Brain and Education Web Paper 2

                                                                   “The child has

a hundred languages

    Learning about and from Babies

What do babies know and how do they learn:

We are accustomed to hearing the benefits of multilingualism being extolled, and the advent of rapid globalization throws into even sharper relief the foolhardiness of confining oneself to the “prison house” of the mother tongue. In “Does Your Language Shape How You Think?” Guy Deutscher discusses recent attempts to reinvestigate the architecture of this prison. The investigation follows decades of polite avoidance of the subject as new studies, Deutscher says, are providing linguists with ways of thinking about the relationship between primary language and cognition that are far more sophisticated than Benjamin Lee Whorf’s now much-derided claim that Native American languages, for example, “impose on th

An Experimental Classroom

Class is itself an experiment in a particular form of education: co-constructive inquiry.

“Nearly half of all students at some point find themselves feeling so depressed they have trouble functioning, and 15 percent meet the criteria for clinical depression, according to a 2004 survey by the American College Health Association”. [1]

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Upon hearing the word “emotions”, what immediately comes to mind is a line from the Destiny’s Child song “Emotions”, which declares, “Its just emotions taking me over.” This simple, yet profound line speaks to the immense and often overlooked power of emotions on our thoughts and behavior. Researches have long studied and debated this relationship between emotions and reasoning, particularly as it pertains to learning and development. Findings have been released showing a direct impact of emotions on the learning process. In the current midst of our country’s education crisis, these findings are essential to our approach in teaching and fostering motivated and successful learners in the classroom.       

Human activity towards the pursuit of new knowledge will enable the continued creation of stories, which will fuel exploration and social growth. All humans, regardless of their title, must be taught and encouraged to foster skepticism, open-mindedness, and a commitment to what is yet to be. (Grobstein)

Brains Collide