Pamela Cantor, M.D. Presents at ACSA Facebook Live Town Hall

Turnaround for Children Founder and Senior Science Advisor, Pamela Cantor, M.D. joined a Facebook Live town hall discussion with the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA).

Dr. Cantor discussed the science of learning and development and presented Turnaround’s Three Rs: Relationships, Routines and Resilience, which offers ways educators can support children during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond. Dr. Cantor explains:

The neurobiologic story here is simple: the brain is malleable. A brain under stress is shut down it can’t focus and concentrate. It has little working memory and it gets easily triggered by emotion. And the way our brains are wired it is our emotions that drive our cognitive and learning skills. It is our emotions that engage us or shut us down. So today in this time of COVID, violence and racism, and extreme inequity we have no choice. The path to a calm classroom is a calm brain, the path to learning is a calm brain, and the path to a calm brain is to prioritize activities that do three things: establish relationships, routines and promote resilience. What we’re calling “The New Three Rs.” Relationships, routines and resilience, and every one of these is drawn from the non-negotiables for whole-child design.

The weekly virtual town hall meetings titled “Common Purpose, Uncommon Times,”  are hosted by ACSA Executive Director, Wes Smith and cover topics of interest to school administrators across California.

Follow the conversation on Facebook.