Defusing The Messages That Rob

Our Students of Their Intelligence

by John Lawry

 

 

Two of the most important thinkers of the 20th century, William James and Albert Einstein, have both argued that most of us are using only ten to fifteen percent of our natural ability 99% of the time. The analogy I use with my students is to imagine a car with ten cylinders and only one is working. We don't notice it, however, because that is true for the cars that everyone else drives as well. If that's true, and I believe that it is, then virtually everyone has the capacity to be a genius; i.e., run on ten cylinders rather than one. In fact, running on two cylinders would probably qualify for what we call genius because that would be using twice as much intelligence as most of us!

 

Ever since reading Leslie LeCron's book, The Complete Guide to Hypnosis, I have been fascinated by what hypnotists call "negative imprints" and their effects on our ability to learn. It seems that the unconscious mind is ever vigilant and remembers things literally that were said to us especially when we were children and did not have the adult "defenses" that we develop as we get older. These messages become "imprinted" on the unconscious and affect us though we are usually unaware of them. The imprints can be positive or negative but, according to Bloch: ". . . at least seventy-five percent of a child's early programming is negative,"1 thus "negative imprints."

 

I would like to share what happened in a class I taught recently but first, I have to give you some background on hypnosis and the effects of "imprints." The example that LeCron gives in his book is an interesting one. A physician who himself used hypnosis sent his nineteen- year-old daughter to LeCron because she was tested as having an IQ of approximately 135 and yet she was failing two courses and just barely passing others at an unidentified university in California. During her first two years in high school she was an A student, but the following year her grades tumbled and never recovered. When she was interviewed by LeCron she remarked, "I guess I'm just stupid. . . I must be a nitwit."

LeCron tells us that very frequently an "active" imprint will influence the very wording of our conversation. He suspected that her remark offered a clue. LeCron used what is called the "ideomotor finger technique," in which the client is put into a trance and told that each of four fingers (preferably on one hand) will indicate a different response depending upon which one rises in response to a question. For example, the forefinger might stand for "yes," the middle finger for "no," the ring finger for "I do not know," and the little finger for "I do not wish to answer." LeCron tells the reader that it is important for the unconscious to have the option of not revealing something for which the conscious mind is not ready to hear.

 

The first question that LeCron asked the young woman was whether there was something blocking her from studying and doing well in class, Sure enough the forefinger rose! Through a series of ingenious questions, LeCron was able to determine that indeed at the age of sixteen the young woman's father had said something to her in the living room. Then using age regression, the woman was regressed back to the time of the experience. She described seeing her father, scolding her and apparently quite angry. She had made a foolish mistake in carrying out a request of his. She felt embarrassed and upset. At which point her father said, "You're just stupid; you're a nitwit."

 

After this discovery, LeCron helped the young woman to understand the power of imprints and that her father had been speaking in anger. In addition, when the father was informed, he responded by telling his daughter that he was really quite proud of her and did not really believe that she was stupid but rather quite intelligent. This had the effect of replacing the negative imprint with more positive ones. LeCron informs us that "within a short time her grades soared."2

 

I read this account to my class in Developmental Psychology in order to impress upon them the power of our words on children, especially in the roles of parents and teachers. I could tell they were really listening as we discussed afterwards the observation of William James that we normally only use approximately ten percent of our natural ability. I suggested that one of the major obstacles to the full flowering of our native intelligence -was probably negative imprints. I asked how many in the room had ever heard how "stupid, bad," etc. they were in the course of growing up: "Of course, our parents, teachers did not mean for us to take this literally but our unconscious was not able to discriminate at the time." Everyone raised their hand.

 

At the end of the next class, a student handed me the following letter:

 

Dear Dr. Lawry,

Last night I was talking to my friend and telling her about my unhappiness regarding men. More specifically, I'm not what you call "lucky in love." I find it hard to meet guys; actually it's not hard meeting them. but I rarely date anyone. I thought back to the article we read in class on imprinting. I had or actually remembered an experience similar to what had been discussed in the article. My mother always stressed the importance of independence in all aspects of my life. As you probably know I want to be a doctor, so I feel that independence and hard work will only help me to achieve this goal. I'm happy with all other aspects of my life except for the romantic.

 

Last night I remembered a conversation that my mom had with some relatives, I believe, two or three years ago. My aunt made a comment about this guy in her town that I would like. My mother immediately spoke up and said (It's funny because I remember word for word what she said.), "Kim doesn't need anybody, she's going to be a doctor." By this comment my mother was, or at least I thought she was, trying to tell me that by needing somebody (specifically a man with whom I would be romantically involved), I was inadequate and dependent. I feel that I have carried those words around with me and purposely stayed away from any man who showed interest. By dating someone or being close to someone, I've always felt that it was wrong, that that particular void in my life I should be able to fill myself. I've always thought that my needing someone was a terrible weakness that would affect my independence and in turn serve as a blockage in achieving my goals.

 

By remembering that comment made by my mother, I am now beginning to recognize its effect on me. I'm slowly beginning to learn that just like everyone else I need somebody too, and that's not bad. At any rate, thank you for reading that article. It's always nice to find out things about myself. as well as other people when reading psychology. I find it very satisfiying when I can directly apply psychology's teaching to myself. I thought I would share this with you, thanks again.

 

Though Kim did not fee! comfortable sharing this with the rest of the class I obtained her permission to share it with you the reader. However, something happened later on in the semester that served as a good occasion to illustrate the power of negative imprints to the rest of the class. A rather shy student was leading a discussion of an article read for class when all of a sudden she said, "When I was younger I was really a bad girl." I immediately stopped the discussion and asked the class, "Did everyone hear what Devita just said?" "'Bad girl' was what her mother probably called her at various times when she was young, right Devita?" "Yes," she said, "You're right. I never thought about it before." I asked the class to imagine the price of going through life thinking of oneself as having been a "bad girl." (I was tempted to ask how many "bad girls" there were in the class but I resisted the temptation.) The class received a memorable lesson in the power of negative imprints and Devita wrote in her final exam that she was working hard to erase that tape of "bad girl" from her childhood memory.

 

One question I have been asking myself ever since this class is how much of my students' failure can be attributed to negative imprinting that they have been exposed to since birth. Perhaps a more important question is what can I, as a teacher, do to erase those imprints and better yet, change them into postive ones.

 

I began to get some insight when I read the following story as reported by Dr. Mudra, a former wrestling coach:

 

We had a wrestler at Adams State College when I was there who was confused about the quality of his opponent. There were two boys named Martinez in one of our meets. One was a great wrestler and one was a poor wrestler. The one our boy was wrestling was really the good one, but he thought he was wrestling the poor one. Our boy was just an ordinary, average wrestler but he went out there and tore the boy up. After the match, we rushed down to the locker room to congratulate him. He was standing on the bench there and we were telling him about how great it was. He was really puzzled. When he finally became aware of what had happened, he fell off the bench! Now. if he had really known, I am sure he would have been pinned in the first period. But because he didn't know, he performed at a level that was not thought possible. Think of how surprised the other wrestler was to have this boy come out there like a tiger!3

 

It was not until I saw the movie "Stand and Deliver," however, that I began to formulate an answer. I agree with observors like Lee Shulman of Stanford University that Jaime Escalante apparently has a genius for finding the right metaphor in teaching mathematics. But what Shulman and others do not remark on was how Escalante is able to transform all of those negative imprints his students have been exposed to: "Mr. Escalante, you don't understand. If we could learn algebra. we wouldn't be in your class (emphasis mine)."4 Those who have seen the movie "Stand and Deliver" know that not only did these high school kids from the barrio in L.A. learn algebra but they went on to learn college-level calculus as well. In fact, they learned it so well that the Education Testing Service (ETS) conducted an investigation and made his students take another test, which they passed with equally high scores!

 

The final piece in the puzzle emerged in the following incident. I had an experience where a student, Bonnie, had been performing at a mediocre level (C, C+, D+) on the first three quizzes in my General Psychology class. After class following feedback on the third quiz, Bonnie came up to inform me that she was going to get an A on the next quiz. It took her two more quizzes to do it but Bonnie did in fact get the A. This gave me an idea and I decided to conduct an experiment in the class before the seventh and final quiz. I asked this same class to make a contract with themselves in which they, like Bonnie, would agree to get the highest grade of the semester on the last quiz. I did a brief relaxation exercise and asked them to visualize a grade higher than any of the previous six obtained so far. When they did so I asked them to write the following statement: "I am going to get a grade of at least -- on the final quiz," fill in the grade, sign it and hand it in. What happened was truly amazing. Of the nineteen students in class that day, eleven (fifty-eight percent) received a grade higher than the previous quiz and only three students scored lower. This was statistically significant (z-test=2.32, p<.05). Furthermore, the class as a whole received the highest score on the average compared to the other six quizzes.

I think this proves that among other things good teaching is getting students to believe that they really can do it and erasing those negative imprints. I suspect that this is what good coaches do instinctively and so we educators and parents have to learn how to be more like coaches and less like referees.

 

John D. Lawry, MSC #1384

100 Marymount Avenue

Tarrytown, NY 10591-3796

 

1 Douglas Bloch, "Releasing the Beliefs That Bind," Yoga Journal, May/June 1990, p. 16.

2 Leslie LeCron, The Complete Guide To Hypnosis (Los Angeles: Nash, 1971), p.16.

3 Dr. Mudra quoted in Arthur Combs, Donald Avila. & William Purkey, Helping Relationships: Basic Concepts for the Helping Professions (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1978, 2nd ed.), p. 87.

4 Lee Shulman, "'It's Like ...' The Bridges Teachers Build," American Educator, 1989, 13:8.

Click here to read a review of John Lawry's beautiful book, Never Stop Dancing, a book John created from letters written to his daughter Lili when she first entered college; here for another one entitled "Caritas in the Classroom," here for one called "Strategies for Unearthing the Genius in Our Students" and here to read a recent article by John entitled "Professor Emeritus as Elder?" It's a beauty! Oh, heck, they all are beauties! Read on.

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