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. . . or teaching the whole child. This institute has really been giving me food for thought. In order to reach my charges, it is becoming more evident that I have to find a way to involve the "cognitive unconscious" as well as the "I-function." We have to break through to the "CU." Now I'm beginning to wonder if we really need the "I-f" at all. If we can instill the material in the CU, isn't that enough? Will the child even know (s)he has the info when questionned? Or will it only come out when the application of the knowledge is needed? Ideally, we should be able to retrieve it under both circumstances.

All of us here are striving to learn more effective ways to "engage" our students in their own learning -- to get them to want to learn. This can go back to the idea that "First, we have to get their attention." We science people can do this (sometimes) with "whiz-bang" demos (like: http://exploscience.com/Book.html or any book by Shakashiri). What I am always looking for are other ways to do the same thing . . . or to reach the same goal by coming at them from a totally different angle.

So, we have to activate prior knowledge or get them involved in some goal-oriented activity (like Joyce's "periodic table game building") in order to cause them to need the knowledge we want them to acquire. To reach their goal they will need to use our material, thereby reaching our goal.