In turn, mastery leads to pleasure, satisfaction, and confidence to once again explore. The more a child experiences this cycle of wonder, the more she can create a lifelong excitement and love of learning. The cycle of wonder, however, can be stopped by fear. The fear response is deeply ingrained in the human brain. Our minds will focus only on the information that is, at that moment, important for survival.
Fear kills curiosity and inhibits exploration.
This is important for the first days of school because the brain tends to interpret novelty as threatening. Humans are explorers. When we are safe and the world around us is familiar, we crave novelty. When a child feels safe, curiosity lives. Yet when the world around us is strange and new, we crave familiarity.