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Wow, teachers are brain surgeons! A brain surgeon at Bryn Mawr Hospital changes the brain with surgical instruments while I change behavior with my words and actions. Now the final issue becomes a pay equity issue since we both have the same affect.

Also the comment about babies are born explores reminds me of a book by Alice Gopnick, Scientists in the Crib. In the book she states that babies are born with powerful learning mechanisms and cites a study by Andy Meltzoff where he explains that infant can mimic facial expressions (stick your tongue out at the baby, the baby will stick his/her tongue out at you) 42 minutes after they are born. It seems like we are really born to explore and learn almost from the moment of birth. This is complete contrast with John Locke who said that children are blank slates.

Two quotes come to mind on the uniqueness of our brains. The first is from Carl Jung maintaining that “The normal man is only fiction” and the second one from Rodney Dangerfield asserting in his unique and ubiquitous style “The only normal people are the ones you don’t know too well.” The same can be said for their brains.

I especially like Paul’s comment about his goal of teaching; to teach them to think. It reminds me of a story. If you

Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a person how to fish, and you fed him for a lifetime. Something to consider if we really want our students to become true life long learners which will be necessary in our increasingly complex and demanding condensed world