BrainWise Stories: Finding the Green

Posted On: October 23, 2015

David is a special needs student who had been in my BrainWise class for three years and now was aging out of high school. I often wondered if he had learned anything at all. At the end of the school year, he and Ed, a classmate, were in a student-filled hall when David had a psychotic episode – he saw flying clocks coming to steal his brain. He was terrified, and started hitting is head and shouting. The other students made comments and got out of his way as Ed led him to my office. David fell to the floor in a fetal position, hitting his forehead, saying he needed to find the green. I told him that I did not know what “the green” was, and Ed replied: “Yes you do! He wants to find his Wizard Brain.” I realized that David connected “the green” with his prefrontal cortex. In class, he had learned that that was the thinking part of the brain. On a picture of the brain, we called the prefrontal cortex the Wizard Brain and colored it green. David as trying to use his Wizard Brain to help him get rid of the clocks! I stabilized David, called his parents, and contacted his doctor and social worker. David was hospitalized and put on meds. His parents were schizophrenics, and David was, too. Pat A., High School Counselor and BrainWise Instructor

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