How we Learn

On September 8, 2020 California Rotarian Steven Campbell spoke to the membership of the Magnolia Rotary Club about how our brain works and how we learn. Pictured above is Steven Campbell.
 
Steven Campbell was introduced to the Magnolia Rotary Club membership by Kelly McDonald as follows:

After working in hospital administration for twenty years, Steven Campbell acquired his Masters at the University of San Francisco and went on to pursue his greatest love… teaching. As both a university professor and educational dean in northern California for another 20 years, he now presents easy to understand principles on the brain that can be immediately be applied to improve the quality of our thoughts and lives. Steven writes columns in The Community Voice, The Christian Bee and Napa Valley Life Magazine and is author of Making Your Mind Magnificent – Flourishing at Any Age.

Steven then presented a slide show where he discussed how our brain works and how we can change beliefs about ourselves or any other person or thing. Steven explained that there are three principles that we should all know about our brains:

  1. Your brain believes what you tell it!
  2. Our Feelings primarily come from our beliefs!
  3. Our brains rewire themselves!
Steven further explained the above by telling us some stories:
 
  • His own story - Steven always believed that he was poor at math. However, after becoming a teacher, he boss told him one day that he had to teach a math class or lose his job. Since he wanted to stay employed as a teacher, he read books on the subject and became very good at math and found that he could teach it to students. In fact, the experience changed how he felt about math from not liking it to finding it fun.
  • Susie's story - Susie was one of Steven's Math students who had always believed she was a "C" math student. For her first test, Steven tutored her and she made an "A" on that test. Afterwards, she was so glad about the "A" that she told Steven that even if she failed her next test, she would still get a "C". Steven told her to simply study and get a "A' on all her tests. However, Susie failed the next test but lived up to her belief about herself that she was a "C" math student.
  • Shovel Story - Steven provided two scenarios' about him telling Kelly that he was going to dig a hole in her back yard with his shovel. In scenario #1, Kelly believed that he was digging the hole to plant one of her favorite flowers for her birthday. In scenario #2, Kelly believed that he was digging the hole to bury her in it. Steven pointed out that in both scenarios, the people and circumstances were exactly the same. However, the way Kelly's brain perceived why he was digging the hole changing her feeling toward him significantly.
Steven then talked about how (over time) we can replace beliefs about ourselves by simply telling our brains that we no longer believe what we thought in the past so that our brains will replace the old belief with the new belief. Steven also suggested that we throw away the list of dumb things we did in the past and simply tell our brains that we will do better the next time.
 
Steven then talked about the books and seminars that can be purchased and if interested, he can be reached as follows:
 
stevenc@sbcglobal.net
http://stevenrcampbell.com/
 
A photo of those in attendance can be seen below:
 
 

 

 

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