Modern education needs a shift for happiness to rise more than
stress in adult years.
Children today are trained to cope with stress rather than learn
with joy. Neuroscience shows that this approach is backward.
The brain learns best when it is emotionally regulated,
curious, and relaxed. When fear, pressure, and excessive competition dominate
classrooms, the brain shifts into survival mode. Memory formation reduces,
attention drops, and learning becomes mechanical rather than meaningful.
A curriculum designed for fun and engagement, rather
than stress and coping, aligns naturally with how the human brain is built.
Why Stress-Based Schooling Fails
Chronic academic pressure activates the body’s stress
system, releasing cortisol. While short stress can sharpen focus, repeated
stress blocks the brain’s learning centres, especially memory and creativity.
This is why most school learning:
• is forgotten in adult life
• does not translate into real skills
• creates anxiety rather than confidence
1. Prayer time can include:
Thanking Earth
Thanking Sunlight
Thanking God or the Universe
Simple exercise for positivity:
Look up. Smile for a minute9 Sends oxygen to brain)
Look Sideways, right and left( Helps eyes focus better )
Focus on the bridge between nose and mouth. Helps in improving silence and clarity in the mind.
Class 1-Start the Day by Calming the Mind
A few minutes of guided relaxation, positive intentions, or
quiet reflection settles the nervous system and prepares the brain to learn.
Class 2- Train Attention and Positive Focus Daily
In a 30-45 minutes class, children can learn:
• mindfulness and focus for ten minutes atleast to stabilize inner calmness.
• gratitude counting – eg. Count ten good things in your life
• solution-oriented thinking – teach how feelings are understood underying thoughts
and ask to focus on which feeling they really desire. Eg. Visualize eating an
apple. Label the apple and also the emotion – contentment . Is eating apple giving
more contentment or eating mango ?
At higher grades. Imagine
‘ contentment’ – which actions came in the mind while feeling contentment. If
you visualize fighting, how do you feel? Does complaining and fighting give you
more stress or more contentment ? Do you feel more contentment in having fun or
fighting ? Can you achieve your goal without using violence to get more positive
energy ?
Such activities link’ action-emotion-outcome’ and teaches them
to reject actions which cause stress like fighting. Violence or abuse need to
be taught as the last resort.
• positive self-talk about self and friends , parents, teachers , school ,
house etc. Choose self and one extra topic daily to write in English or any
language. Focus has to be on teaching positive focus than teaching a language. Translation of any emotion in any language can be taught . Add google
scrolling to get grammar correctly .
This builds emotional stability instead of emotional haphazardness.
The neurophysiological homeostasis called allostasis depends on vibrations or
emotional movement underlying thoughts and visions and not on languages learnt.
The language has no impact on internal balance but focus on positivity increases
intelligence.
Class 3- Learn Logic Through Application, Not Memorisation
Mathematics and science are taught as thinking tools,
not memory tests. Do not stress memory as internet is available for facts. Keep
memory for conceptual learning as concepts if forgotten make facts useless to
learn. Rote learning is redundant for
wprk as work stress makes you lose factual memory.
Understanding needs to replace rote learning. Applications
of concepts need to be encouraged even if
syllabus is reduced to 10 percent theory . It is researched that 90% of
syllabus learnt in schools vanishes in adult years. No facts can be remembered.
Some conceptual learning survives. Teaching positive focus on applied maths or
technology , encouraging inventions, innovations and creative solutions would
help in retaining learning. Use everyday problems but limit application to less
quantity and more quality learning. Give free time in between problem solving
tasks and try to focus only on one problem a day to give it conceptual
diversity . Whatever is learnt has to be applied or remove ity from syllabus.
Do not teach war history as it makes children aggressive in
daily life. Teach history which can be re-applied in school context.
Class 4- Teach Communication and Public Speaking Early
Confidence grows when children are allowed to express,
speak, question, and think aloud—without fear of judgment. Expressive
communication has several parts which need to be taught in every grade . Understanding
of perspectives can be taught through role play on real life situations. You
can also teach how to communicate more effectively by using gestalt and
dialectical behaviour therapies in simple ways in schools . Students can role
[lay woth each other and test their understanding , improve theit talking
skills and understand other opinions also. Public speaking needs to be
encouraged with motivational competition not insisting on being the best . Rewards
need to be given for helping all grow,
Class 5 - Include Art, Music, Movement, and Play
Creativity, dance, yoga, and sports regulate emotions,
improve concentration, and make learning enjoyable. There needs to be choices
given in each grade with focus on what feels positive to the student . Each
task be it singing or dancing or art should feel good to the student
performing. The feelings need to be delightful, exciting, thrilling and
exploring more than contentment here. Students should be able to label the
feelings and apply the same emotional program again to recreate the same
feelings .
Class 6 - Sports and yoga, physical activity
Physical activities need another class. Students can choose
as they choose now buyut focus in sports is to make everyone smile and not on
winning or losing so that aggressiveness is modulated. Teaching has to ensure
that grudges and complaints are minimised and positivity maximised so that terrorism
and wars are reduced in the future when they become adults.
End the Day with Positive Reflection
Children recall what went well during the day. This trains
the brain to store positive experiences and improves emotional balance at home.
Ask them to count three positive thing and one negative thing as the brain
searches for the negative if it is ignored. Counting positive and negative in 3:1
ratio helps the brain recalibrate itself to think more positives than
negatives. This helps in improviong intelligence, creativity and positive
performance in the future .
The Result: Learning Without Fear
A fun, emotionally intelligent curriculum leads to:
• better attention and memory
• reduced anxiety
• higher confidence
• improved communication
• compassion over competition
• discovery of each child’s natural strengths
Most importantly, children learn how to think, feel,
and adapt—skills needed far beyond school.
Education Should Build Lives, Not Just Degrees
When education focuses only on exams, children learn
to cope with stress.
When education focuses on the brain, emotions, and curiosity, children learn
to love learning.
A curriculum that is fun is not less serious.
It is more effective, more human, and more aligned with real
life.
Qualifications need to reflect your passion, not your rote
learning, ritual compliance only as passion will help you work better and live
more happily.
McEwen, B. S. (2007).
Physiology and neurobiology of stress and adaptation.
Physiological Reviews, 87(3), 873–904.
→ Demonstrates how chronic stress impairs memory, learning, and emotional regulation.
Lupien, S. J., McEwen, B. S., Gunnar, M. R., & Heim, C. (2009).
Effects of stress throughout the lifespan on the brain, behaviour and cognition.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 434–445.
→ Explains how prolonged academic stress affects attention, cognition, and behaviour in children.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Damasio, A. (2007).
We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education.
Mind, Brain, and Education, 1(1), 3–10.
→ Establishes that emotion is central to learning and decision-making.
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