Joy – It’s Just Common Sense (and Cake!) - Ben Kingston-Hughes

Guest Article By Ben Kingston-Hughes

If I talk about the idea of joy in childhood many of you will agree that it is a highly important concept, especially if, like me, you work with vulnerable children. Most of you would be supportive of redefining childhood so that all of our children experience moments of joy in their lives. There are also many of you who see firsthand just how important these moments are.

Merely An Idea

However, to some people the idea of Joy is simply that. An idea. Joy is an abstract idea which has nothing to do with the important work of educating our children. It cannot be quantified or accurately defined, so how can it be important? Because of this, joy is not mentioned in the EYFS or National Curriculum and is rarely mentioned at all in any agenda or programme for educating our children.

So, to the people who don’t see the value of joy, how about common sense?

Having Your Cake and Eating It?

It is an intrinsic human behaviour that we will repeat experiences that give us pleasure. This is not a theory or speculation, just simple cause and effect or basic common sense. If we like a food, we will eat more of the food and if we don’t, we will avoid it. This is why we keep eating cake and why even writing about cake has made me want some cake. Of course, taste is subjective as we each love different foods. My daughter has just discovered Nutella and Marmite on toast which sounds appalling although I have not yet dared to try it so who knows?

If we get pleasure from listening to a song we will buy more songs by the same artist. If we enjoy being in someone’s company, we want to spend more time with them. If we enjoy a book, we will actively seek out books by the same author.(Brandon Sanderson anyone?)

This basic human behaviour is intrinsically important in almost every aspect of our lives from our choice of holidays to our choice of a life partner. Except for some reason we do not seem apply this to children’s learning.

Does This Seem Obvious?

So back to common sense. If a child enjoys learning they will want to repeat it. Fact. If they don’t, like any sensible human being, they will wish to avoid it. Repetition is a key aspect of learning, so it is clear that this is a really important process. This means that joy is a fundamental building block for all learning because it supports one of its most basic and important aspects.

As teachers we learn about different learning styles and how children respond to different types of learning, whether that is kinaesthetic, auditory or visual etc. Beneath all of this is the fact that if children are not enjoying the experience of learning they will begin to disengage regardless of their preferred learning style.

An Absence of Joy

Even more worrying is the fact that when children are not enjoying something it may become a source of anxiety. A child experiencing anxiety is learning at a slower rate to a child who is happy and feels safe. This is simple “basic brain” neuroscience which tells us that concentration and focus is impaired when we are overly stressed. We have all been stressed at some point in our lives and then realised someone has been talking to us for the last few minutes and we have not heard a word they have said. We are not deliberately ignoring the person, merely experiencing a radical drop in concentration caused by anxiety.

So, when we add all this together it is really simple. If children are enjoying learning they will be more capable and wish to repeat the experience. If children are not enjoying learning it can reduce their concentration and focus and make them wish to avoid the experience.

The Obligatory Science Bit….

There is some really interesting neuroscience supporting this view. Like many of us I wish I had more of a social filter to stop me saying weird things when in conversation. Sadly, this is not something my own pre-frontal cortex is very good at. However, there are other filters in the brain which are strongly linked to joy.

We all have a filter called our “reticular activating system”. Experiences which are joyful, novel or stimulating, activate this filter which increases our focused attention. This allows us to assign more of our brain’s resources to a task and makes us more capable at the task.

The other side to this is the “Affective filter”. Unpleasant experiences which cause anxiety, stress or any form of discomfort (physical or emotional) will activate the affective filter which means less information will be processed by our upper brain and our capability will drop significantly. This is a simple survival trait which forces us to focus on the source of discomfort or anxiety before it becomes a threat. Sadly, this is at the expense of our focus and concentration on other tasks. This impairment of cognitive function is not a minor inconvenience but represents a significant drop in concentration and capability thus creating a considerable hurdle to the child learning effectively.

Even More Cake

In addition, pleasurable experiences support the production of dopamine which makes us feel good. This automatically makes us want to repeat the behaviour. It is just one of many reasons we keep eating cake. (I am seriously craving cake now!) However, increased dopamine also makes us produce another biochemical called acetylcholine. This chemical has been shown to increase focused attention on tasks. So, in addition to making children feel good whilst learning (making them want to repeat it) joy also increases their concentrationon a task, further increasing their capability.

Children are Human Beings Too

So, on the surface it may seem like joy in education is a nebulous concept with no impact on the real world. However,the truth is that it is nothing more or less than simple common sense.

If we treat all of our children like human beings (even the ones who eat Nutella and Marmite on toast!) then we need to accept fundamental behavioural driving forces. In short, simple common sense dictates that learning is significantly enhanced if the child experiences joy because human beings automatically desire to repeat enjoyable experiences and give more of their attention to those experiences. The fact that this is backed up by multiple neuroscience and neuroimaging studies is merely the icing on the cake. Did someone say cake?

Ben Kingston-Hughes is an international keynote speaker, author and multi award-winning trainer. He delivers inspirational training to schools, nursery settings, out of school settings and for parents, as well as for local authorities and national charities. He is also the Managing Director of Inspired Children and has worked with vulnerable children across the UK for over 35 years. His game-changing book about play, “A Very Unusual Journey into Play” has gained widespread acclaim and his new book, “Why Children Need Joy” was a finalist for a Nursery World Award for best professional book 2024, where it was awarded “highly commended”. His favourite cake is a homemade sultana sponge.

Check out Ben’s inspirational books – A Very Unusual Journey into Play and Why Children Need Joy (Now a finalist for the Nursery World Professional Book of the Year Award 2024!)

Order at Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B09MV3FMWX

www.inspiredchildren.org.uk - www.facebook.com/inspiredchildrentraining