Benefits of Laughter
Laughter has been shown to boost the body’s production of neurotrans- mitters critical for alertness and memory. Some studies have shown that having fun and pleasant experiences improve the functioning of the body’s immune system for three days. (Fry, 1997, as cited in Jensen, 2000, p. 125)
Teachers, like everyone else, need to enjoy the work they do. They need to be able to laugh with students and see the humor in the everyday life of a class- room. We attended a presentation by a motivational speaker several years ago who put it this way: “If by 10 o’clock every morning, we haven’t had ourselves a good belly laugh something is very wrong. It means we must be taking ourselves too seriously because working with a room full of children is very funny busi- ness!” Teachers need to give themselves permission to be silly or outrageous at times and draw the students into their light mood. This can be done through the use of props, costumes, dramatization, or telling funny stories. There needs to be a balance in designing learning experiences that are both enjoyable and chal- lenging (see the “Feeling Tone” principle of learning in Chapter 12).