A friend of mine went to his first day of class today at UNLV for the Summer Term of Organic Chemistry. Within the first few minutes of class, the professor, while setting the tone and expectations for this upcoming course, says, “I usually see a 40% drop out rate in my class!” WOW, talk about negative programing for failure. I could not believe that a college professor, with all his years of training, would do such a stupid thing to instill a subconscious trigger for failure within his students. Now, I have to tell you that Organic Chemistry is why I changed my major to Business from Pre-Med. After flunking Organic Chemistry, I decided that I better switch career paths - and I am glad that I did. With that said, Organic Chemistry is a very tough course and when taken during a shortened Spring or Summer term, it makes it even harder to grasp the concepts. However, I wish I knew then all that I know now about mind dynamics, influence, and persuasion skills. If I did, I might have decided to stay with Vet or Med School.
I hear horror stories like that all the time. Teachers/Instructors/Professors are very influential people in the realm of their classrooms. They have the power to set positive and negative expectations in the minds of their students; which thus leads to success or failure on the part of those students. There are numerous studies which have shown these very powerful examples of mind dynamics in the classroom.
I don’t care if you are a Nursery School Instructor, High School Teacher, or College Professor - you need to hold yourself accountable for the tone you set within your classroom and within the minds of your students. There are way too many teachers teaching today who should not be, because of their attitudes in the classroom, and this professor at UNLV is just another example.
A proper frame to set in his classroom today should have been, “I know that this is a tough subject and we have a shortened time frame to learn it in, but I am here to help and if we all work together, we can achieve the necessary goals for this course. However, if some of you do fail, just plan on retaking it over.”
I truly believe that there needs to be some sort of accountability in the classroom and teacher’s hiring, firing, and salaries tied to the successful true achievement of their students. We have a HUGE educational problem here in the USA and drastic changes need to occur.
I have developed a classroom in-service program to show teachers how to use the latest in persuasion, influence, and mind dynamics techniques in the classroom. I show them how the subconscious mind implements various words and phrases into student’s actions. We also look at spatial dynamics and how a classroom is designed can either help or hinder a student’s learning.
If you are an educator or administrator in a school, then you need to view this link www.classroompersuasion.com
I am going to make sure that the Dean of the Chemistry Dept at UNLV reads this blog post too. Any administrator that allows this type of negative programming to occur within their school should be ashamed of themself! Knowledge is key to improving our educational system and I am glad that I can provide some knowledge on persuasion and mind dynamics to classroom educators.