Joseph LeDoux

What?
Joseph LeDoux has recently written two books (1) The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life, (2) Synaptic Self: How our Brains Become Who We Are. Joseph LeDoux likes to look at biological rather than the psychological understanding of emotions. With the first book, The Emotional Brain, he talks about how the brain makes emotions. He state that all emotions, feelings, automatic motor operations are composed of physical body states or doyles (Doylic memory, theory from Doyle P. Henderson). He explains how doyles are filled by the time we are 5 years old and we gain no more after. He talks a lot about synapses and how they occur in people. To summarize this book he states: "The mental aspect of emotion, the feeling, is a slave to the physiology, not vice versa: we do not tremble because we are afraid or cry because we feel sad; we are afraid because we tremble and sad because we cry." With his other book Synaptic self he talks about you are your synapses and they are who you are. With these neurological views of self it's not an alternative to psychological, social, moral, aesthetic, or spiritual views of the self, but rather attempts to show how these selves are realized in the brain. Both books talk a lot about emotion and how they involve the brain and who we are.

So What?
Brain development and especially the emotions are a big influence on education. Every individual handles emotion daily, whether it's your own or that of other people. We have learned how to accept and handle these emotions, but we never really know why or how they occur. With this research we can understand a little bit more about this topic. It can be a great benefit to any teacher if he/she understands the development of the brain and how it functions. With Joseph LeDoux's view on emotion it can help teachers understand their student's emotions better. Every child's personality will be different, but each child's brain has developed in a certain way to make them who they are when they are in your classroom. Understanding this can be greatly linked to a teachers and students success. Understanding their emotions and development can help develop lesson plans that will benefit the students better than if you didn't understand them or their emotions. Depending on the grade level the brain development and emotions will be at different levels and as teacher knowing this will give you a guideline and understanding of how to teach the students. Without this research and many other research the brain, emotions, and actions of people wouldn't be understood. When handling students it is better to understand the underlying reasons of how they are acting, instead of their actions alone.

Now What?
Like I stated in the above paragraph it will help me to understand why the emotions are taking place, also the different levels the student are at. Understanding the brain development will also help me with how, what, and why I am teaching a certain topic. Emotion is always evident in every child but learning how to handle and influence it for the better is a difficult task. I plan on researching more fully how emotions take place and how to help the students behave and control the emotions in a social setting. I plan on implementing activities so students understand emotions better and how to bridle them in a good manner, but also letting them know they are not a bad thing. When going through school I never was taught how or why my emotions came about. I plan on preparing my students with a better understanding of not only their emotions but others as well. Another goal in my class room will be to have each student want to help each other with the different emotions that occur on a daily basis. Preparing examples for them to act out and to have a goal in mind of the outcome we want will be some activities that can be done in my class.