And so on.

But knowing WHY people become (and I hate to use the word) addicted to certain activities is a much better approach to retaining students.

So, let's look at addiction in both a positive and a negative connotation, in order to understand why some schools can make students stick like glue, and others seem to repel them.

DOPAMINE TRIGGERS

Dopamine is one of the major neurochemicals in your brain. While I'm not going to get into the various functions of dopamine (because I'm not a neuroscientist), one thing you should know about dopamine is that it's directly responsible for rewarding survival behavior.

Specifically, tells you where you should invest your energy, and when this system is working correctly, it encourages you to expend energy on activities that help you survive (read Loretta Breuning's "Habits of a Happy Brain" for more on this). 

How does this work? Simply put, your brain rewards you with a rush of dopamine when you find something that felt good in the past, by triggering a release of dopamine to encourage you to experience that thing again.

Back in our hunter-gatherer days, this typically involved foraging or hunting for high-energy foods (which is partially why you experience a "sugar rush" - and why sweets and carbs can be so addictive). But today, according to Breuning, we experience a dopamine release more often for social rewards.

SOCIAL REWARDS AND DOPAMINE

So what's a "social reward"? Scoring a touchdown. Acing the big presentation. Getting an "A" on your final exam. Things that make you feel like you scored, big-time, both literally and figuratively.

Do you see where I'm going with this? When people reach important goals, whether large or small, the brain rewards them with a shot of dopamine. So, people are naturally driven to repeat those experiences, and the brain's reward system will keep on rewarding them for those experiences, so long as they don't become too routine.

This can lead to a sort of "positive addiction," and it's your brain's natural way of encouraging you to repeat experiences that help you succeed and survive.

One thing to note - the dopamine rush only happens during positive emotional experiences. So, if you walk across the stage to get your diploma, and everyone claps - big dopamine rush.

But if you walk across the stage, trip on your gown, rip it down the back and flash the audience, staff, and graduating class, and everyone in the audience laughs... not so much.

There are other chemicals that are released when we experience such stressful situations, and we're going to talk about that response later. But for now, just understand that dopamine makes you feel GOOD and it encourages you to repeat the rewarding experience that led to that dopamine rush.

Now, consider how this relates to what students experience in class... are you starting to see a connection here between attendance, retention, and the brain's reward system? Think on that until tomorrow's email.