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Geneva: 

• I'm always learn something that I missed or wasn't presented the last time I took this course. 
• As complex as the brain is, it is also really simplistic  -->  info goes in, somehow processed, and an output comes out.  And even if it is wrong, we learn something anyway.  It's just as important as learn what doesn't work as what does work.
• The brain has an innate way of making everything okay. 

Antionette:

• Pain is the mismatch between what is expected and what is experienced.   We do that with our kids; some discomfort is good.  We want to create an environment where we let the kids know that it is okay to be uncomfortable. 
• If we want emergence, we have to start to create it and then move back and allow the kids to take it over.
• Why do we allow for gifted and special education students the freedom to learn differently, but we lump everyone else into one group.  Why don't we give that latitude to the rest of the kids? 

Jill

• Focused on inhibition.  There are so many things going on in our nervous system that are preprogrammed, but the corresponding behaviors are not generated because of inhibition.
• Varied experiences of the world - So much depends on how the brain processes the inputs.  Opens up so many possibilities for different people to experience the world differently. 

Further discussions:

What choices would the brain make if the inhibition wasn't there? 

Children now have so much immediate gratification, that they have not developed some skills.  Children seek answers from teachers, not strategies.  We frustrate children by not giving them what they want immediately.  The culture has raised children that expect immediate gratification.  

We (society/culture in general) take ownership from the students when we do it for them, rather than teaching them how to do it.  We're giving them momentary gratification, but its not helping them handle situations when we are not there.  They need to be able to act on their own. 

Part of learning --> There's an end-product expectation.  But there is also a process to get there.  Kids seem to be less aware of the processes that exist in the world, as so many things have becomed instantaneous.  And thus they are less willing to engage in the processes that exist in the classroom and learning. 

Technology has opened many opportunities, but it also have many challenges.  It makes children less aware of the underpinnings of the world.  If this world of technology crashes, we'll have several lost generations.  There is a real advantage to using computers while also integrating traditional methods as well. 

Changes in technology often create panics, since people have becomed so dependent upon it.  They don't know how to function through other methods. 

The internet only contains what people put in it. People have less awareness that they need to seek out information and complete tasks through other means as well. 

Maybe Maria Montessori had it right.  People need to learn through play, by doing.