Inviting the Whole Self to Learn

Through my research, I learned that violence affects the whole self and that people who have been through violence often feel fragmented and stuck. Body, spirit, emotions and mind are all affected by violence. Recognizing this, we wanted to explore ways to invite people to bring their whole selves to learning.

Physical violence can cause injuries to the body, but all forms of violence can contribute to many illnesses and create stress which damages the body still further. Violence can lead to a tendency to avoid being present in the body—the site of violation—which can make it harder to notice bodily needs such as good food and selfcare. This can lead to more illness, as well as difficulty attending to learning. It can also lead to a tendency to self-harm and addictions.

Violence can damage the spirit, leading a person to feel worthless, hopeless and to develop a belief that nothing can change. Such feelings make it hard to embark on challenging tasks such as education, and hard to persist in the face of discouragement or slow progress. Having experienced violence can contribute to depression and other emotional struggles and sharpen sensitivity to all violence, so that loud voices, anger and tensions in a classroom or other learning settings can become terrifying.

In the aftermath of violence, any stressful experience can lead to fear or even terror and can close the mind down. Experiences of violence can lead some to escape into the mind, leaving behind the messy body, emotion and spirit. Even then, the slide into feeling stupid and unable to concentrate may remain present. For those who have been systematically mistreated and devalued, or for whom school itself has been a site of violation, the possibility of escaping into the mind may have been utterly eroded and belief in the ability to think and learn destroyed.

Each part of the self can either hinder learning or can be enlisted in each person's challenge to discover her own brilliance. Creating learning environments which nurture the whole person, and introductory curriculum and teaching approaches which draw in the whole self, can enormously reduce the power of these impacts to block learning and can greatly enhance learning possibilities.