Did you know that the mules at the Grand Canyon have evolved significantly longer forelegs relative to their hindlegs? This keeps them upright on their steep, rocky descent to the canyon floor.

I shared this amazing fact with a group of my undergraduate peers at University. It only took a beat for one of them to ask: ‘but how do the mules climb back out of the canyon?’ I thought about this and realised that my long-held-belief was actually a long-held-misbelief. To save face, I could have doubled-down and tried to persuade them of the veracity of my statement, or I pretended the whole thing was a joke. Instead, I began to laugh. I saw the humour in how ludicrous it was that I had somehow reached that point in my educational journey without questioning what my parents must have told me as a joke.

Why am I sharing this embarrassing story with you? Well, partly as a cautionary tale: don’t be tempted to tell your children mistruths, no matter how funny they are! But the main reason is to model the importance of being able to laugh at oneself.

There has long been a myth in education that laughter and learning are at odds; that if a child appears to be enjoying themselves then they cannot be working very hard. Recent research into laughter and education is not only disproving this, but is revealing the opposite to be true! Laughter can improve the learning process.

How exactly? Well, let’s start with the obvious: when people find something funny they are more likely to remember it. The social-psychology thesis for this is that humans look to ingratiate themselves with others because we have a better chance of survival as part of a group. Students feel particularly connected to others when they laugh together. And once a student feels secure socially - and knows they have a safety net of good relationships - they are more likely to take a risk: to raise their hand in class to answer a question; to try-out for a sports team; or audition for that play.

There is also research that focuses on the importance of laughter in between learning tasks. Did you know that recently processed information can be destroyed if the same - or similar - neural network is used again without a sufficient cooling-off period (a phenomenon called ‘retrograde interference’)? Neuro-scientists are now exploring how laughter may reduce the duration of this cooling-off or ‘stabilizing’ period. What does this mean for the classroom? When a student feels overwhelmed because they have taken on too much information in a short space of time, taking a moment to laugh can help bring them back to an optimal learning state.

Why else is playfulness and laughter important to learning? Well, according to anthropologists, approaching a learning task in a playful way “lowers the stakes” for all involved, allowing space for exploration and new thinking. Given a safe place to play with ideas, as opposed to being told to reach for a correct answer, encourages students to work harder because they are enjoying the process of making new knowledge together.

Learning something new often requires us to accept the difficult truth that a view we currently hold about the world is incomplete or flawed. One way to work through the negative feelings associated with making a mistake, and to facilitate  “checking our egos at the (classroom) door”, is to develop the ability to laugh at ourselves. Being able to laugh at ourselves about our incompleteness bolsters our critical capability and allows us to move forward in our thinking.
If we find humour in our awkward, early attempts to master a new skill then we are less likely to give up; my recent, painful attempt to use my Grade 2 son’s skateboard comes to mind. If we learn to laugh at how ridiculous some of our previous assumptions were, such as the belief that the mules at the Grand Canyon have longer forelegs than hindlegs, we are ready to take on new - biologically accurate - understandings.

AAS students have been strengthening their relational-safety-nets, keeping their neural networks cool, and developing their critical thinking by laughing with others and laughing at themselves all year! One of the privileges of being a Dean of Students is that I get to visit lots of classrooms ad see the fun that is being had: taking part in mock trials; learning new musical instruments; exhibiting and critiquing art work; advertising travel companies in different languages; building robots and wind-tunnels; creating and wearing costumes to present scenes from a Shakespeare play; and taking Zumba brain-breaks.

Away from the classroom, students have found laughter in: gift-wrapping their peers and designing t-shirts as part of House competitions; falling for an April fools joke (some students really did believe we were adopting a Turtle as the new AAS mascot this year!); kayaking, rock climbing, and roasting marshmallows over a campfire on Cultural Trips; travelling all over Europe as a member of various teams for CEESA; taking part in a sustainable-fashion-show in Assembly to celebrate Earth week; throwing some shapes at the Middle School Dance or Prom; and experiencing jump-scares at the StuCo-run Halloween cinema night… to name but a few (phew!)

Whether you’re vacationing or staycationing, I hope you are able to fun with loved ones this summer. The AAS staff look forward to laughing with you again next academic year.