Eliminating Prejudice

By Clara Brill-Carlat

Goals for an Ideal Middle School

• Safe environment for school community• Eliminate prejudice• Eliminate prejudice-related stress

Prejudice• Conservatives tend to have larger amygdala (fear

sensor)• Prejudice = using amygdala (being afraid) when

coming into contact with people of certain race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

• Liberals usually have more activity in Anterior Cingulate Cortex (dealing with conflicts)

Anterior Cingulate Cortex

The Teen Brain

• Amygdala used more often (fear sensor)• Prefrontal cortex not fully matured• Connections between amygdala and PFC not

completely developed• Teens think/react with amygdala (maybe easier

for teenagers to be prejudiced)• Teenagers get big dopamine boosts from taking

risks (pleasure)

Long-Term Stress

• When stressed, signals go from hypothalamus to pituitary gland

• Pituitary gland makes adrenal cortex produce cortisol (hormone)

• Cortisol keeps levels of blood pressure and blood sugar up

Too Much Cortisol• Harms memory (kills/damages brain cells in

hippocampus)• Makes neurons let more calcium diffuse into

membrane • Too much calcium makes neurons fire too often and

die• May lower number of new cells created in adult brains

(new neurons are made in some parts of adults’ brains)• Can affect blood pressure and fats in blood• Increases probability of heart attack, stroke• Harms immune system

An Ideal Middle School Would...• Eliminate prejudice and prejudice-related

stress• Help teenagers break prejudiced amygdala

connections• Allow teens to make new connections in

prefrontal cortex (would make teenagers reason that they should not be automatically afraid of certain types of people)

Ideal Middle School

• More diversity in students, faculty, visitors• Exchange students (learn about other cultures)• Students experience different environments, cultures

by taking field trips• Clubs, discussion groups, class activities dealing with

diversity/culture• Special class for researching and sharing information

about other cultures students are interested in• Do same in lower school (continue to build on

knowledge in middle school)

Ideal Middle School• Have students build trust/spend time with other

students from different schools, backgrounds, cultures

• Use safe, pleasurable risk-taking activities to get dopamine boosts

• Teenagers get lots of pleasure from risks (brain makes more dopamine or dopamine receptors)

•

• Dopamine receptors

Possible Activities• Do activities with students from different schools,

backgrounds, countries• Scavenger hunt in the dark at school or outside

with other students (teamwork, establish trust)• Navigate obstacle course with other students

(have reward at end to stimulate reward pathway, motivate teenagers to work together)

• Students would come up with activity involving safe risks, figure out how to do it with other students (i.e. learn how to make bonfire without matches, pole vault, etc.)

Conclusion: An Ideal Middle School

• Safe risk-taking activities with students from different backgrounds, countries, schools

• A class about different cultures• Incorporate discussions and information

about diversity into classes

Picture Sources• http://mybrainnotes.com/memory-brain-stress.html• http://www.endocrine.niddk.nih.gov/pubs/cushings/cushings.aspx• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterior_cingulate_cortex• http://alert.psychiatricnews.org/2011/08/brain-receptor-gives-clues-to-

adhd.html• http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~sjjgnle/