Off the Assembly Line, Part 3

SUPPORT FROM NEUROSCIENCE: Clearly we are neither endowed with innate wisdom nor can knowledge simply be poured into us; we each must integrate our understanding of the world. This constructivist theory of learning has a long pedigree and modern support. "Instead of one brain area, learning involves actively constructing neural networks that functionally connect many brain areas," writes neuroscientist and education psychologist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. The researcher has done extensive studies of children who were able to overcome great deficits, even to the extent of missing brain hemispheres. These studies confirm the individuality of the construction process and lend further credibility to the theory of multiple intelligences: "Because of the constructive nature of this process, different learners' networks may differ, in accordance with the person's neuropsychological strengths and predispositions, and with the cultural, physical and social context in which the skills are built." Emotional development is also connected to academic success. "By turning teachers' attention to emotional development, in addition to cognitive, it may be possible to modify educational practice to include a consideration of the social and emotional environments that children encounter during learning," says psychologist Christoff. "This also suggests that it may be useful to consider possible expansions to the educational curriculum to include the acquisition of emotional skills that would enhance children's emotional intelligence." This, too, is something the savvy parent will incorporate into after-school discussions. Neuroscience has illuminated the fact that we all have to some extent idiosyncratic mental pathways; this presents us with some hard evidence that all children cannot be expected to learn in the same way, no matter how well planned or educationally competent a particular teaching method may be. "Much too often, educational practice is solution oriented," Christoff adds, "stressing the importance of reaching a solution much more so than the fact that there could be different ways of getting to it." CREATIVITY AS CAPITAL: British educator Sir Ken Robinson focuses on the need for creativity, for allowing and encouraging students to explore these different ways. "The idea of going back to basics isn't wrong in and of itself," he remarks. "If we're really going to go back to basics, we need to go all the way back. We need to rethink the basic nature of human ability and the basic purposes of education now." In a Technology, Education, Design (TED) lecture concerning education, Robinson notes that young children enter school with a blossoming desire to learn and explore. "If they don't know, they'll have a go," he remarks during his presentation. Unfortunately, he argues, it is the push for the right answer through one-size-fits-all standardization of the schooling process that tears down the student's intrinsic desire to learn and understand. Because creativity and originality require being wrong sometimes, Robinson points out that we need to be prepared to be wrong. But this runs counter to modern educational practice. The result, he says, is that "we are educating people out of their creative capacities." Helping students find "the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion" is what Robinson calls seeking "the element," or their "most authentic selves." Why is this important? Personal happiness is a good start, he says. How tragic it is to spend one's life involved in a job that is a mismatch to one's talents and aspirations, a job for which one has no passion. What if school actually helped me discover my talent? Beyond a sense of personal satisfaction and vitality, Robinson also notes the larger, organic benefit: people who are free to explore their native talents are more creative and are thus able to contribute more to society at large. In a changing and more crisis-prone future, he argues that we will need this creative spark. To truly invest in a student's native potential would pay great dividends. In his 2001 book Out of Our Minds, Robinson writes that "the dominant ideologies of education are now defeating their most urgent purpose: to develop people who can cope with and contribute to the breathless rate of change in the 21st century-people who are flexible, creative and have found their talents." The adult who should be most aware of the child's strengths, weaknesses and talents is the parent. Teachers and other adults certainly want to help, but strong pressures often stymie their efforts. Parents must take a more active role in helping their children explore and cultivate their unique talents. The real bottom line is that no institution can replace the responsibility we alone have for finding our right path in life. We pick and choose, through our interactions and experiences, who we will be. As one set of researchers found, it is not IQ that matters; the key factor is self-discipline. Our willingness to defer action and sometimes refuse the immediate to achieve a later goal is the skill that makes the real difference in what we will become (see "Teaching Children the Art of Self-Control"). Brain research has revealed that we are very plastic; learning and change continue throughout our lives. Identity is created, and it, too, is subject to new inputs, new learning and new conclusions. Old memories and habits that entrap us can be discarded at both the societal and individual levels. Likewise, we are collectively and individually responsible for seeing ourselves clearly and taking appropriate steps to change what we find out of place. The gaps we find need diligent, self-disciplined repair, not a temporary patching over. For both parent and child, and indeed for all of us no matter what our family circumstances, this is our most important creative enterprise. On a personal level, this re-creation occurs from the inside out. Back to school? No, school is always in. We must examine first our inner selves, our mental voice, demeanor and attitude, because it is these that give rise to our outer behavior and being (Matthew 15:10-11, 15-20). Only as we change within will our created institutions follow. By: DAN CLOER dan.cloer@visionjournal.org Source: www.vision.org SELECTED REFERENCES: 1 Raymond E. Callahan, Education and the Cult of Efficiency: A Study of the Social Forces That Have Shaped the Administration of the Public Schools (1962). 2 Angela L. Duckworth and Martin E.P. Seligman, "Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents," in Psychological Science (2005). 3Elliot Eisner, The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs (3rd edition, 2002). 4 Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, "The Smoke Around Mirror Neurons: Goals as Sociocultural and Emotional Organizers of Perception and Action in Learning," in Mind, Brain, and Education (2008). 5 Deanna Kuhn, "How to Produce a High-Achieving Child," in Phi Delta Kappan(2007). 6 Marshall McLuhan, interview, http://www.mcluhanmedia.com/m_mcl_inter_pb_01.html (1969). 7 Ken Robinson, Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative(2001). 8 Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything (2009).