit recess in order to replace it with instructional activities. In some schools, physical education and art have been removed in order to make more time for test preparation and increased academics. The emotional state of the child is obviously not taken into consideration.

What happened to the truly educated leaders who recognized the importance of social play, physical activity, and the arts, in the education of our children? What happened to the voice of the educators who realized that education involves addressing the learning dimensions of the whole child? How did we get to a place where our children are merely statistics, vessels to be filled with information that will be regurgitated on high-stakes tests?

How did education become so punitive in nature? The students are punished for not scoring well on a test that does not make allowances for their particular learning style or dominant intelligence, or their broken home life or undetected learning disability. The teachers are punished for the students’ poor performance, and the administrators have to deal with the brunt of it all.

These learned, passionate educators are still out there, but their voices cannot be heard against the loud roar of political machines that began with global prowess and the institution of high-stakes testing in 1995. Unfortunately, this entity, with a life of its own, has mindlessly progressed