Reclaim the Wonder of Childhood

We dull our lives by the way we conceive them.

-James Hillman (1965) American Psychologist

 Resa Steindel Brown in The Call To Brilliance argues that education can be empowering to children and adults in ways that conventional school systems cannot dare to even hope for.  Current schools are fashioned to give children the knowledge they need to get a job when they are grown. But there is so much more to human potential that is completely untapped or even squelched by schooling.  Wonder, imagination and self-determination are the first casualties of public schooling.  Steindel Brown believes a passion oriented, individualized education can revive the most beautiful attributes of the human spirit, with children leading adults back to a place where possibilities are endless.

The child can lead us back to our innate brilliance with authenticity, integrity and passion, if we allow it. But we forget. We forget our own childhoods when all things were possible.

Marc Brown is taking these passion oriented educational ideas and organizing Passion Oriented Education (TM) which should be launching this month.  Groups of parents get together every two weeks to plan and discuss the education of their children and brainstorm together to improve their children's opportunities to follow their passions.  Each group has a leader and the children meet once a week for projects and friendship.  This model seems ideal for use along with Gifted Education programs.

A Faustian Bargain

All civilization comes through literature now, especially in our country.  A Greek got his civilization by talking and looking, and in some measure a Parisian may still do it.  But we, who live remote from history and monuments, we must read or we must barbarise.

- William D. Howells (1913), American Writer and Critic

A literature-based education is the exact opposite to Standards-Based schooling, the public school reform movement that has defined the first decade of the 21st century.  Schools today work to collectively raise the standards, or scores, of American students.  The key word here is collectively.  The final end of American public education today is to raise collective scores. This is what administrators focus on and look to inspire teachers to accomplish:  higher standardized test scores.  To what end exactly?  According to educational consultant Ruby Payne , raising the real estate values of communities, is an important reason children should go to school and do well on standardized exams. 

Are we deliberately training a generation of under-educated, apathetic and literary ignorant people; that is, classic barbarians, so our homes will retain or increase in value?

That seems like a terrible trade, like nothing short of a Faustian bargain. 

Open Education: The Newest Tool for Dialectics?

The birth of what was to become the Western world's first university, occurred under the breezy shade of an olive grove dedicated to the goddess Athena. Thirty-year old Plato, the first professor, lectured sparsely, but posed humanity's greatest questions before his students for discussion. The teacher served as a discussion guide, a moderator. The brilliant students, hand picked by Plato, sought to discover truths as a collaborative community. Eventually this method of intellectual growth came to be called dialectic.

Fast-forward 2,300 years and this original method of academic discussion, at least in the United States, which boasts more than 5,000 universities, is reserved for only the creme-de-la-creme. The brightest students at the most elite universities seek to discover truths through collaboration with teachers, advisers and each other. Those whose paths have lead them to more mediocre centers of learning, though nor necessarily less expensive, sit and listen. And sit and listen some more. And after some more sitting and listening regurgitate facts on tests and quizzes and sometimes in shallow essays. No one expects these students to solve humanity's greatest questions.

This linking of passive acquisition of information to a University education is oppressive and demeaning to students, many of whom could be capable of tackling humanity's greatest questions, if given a proper university experience that includes dialectic.

The grassroots Open Education Movement (OEM), pioneered by Richard Baraniuk of Rice University, may be the impetus to never-seen-before human intellectual progress, and a very modern form of dialectics. The OEM aims to open up education in the tradition of the open-source software movement, such as Linux.
Using 21st century tools, this OEM collaboration on speed will grow exponentially as students from around the world gain access to real-time tackling of humanity's questions, from the most basic processes we still don't fully comprehend to universe-sized cosmological ideas.

Open educational materials include text, images, audio, video, interactive simulations, and games that are free to be used and also re-used in new ways by anyone around the world. Participants in open-education are working toward a broad set of goals, that democratize education and include intellectuals of all ages, disciplines and nations, reduce the cost of teaching materials (throw out those $120.00 textbooks), reduce the time lag between the production of course materials so they remain crisp and relevant in our fast-paced world.

Imagine the dialectical possibilities when ordinary university students are equipped with an entire collaborative intellectual universe.

3 Inspiring New Books

Continuous effort--not strength or intelligence--is the key to unlocking our potential.
-Winston Churchill (1950), British Prime Minister

Superstar journalist Malcolm Gladwell tackles the topic of success in his new book Outliers. You must be good enough to enter a field, Gladwell says, but once you're in, who you know, how hard you work and how lucky you get, make all the difference in the world.
Fortune magazine's senior editor, Geoff Colvin, also just published his take on the same topic, success in Talent Is Overrated. Hard work is not enough, Colvin says, its the right kind of deliberate practice that boosts a person's chances of achieving greatness.
A third journalist, David Shenk is currently writing The Genius in All of Us, also about genius and success. Why all the books on success? Why are we enamoured with stars? Americans, are probably culturally predisposed to look up to successful people. We hold in our heart, and our founding documents, that each one is special with great potential to be someone and achieve great happiness. It is good to be reminded how to reach that wondrous potential.

What Scientists Want

Currently in India, the average age of laboratory scientists is close to 50. Bright university students aren't drawn to scientific careers with little pay and little glory. They either defect to the West or choose more lucrative work at home. But India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, is making sure this trend is reversed within the next decade. Last December, the journal Nature reports, Singh launched a five-year, 21 billion-rupee (US $427-million) scholarship programme for a million 10-15 year-olds, whose funding can continue through graduate school if they stay in science. Singh's plan also guarantees research positions for new science PhDs. These changes will be a boon for older scientists as well. So many new science teachers will be needed that the retirement age for science professors will be changed from 60 to 65, and foreign professors will be recruited as needed. India is going scientific. But will the coming new batches of scientists stay in India? They will if the following three life qualities also improve in India:

• Scientific freedom and plenty of funding


• Great places to live long term and raise families


• India's own heroes of science: people the young will want to emulate

For India to go scientific long term, it must also embrace a culture in which it is O.K. to, in the immortal words of Ms. Frizzle:

take chances, make mistakes, and get messy, because the best science swims in such an attitude.

Teach According To Your Ideals

"Hey love, share your truck with the nice little boy."

Every day, some version of this phrase is uttered by smiling parents in playgrounds across America. There is something very plastic about a parent encouraging her child to do something adults don't do; that is, share a prized possession with a total stranger. Yet, even though hypocritical threads run through many American child rearing practices, I am grateful to live in a society that attempts to teach its children the highest humanistic ideals.
Thomas Jefferson asserted "all men are created equal"; yet he kept slaves whom were not treated with equality. If Jefferson had limited himself to writing only principles that matched his life instead of his ideals we would have a lesser, even inconsequential, declaration of independence buried within old history books.
A nation's ideals determine it's future.

The indoctrination for toddlers in Palestine is devoid of our middle-class American niceties. Hate and warfare are ideals promoted to Palestinian children. Such ideals predict suffering and devastation not only for Palestinian children, but also for anyone affected by such a society.
So, go ahead, tell your child to share, even if you don't. Teach your child to get along, even if you yell at your neighbor over the fence. Maybe, because of your ideals, your child will be a bigger person than you.

Inner City Centers of Hope

We greet all students with the same basic recipe for success: high standards, stiff challenges, a chance to develop unexplored talents, and a message that many of them haven’t heard before–that no matter how difficult the circumstances of their lives may be, no matter how many bad assumptions they’ve made about their chances in life, no matter how well they’ve been taught to rein in their dreams and narrow their aspirations, they have the right, and the potential, to expect to live rich and satisfying lives.
-Bill Strickland (2009), Social Entrepreneur

At 16, Bill Strickland, now sixty, had an epiphany. The sun shone through a large window at his Pittsburgh inner city high school on a man in flow, sculpting a clump of clay. Strickland had never seen someone so engrossed in life and was drawn towards the light. He introduced himself to that sculptor and gained a mentor for life. With his mentor's guidance, the young Strickland gained a new, positive view of life and saw the world open before him. Four decades later, Strickland is deeply engaged in changing lives, opening up the world for other inner-city people, through social entrepreneurship. He runs the Manchester Bidwell Corporation and the Manchester Craftsman's Guild, both educational facilities based in Pittsburgh to serve mainly minority, poverty-ridden, youths and adults. These facilities are truly inspiring. They are well designed, both architecturally and educationally, to fill each student with hope and provide them the opportunity to work hard and learn much. Students may enroll in art and music classes taught by world class visiting artists. They may learn gourmet cooking skills or agricultural techniques. The list of offerings is impressive, but I think my favorite ideal of Strickland's schools is the life-changing personal attention and respect each student receives. The young people of Pittsburgh are extremely fortunate to have such an educational center only a free bus-ride away.
Bill Strickland's big idea is to expand his model to over 200 cities around the world. This is an exciting idea worth supporting.
To watch Bill Strickland's big idea TED Conference presentation, click on Bill Strickland's big idea . Enjoy and be inspired.

Be Good Company

You learn from the company you keep.
- Frank Smith, American philosopher and educator

What does one teach a child?
She obviously needs certain basic human skills. She must get along with people (including herself, of course) of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors and beliefs (E.Q.). She must internalize the intricacies and nuances of reciprocal communication (speaking, writing). She should be able to google stuff and understand game instructions or soup recipes (reading, tech stuff). A little grocery store math would be good too (arithmetic). She must develop an intuitive balance between healthy food and treats so she feels strong, and must find a way to move that gives her joy (health) and learn what to do with her free time (music, art, business).
But how is this teaching best done? Some say that there is no such thing as teaching, that really there is only learning. When a child opens his attention to you it has little to do with what you are trying to teach, but a lot to do with his emotional state and connection to you. This view is best explained by Frank Smith in The Book of Learning and Forgetting, in which he differentiates "The Classic View "of learning from coercive teaching. Historically the learned have always known the following three truths:

1. We learn from those around us with whom we identify.


2. Learning is growth.


3. We learn continuously and with out noticeable effort

So, how do we teach our children the basics? We connect emotionally with them and somehow get them to identify with us and want to be like us and listen to what we have to say (teach). The educator and philosopher, John Holt (1980) said:

I think children need much more than they have of opportunities to come into contact with adults who are seriously doing their adult thing, not just hanging around entertaining or instructing or being nice to children.

Children need real mentors. Real mentors worthy of emulation. One teaches a child with one's life.

Sure, a child may learn how to decode words (read?) and put down words on paper in the most beautiful handwriting (write?) and calculate the square root of 100 in 2 seconds flat (math?). It is possible to coerce a child to "overlearn" almost any skill, but at a price any thinking person would not be willing to pay; a diminishment of that child's humanity.

Bad Teachers Teach Unintended Lessons

The only rational way of educating is to be an example--if one can't help it, a warning example.

-Albert Einstein (1934)

Teachers of all kinds; school teachers, parents, preachers and mentors, are generally unaware of what they really teach. Humans learn through patterns. A lecture may fit into a student's worldview in a way which most likely is unknown by the teacher. The student makes her own emotional connections, which are affected by her relationship with the teacher, her current life path, past experiences, distant memories, her biological make-up and even the day's weather. The teacher most likely to affect his student in line with his intentions is acutely aware of his mood, genuine level of enthusiasm and self-interest. The worst teacher still teaches what she knows best, but it may not be what she intends her student to learn.

"O.K. Johnny, Explain Your Idea."

The Punahou School, set on 76-acres of hearty tropical grass with lush bushes highlighting startling flowers and huge banyan trees, is a truly beautiful school. The K-12 school, founded in 1841, feels more like a college campus and has an exotic mix of the scholarly and a laid-back Hawaiian-style. Barack Obama is the first U.S. President to come from Punahou, Hawaii's top independent school.
I recently sauntered through the Punahou campus and noted how fortunate students attending there are. Fresh fruits and vegetables are standard fare for lunch; windows are huge and most teachers leave their doors wide open. Elementary classrooms have their own little backyard for children to move in and out of; junior high students may choose to study Spanish, Latin, Mandarin Chinese or Japanese. But really, what makes these students extra "lucky" to be at Punahou is that each student is seen as her own person, full of potential, abilities and gifts to share with the world. Students at Punahou are there to gain skills to fulfill a bigger purpose, bigger than receiving a world class education. They are there to learn what they need to, to contribute to society and make their mark on the world. Their parents have big dreams. Their teachers have big jobs. The children know the school will serve them well.

President Obama experienced a quality education. Like many other U.S. Presidents of the past, he aims to improve American public education while in office. The job is huge. Some argue it isn't even possible at this point. Former public school teacher turned education activist, John Taylor Gatto says:

We must wake up to what our [public] schools really are: laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands. Mandatory education serves children only incidentally; its real purpose is to turn them into servants.

Children at Punahou are expected to lead someday. Children in the typical public school may have different expectations. To begin real positive change in public schooling, the grand picture of its actual function must be created, written and burned into the memory of every citizen. The basis for this change lies in what is best in American culture. The United States arguably houses the most innovation friendly culture the earth has ever seen.

Could public schools channel the beauty of American flexibility and openness of mind to improve the individual lives of its citizens and even the entire world?

Could the function of American education be to provide humanity with hordes of great contributors?

Must American education differentiate itself from that of other nations?

Yes. Yes. And yes.

Barack Obama has said a lot about American public education. But the key, the gleam of hope in his ideas on education lies in his comments on assessment. Obama says:

I will provide funds for states to implement a broader range of assessments that can evaluate higher-order skills, including students’ abilities to use technology, conduct research, engage in scientific investigation, solve problems, present and defend their ideas.

Obama hopes American students will soon be taught and tested to present and defend their ideas. That is a different and truly American idea in education. Americans serve, not by being "good listeners" but through contribution.

More power to you and good luck, Mr. President.

Opening Up Creativity

The time seems ripe to explore the potential of open education to transform the economics and ecology of education.
-Toru Iiyoshi, Director of the Knowledge Media Lab, Carnegie Foundation.

A friend of mine once called me "the creative type." I took the comment as a compliment but I know she meant it more as a descriptor with little judgement attached. I do wear more flowey skirts and dangly earrings than she does, but am I really "the creative type"? Not necessarily.
Creativity is a hot topic of study in various fields of behavioral science and now neuroscience. What constitutes creativity is still being defined by these fields. In general, creativity is a human trait we long to posses and hope our children exhibit a healthy dose as they grow. The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has put together a list of characteristics exhibited by creative people throughout history. Creative people are:

1. Curious
2. Tolerant of ambiguity: Creative people are comfortable not having the answer all the time
3. Intuitive but logical, too. Creativity calls for moving easily back and forth between these two broad ways of thinking and processing information.
4. Open to emotions
5. Sense of humor: There appears to be a strong connection between humor or playfulness and creativity
6. Risk taker
7. Persistent
8. Self-disciplined: The perception that creative people are flighty, dis-organized, absent-minded is simply not true. Some are, many are not, just like any segment of the population.
9. Internal motivation as opposed to being motivated by external factors, like, say, money.
10. Wide ranging interests

Rex Jung, Ph.D., Founder of the new field of Positive Neuroscience has posed the following list of questions for science to address regarding creativity:

• Why do people with low IQs and autism produce beautiful art?
• Does creativity and/or intelligence require written language? e.g. Native Americans; preliterate societies (ancient – Ache)
• Can we really define creativity or intelligence?
• Is creativity constant over the lifespan?
• Is creativity just a social construct – a fad of a certain era?
• Should we study creative individuals as opposed to measures of creativity?
• How is creativity manifest in the brain?
• Are we all creative or only a special few?
• How can individual creative capacity be encouraged and developed?
• Are creativity and intelligence linked in any meaningful way?

The fields engaged in studying creativity are just beginning to scratch the surface of human potential. But it all seems to be leading to practical applications for human learning and education. Formal education is at a tipping point, about to change, to open-up, to better fit the functions of the human brain, including the fostering of creativity. More resources than ever are available to learners. The time really does seem ripe for human learning about creativity to change education for the better.

"Keep Moving Forward"

How well children learn to deal with reality, and huge numbers learn to do it poorly, has a lot to do with whether they are happy or miserable for the rest of their lives.
- William Glasser (1998), Physician

My favorite animated Disney movie is Meet the Robinsons. It is a science wiz's fairy tale. The orphan Lewis Robinson decides to use his passion for inventing to locate his biological mother so they can be a family "again". The crux of the movie is when he realizes he already has a family and begins to use his brains to improve the world through technology. He sheds his obsession with the past and adopts a new motto "Keep Moving Forward." Lewis' childhood roommate, Grube, adopts a more negative view of life. The crux in Grube's life is when he decides to blame someone else (Lewis) for all his problems. His mindset becomes fixed, he chooses unhappiness and focuses his life on revenge. In the end, there is no end of possibilities for Lewis (renamed Cornelius by the end of the movie). He keeps inventing...

I used to enjoy other Disney animated movies more before I had a daughter who adores the Disney princesses. The Disney princesses (except may be Mulan) do not have a growth mindset. In the end of each princess movie, there really is an end. Each princess got what she wanted and that is that. No possible future stories.

The question is, how do I wean my four-year old off the princess ideal? The music, colors and beautiful characters put out by Disney leave a mark on an eager learner's brain. But may be I shouldn't worry at all, because when my little girl dresses the princess' part, she exudes power. And a sense of power is a mighty emotion to try on at her age. It is a feeling she'll want again in the future. It is then up to me to guide her to true power; power over one's mindset and life direction. So, I'll let her wear gaudy yellow dresses and aluminum high-heeled slippers, while I hold her and chat with her and show her how to harness and direct her power for growth. Because real-life and everyday conversations are the most enduring tools of all.

Sullenberger's 10,000 Hours

The pilot Chesley Sullenberger was "the right guy at the right time at the right moment" to guide a powerless jet safely onto the surface of the Hudson River only 40 hrs. ago. Calm and mindful as pilot and leader his behavior was "flawless." All people aboard his airplane are alive today because Sullenberger put in 10,000 hours into becoming an exceptional pilot. Sullenberger is a classic "Outlier" as described by writer Malcolm Gladwell in his new book Outliers. Sullenberger has even put in time studying the psychology of how people behave in crises'. He knew exactly what to do, he saw the big picture and mapped out a plan of action in a minute. He took care of everything and everyone. His calm direction allowed his crew to perform impeccably. He overlearned what to do in an emergency and had no problem executing. His feat saved the lives of more than one hundred humans and gave America a new kind of hero, a hard-working one. Cheers to Sullenberger for putting in the time.

Tell Me a Story

Everything in life is a story. An Historian gathers written accounts (stories) and pieces them together contextually. A Biologist observes organisms and writes the account (the story) of what she saw for others to read and study. A cosmologist thinks about the origins of the Universe contextually and weighing available evidence eventually forms a theory (a story) of its beginnings. An IRS agent sifts through piles of receipts and puts together an account (story) of how the government has been cheated by the person whose receipts he’s analyzed. Every human thought and activity is bound to story. It is how we conceptualize and understand life.
When we don’t understand, it is because what we face is not in context; we don’t know the story. Understanding requires a story to serve as backdrop. Jakob Einstein introduced his young nephew Albert to algebra using a story. He described algebra as

a merry science in which we go hunting for a little animal whose name we don’t know. So we call it X. When we bag the game we give it the right name. (Denis Brian, 1998).

I have always admired people who speak to children this way. My good friend Tiffany answered her little boy’s questions, when he was still quite new to the world, with storied explanations on the fly. She’d level with him, and eye to eye, answer with part truths, part theories and a whiff of fairy-tale. I don’t remember exactly what she told him, but time stood still for but a moment and I wanted to believe what she said and run with the possibilities.
This is why we love a good novel. The best stories are part truth, part possibilities. In the end we want to stay in the land of the possible. Many of us outgrow this realm, but imagine if each child had an uncle or two to introduce her to the deeps of knowledge with a merry little story?

Happiness via Good Government?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men...
-Thomas Jefferson. Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence, firmly anchored on humanistic ideals, includes the pursuit of happiness as a basic human right to be secured by government. Great thinkers throughout history have discussed happiness ad infinitum, but an empirical perspective to this most human of pursuits is relatively new. The field of Positive Psychology is dedicated to exactly this: the study of the pursuit of happiness. Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, founders of the field, believe the behavioral sciences

can articulate a vision of the good life that is empirically sound while being
understandable and attractive. They can show what actions lead to well-being, to positive individuals, and to thriving communities.

Seligman says, We've learned in 10 years that happy people are more productive at work, learn more in school, get promoted more, are more creative and are liked more.

A major role of recent governments has been to monitor economic conditions and promote economic growth. But considering the ideals of America's founders, one realizes that this focus is mioptic. Ideally, governments are instituted to enable, among other things, the pursuit of happiness. I suggest our new president add a cabinet post for the fomentation of this most human of pursuits.
Currently, the only government on the planet, taking on the responsibility of fomenting the happiness of its citizens is the Asian nation of Bhutan. Bhutan's national pursuit of happiness is spiritually-based. Although spirituality, or meaning-making, is an important component of happiness, it is not the only one. The pursuit of happiness is complex and multi-faceted. I believe it is the key to human growth and meaning. It should be the topic of discussion in government, schools and anywhere else humans have enough food in their bellies and a mind with which to think.

Older Brains in Flow

I have no doubt myself that a man or woman earnestly seeking in grown-up life to be guided to a wide and suggestive knowledge in its largest and most uplifted sphere will make the best of all the pupils in this age of clatter and buzz.
-Winston Churchill (1953)

When speaking of education, one often refers to something gained in youth. A young brain, busy organizing itself, thirsts for content gleaned and processed from experiences. These experiences may be mental or sensual or interpersonal; in any case, they are triggered by input from one's environment. Yet the human brain remains plastic; it retains the ability to reorganize itself, as needed, with new experiences, learning and memorization, throughout the entire lifespan. But lacking new experiences or triggers, brain function does atrophy. As a healing arm under a cast weakens because of lack of use, brain function weakens with decreased use as well. Cognitive abilities remain sharp with appropriate challenge. Psychologists Patricia Reuter-Lorenz and Louise Stanczak believe attention span may actually increase with age as "attentional functions of the corpus callosum may be relatively preserved and assume a more prominent role in the aging brain".
The loss of cognitive function associated with age, may actually be due to lack of educational, or growth opportunities. A stereotypically older person retires into a flurry of novel experiences lasting about a month. Then she settles into a more laid back, restful life pattern. The problem with this more restful life pattern, is that a resting brain is a brain on the path to atrophy. People of every age need to exercise their brains in novel ways every day to remain relevant and lead lives of meaning. Healthy life patterns are not organized around rest, but around vibrant life experiences or "Flow". Positive psychologist Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi identifies the following as accompanying an experience of flow:

1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one's skill set and abilities).


2. Concentrating and focusing, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).


3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.


4. Distorted sense of time, one's subjective experience of time is altered.


5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
   Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).


6. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.


7. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.


8. People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.[2]

Although not all are needed for flow to be experienced, the older members of our current societies may be the hardest pressed to participate in flow inducing activities. If society would redefine loss of cognitive function as unhealthy in old age, maybe eventually our concept of education would grow to include mental growth for people of all ages.

Preventive Education

Too many current schools operate on a disease model of education, which is about
remedying deficits. Such a perspective makes the school environment unhealthy. Focus on compliance to a set of standards that are mostly disconnected from the students future needs and potential, rather than on the nurturing of personal and universal strengths, diminishes what passes as education to reactionary squelching of the human spirit and potential.
Psychologist Martin Seligman's idea that
"the prevention of mental illness comes from recognizing and nurturing a set of strengths, competencies, and virtues in young people--such as future-mindedness, hope, interpersonal skills, courage, the capacity for flow, faith, and work ethic" (Seligman, 2002), may be applied to education. Education is not only a door to opportunity because it gifts students with relevant skills but also leads students through that door to prevent intellectual depression by nurturing the best qualities of individual students and humanity as a whole.

Language Implications

Emotions happen, thoughts patterns are chosen and the human mind is organized through language. A person "at a loss for words" is often confused or at least unsure. A right word holds power and when connected to more words creates rich language patterns leading to ever more complex prefrontal cortex pathways. Babies who are spoken to in complete sentences, lovingly and often learn to mentally digest not only a growing number of words but eventually become more capable human beings.

The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience recently reported yet another study on early childhood brain development, conducted at UC Berkley in which one of the researchers, Professor Thomas Boyce said "Talking more to children could boost prefrontal cortex development". The study used brain scans to analyze the brains of a small sample of low SES children to compare them to high SES kids. Boyce described the findings as a "wake-up call" about the impact of language deprivation, as low SES children hear, on average, 30 million fewer words by the age of four than children of more educated and wealthier parents.

So a child growing in a quiet home will move about the world more confused and with less power than she who grows in a home rich in conversation? That is a conclusion I am not ready to draw. But if you are in contact with a small child, well, make the world a better place and talk to him.

Literacy and Socialization

If socialization is really successful, the result is someone who is indoctrinated.

-Kieran Egan, Professor of Education (2008)

Should socialization be part of education? Is a well-educated person, also a well-socialized person?

In early Massachusetts, the Puritan's pooled their resources and opened the first school for young children in North America. Once a child could read Foxe's Book of Martyrs without help, their public education was terminated. Socialization was not part of education then and only became an important part of the school experience in the early twentieth century when progressives sought to assimilate immigrant children into American culture. Today, socialization is a murky term used to describe a combination of "people skills," emotional intelligence, civic-mindedness, respect of authority, tolerance, etc. This important aspect of today's school experience is not tested and there are no standards to judge whether school socialization is effective or even justifiable. Not that we want standards for socialization. But we do want an education worthy of this new millennium. Could the first step to improving public education for our children be the divorce of literacy from socialization? The literacy rate of Puritan children in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts was close to one hundred percent. Maybe the way to a more literate future is found in our past, when literacy was the number one priority at the school house.

A Creative Milieu at Oxford U.

The James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University is featured in the latest issue of the journal Nature. This school, directed by Ian Goldin, focuses on solving humanity's broadest issues. Each institute within the school is run by teams of scientists and thinkers from a variety of disciplines. The idea is to converge human learning from different angles in an open approach. Several notable institutions of higher learning encourage interdisciplinary studies but this is the most radical format I have read of yet. I expect great new and very relevant ideas from Oxford in the near future. What a great way to foster a creative milieu.