According to research, on average, we have 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts every single day. Of those thoughts, 95% of them are repetitive... meaning that we had the same exact thought the day prior. What's most interesting to me (but honestly, not all that surprising) is that 80-85% of those thoughts are NEGATIVE. Woofta.
Studies from the Mayo Clinics and Cleveland Clinics alike also found that the simple act of having negative thoughts increases the likelihood of developing and exasperating illnesses... which shows that WHAT we think about a situation can have detrimental effects on our outcomes. Honestly, this isn't that shocking to hear, especially when we think of the power fear and anxiety hold over people.
So how does this transfer into our classrooms? Because negativity doesn't only affect US, but it also influences the people around us... especially our students.
However, the trick isn't to simply go from ZERO to ONE HUNDRED. It's difficult to go from a negative thought to a positive thought that we may not even believe is true (or one that isn't true to begin with). A lot of mindset gurus preach the power of positivity and affirmations (which do hold some truth), but the power of negativity is actually STRONGER. So when we go from thinking "today is a terrible day" to "this is the best day ever," it's hard for our minds to believe the latter.
The trick? We need to BRIDGE one thought to the other. Instead of saying false positive statements, we should aim for neutral statements that we know to be true but also help us lead into positive thinking.
CTFAR MODEL
I first heard of the CTFAR model from my business mentor in regards to changing my mindset around my personal life and my business, but as I was sitting in a meeting at my school about how to shift the culture within our building, this model floated back into my mind. Not only can we use this to help us achieve our own goals, but I realized we can use it to help our students get results, too.
CTFAR stands for the following:
C = circumstance
T = thought
F = feeling
A = action
R = result
We all have specific circumstances in our lives that don't set us up for ultimate success, but it's not the situation itself that hinders us; it's the THOUGHTS and FEELINGS around these events and circumstances that become debilitating... and not only our OWN thoughts and feelings, but other people's (like our teachers') thoughts and feelings about them as well.
Let me explain. Below is a CTFAR that appears to be all too common among public educators (from a teacher's perspective; you could also take time to analyze this from a student's point of view as well). As someone who teaches in a building where over half our students come from low income households, I know this narrative all too well.
CIRCUMSTANCE: a student comes from a single parent household; he is failing 3 out of 4 of his classes and is often disruptive during class; when you try to address the situation, it often leads to an outburst or a total shut down.
THOUGHT: this student doesn't feel connected to me; everything I try doesn't seem to work; he is fine with failing, so I should focus my attention on the students who need and want it
FEELING: defeated
ACTION: or in this case, inaction; you stop trying to help and keep your distance from the student to prevent outbursts and tension in the classroom
RESULT: the student fails the class and finishes the term in the same exact spot he was when he started
Sound familiar? As educators, it's easy to feel frustrated and help the students who want it rather than the students who seem to intentionally refuse to learn. We know we cannot change the situation... but we CAN change our thoughts around that circumstance. Not by going from 0-100, but by bridging the gap. Here's an example of how we can work to change our perspective:
CIRCUMSTANCE: a student comes from a single parent household; he is failing 3 out of 4 of his classes and is often disruptive during class; when you try to address the situation, it often leads to and outburst or a total shut down.
THOUGHT: I wonder why this student responds this way. There must be something getting in the way of his learning... I should work to identify what happened to him and what the root cause of his behavior is.
FEELING: determined
ACTION: teacher works with colleagues who have seen success with the student; teacher analyzes behavior in the student to identify potential triggers; teacher takes time to learn about the student's background and form a relationship with him
RESULT: the teacher figures out that the student's parent works evenings, leaving him home to babysit his younger siblings. Because of this, he has no time for his school work, let alone time to get any sleep, causing him to be tired and irritable during school. The teacher works with the student and accommodates him to make sure he gets the information he needs while taking his circumstance into consideration. The two build a bond because the student notices the teacher's efforts, and the student passes the class with a C.
Same circumstance. Different thoughts and feelings. Brand new actions and results.
Another example that comes to mind when I consider this model is a story I read in Dr. Perry and Oprah Winfrey's book, What Happened to You?
The story is about a student who had a negative reaction to his teacher. Every time he was around him, he would get irritable or shut down completely, yielding minimal results in the class.
The teacher COULD have simply allowed the negativity to win by telling himself things like "the student just doesn't like me" or "there's no use in trying" or "I can't do anything to change his behavior," but instead, he bridged a neutral thought: "I wonder what happened to this student to cause his behavior."
With that, he started working with Dr. Perry to discover the underlying factors influencing the student's behaviors in class. While looking for potential triggers, Dr. Perry attended a scheduled visitation between the student and his father, to which his father showed up late and drunk. Dr. Perry noted in the book that the father had "slathered on Old Spice to hide it." After the meeting, Dr. Perry asked the teacher which type of deodorant he used. Can you guess his response? Old Spice.
Turns out, it wasn't the teacher the student had an issue with; in fact, the student himself couldn't even explain his behavior or the cause, but his sensory memories from childhood had been a huge contributing factor. Simply smelling Old Spice on his teacher had triggered a negative reaction in his brain that brought up past trauma.
After changing his deodorant, the teacher was able to rebuild a relationship with the student and make it stronger than ever. BUT... had he let the negative thought win instead of focusing on a neutral thought to get to the root issue and take action, none of this would have ever been discovered.
Our brains are mysterious, and a lot of times, we may not understand how they work. Fortunately though, we CAN do our part of bridging the gap from negative to positive to achieve greatness. Not only for ourselves, but for our students as well.
Until next time,
Paige
Perry, Bruce D. and Oprah Winfrey. What Happened to You? Flatiron Books. New York. 2021.
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