JumpStart Artichoke Day (3/16/26)

QUOTE:  Humans are social animals, highly susceptible to emotional contagion.  Training, logic, and intelligence are often no match for the power of groupthink." (Dr. Bruce Perry)

MESSAGE:  Flu season may be over, but there is one thing that will spread even faster than viruses in Pre-K, and that is emotions.  Schools are emotional ecosystems. Every hallway conversation, faculty meeting, classroom interaction, and email exchange carries more than just information—it carries emotion. Psychologists refer to this phenomenon as emotional contagion, the tendency for people to “catch” and mirror the emotions of those around them. In schools, where adults and students spend long hours together in close social environments, this effect can be especially powerful.


Research in psychology and organizational behavior shows that emotions spread through groups quickly and often unconsciously. Humans are wired with mirror neurons that help us read facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language. When a colleague walks into a meeting tense and frustrated, others begin to feel a subtle version of that same tension. When someone arrives energized and optimistic, the atmosphere lifts almost instantly. Over time, these micro-exchanges accumulate and shape the emotional climate of a school.


For educators, this matters more than we sometimes realize. A teacher’s emotional state does not stay contained behind their desk. Students are extraordinarily perceptive; they read mood faster than they process instructions. A teacher who greets the class with warmth and steadiness communicates safety and belonging. A teacher who enters hurried, irritated, or discouraged may unintentionally transmit that stress to students, who then mirror it in their behavior and engagement.


The same dynamic plays out among adults. Faculty lounges, team meetings, and leadership conversations can become amplifiers of either encouragement or discouragement. A single person’s cynicism can slowly influence an entire team. But the opposite is also true: calm, curiosity, and kindness spread just as easily. Emotional contagion does not only transmit negativity—it can transmit resilience.


This is where self-awareness becomes a professional skill. Educators cannot eliminate stress or difficult emotions; schools are complex places and the work is deeply human. What we can do is become more intentional about what we carry into shared spaces. Pausing before a meeting, taking a slow breath before greeting students, or choosing curiosity instead of frustration in a conversation are small acts that influence the emotional tone around us.


In this sense, every educator is a climate-setter. The emotional tone we model becomes part of the invisible curriculum students experience every day.


When educators practice steadiness, patience, and perspective, those qualities ripple outward—to colleagues, to classrooms, and ultimately to students. In a profession built on relationships, the emotions we carry are never ours alone. They move through the system.

DAD JOKE:  I just walked past a man who kept saying, "1,3,5,7,9...1,3,5,7,9..."  I though to myself, "How odd!"