The latest issue of Educational Leadership revealed some findings on recent brain research. They write, "One of the most important findings is that emotion is a driving force behind learning. If we don't see emotional relevance in what we experience, we often don't allow that information to sink in."

I think the whole of scripture affirms this as well as evidence from personal experience. When we are commanded to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, it is a statement that strongly implies those aspects of ourselves are interrelated. Can one fully love God with one's heart without fully loving him with one's mind? Or with one's mind without one' heart?

The greatest learning experiences I have had have been when it has been coupled with a real sense of meaning - an emotional response that tells me that this particular item of knowledge has real importance - that I would be less of a person for not knowing it and a greater person for having learned it. And this is true not just of so-called "sacred" things, but also the "mundane" - the life of a peasant in the Middle Ages; the physical forces present in the motion of bodies; how certain letters combined to form cluster sounds; how art can more forcefully present ideas. etc.

These kind of topics only have value to our students if the students have a sense of the importance of the knowledge. Too often we use cold utilitarianism to motivate them: "You're going to need to know this for the test"; "If you want to get into a good college, you better learn this"; "You need to get prepared for the next grade level". I think students see right through this pretty quickly and utilitiarian motivational tactics are, in my opinion, one of the leading causes of demotivation among American students.

Rather, when students are taught, encouraged, modeled, engaged with ideas that have real meaning and purpose (and really, don't all ideas have meaning and purpose?), their emotions kick in and learning takes off. All great Christian schol teachers have a way of demonstrating to their students how the content leads them to greater thoughts, greater actions, and greater lives. A old professor of mine used the term "high-heartedness" - a sense of nobility to our learning that would motivate even the most stubborn of students. If we can do this, even the mundane becomes sacred.