Brain Education

You've surely heard the slogans:

"Our educational games will give your brain a workout!" Or how about, "Give your students the cognitive muscles they need to build brain fitness." And then there's the program that "builds, enhances, and restores natural neural pathways to assist natural learning."

No one doubts that the brain is central to education, so the myriad products out there claiming to be based on research in neuroscience can look tempting.

With the great popularity of so-called brain-based learning, however, comes great risk. "So much of what is published and said is useless," says Kurt Fischer, founding president of the International Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) Society and director of the MBE graduate program at Harvard University. "Much of it is wrong, a lot is empty or vapid, and some is not based in neuroscience at all."

Still, there are some powerful insights emerging from brain science that speak directly to how we teach in the classroom: learning experiences do help the brain grow, emotional safety does influence learning, and making lessons relevant can help information stick. The trick is separating the meat from the marketing.

So what's an educator to make of all these claims? Check our Edutopia to expose the Myths and the reality.

Parents and Teachers

A prosecutor in Detroit recently proposed locking up parents who skipped conferences with teachers. Research overwhelmingly shows that parental involvement in a child's education improves academic performance. But there are a lot of reasons why parents keep their distance — including cultural and class divisions. Guest host Jennifer Ludden speaks to Wayne County, Michigan prosecutor Kym Worthy about her proposal to punish parents, and National PTA president Chuck Saylors talks about what parents and teachers can do to work together more effectively. Also, Tracy McDaniel, who founded a KIPP school in Oklahoma, will share that program's radical approach to get parents more involved in their kids' schooling.

When I was in high-school, in Texas, I was depressed, often overslept, and failed to get to my first-period class several times per month. In Texas, the school roll was taken in 1st period, and in missing that class, I was costing the school $3500/semester.

They dragged my parents in for conferences, and threatened them with legal action, if I didn't go to school, my parents would be criminally charged and, after an expensive legal battle, potentially convicted.

Eventually, I was forced to go to 'alternative school' a kind of 'Juvenile Hall' for delinquents and truants. We were to sit behind glass eight hours per day, in isolation booths, and do our school work. I think it was the only time in three years that I was actually ahead on my class work.

As soon as I got out of that place, I dropped out of school. Disgusted with a school system that didn't respect the student, and didn't ask for our participation, and instead threatened us and our parents with jail, to extort our cooperation. I choose to leave rather than suffer. I'm an anomaly, at seventeen I was more competent than the school administrators, and smarter than my teachers and parents. That high-school was a toxic place for anyone with an independent mind and the intellect to question authority. They failed to 'educate' me, but I still achieved my education, the problem is that I never got the credit for what I achieved, and they never got the blame.

When we seek to teach, the first step must be a willing student. Schools exist, not for the school administrators to make quarter-million dollar salarys, but for the students. When we fail to acknowledge that underlying premise of education, we fail to teach.

Parents and Teachers

A prosecutor in Detroit recently proposed locking up parents who skipped conferences with teachers. Research overwhelmingly shows that parental involvement in a child's education improves academic performance. But there are a lot of reasons why parents keep their distance — including cultural and class divisions. Guest host Jennifer Ludden speaks to Wayne County, Michigan prosecutor Kym Worthy about her proposal to punish parents, and National PTA president Chuck Saylors talks about what parents and teachers can do to work together more effectively. Also, Tracy McDaniel, who founded a KIPP school in Oklahoma, will share that program's radical approach to get parents more involved in their kids' schooling.

When I was in high-school, in Texas, I was depressed, often overslept, and failed to get to my first-period class several times per month. In Texas, the school roll was taken in 1st period, and in missing that class, I was costing the school $3500/semester.

They dragged my parents in for conferences, and threatened them with legal action, if I didn't go to school, my parents would be criminally charged and, after an expensive legal battle, potentially convicted.

Eventually, I was forced to go to 'alternative school' a kind of 'Juvenile Hall' for delinquents and truants. We were to sit behind glass eight hours per day, in isolation booths, and do our school work. I think it was the only time in three years that I was actually ahead on my class work.

As soon as I got out of that place, I dropped out of school. Disgusted with a school system that didn't respect the student, and didn't ask for our participation, and instead threatened us and our parents with jail, to extort our cooperation. I choose to leave rather than suffer. I'm an anomaly, at seventeen I was more competent than the school administrators, and smarter than my teachers and parents. That high-school was a toxic place for anyone with an independent mind and the intellect to question authority. They failed to 'educate' me, but I still achieved my education, the problem is that I never got the credit for what I achieved, and they never got the blame.

When we seek to teach, the first step must be a willing student. Schools exists, not for the school administrators to make quarter-million dollar salarys, but for the students. When we fail to acknowledge that underlying premise of education, we fail to teach.

Parents and Teachers

A prosecutor in Detroit recently proposed locking up parents who skipped conferences with teachers. Research overwhelmingly shows that parental involvement in a child's education improves academic performance. But there are a lot of reasons why parents keep their distance — including cultural and class divisions. Guest host Jennifer Ludden speaks to Wayne County, Michigan prosecutor Kym Worthy about her proposal to punish parents, and National PTA president Chuck Saylors talks about what parents and teachers can do to work together more effectively. Also, Tracy McDaniel, who founded a KIPP school in Oklahoma, will share that program's radical approach to get parents more involved in their kids' schooling.

When I was in high-school, in Texas, I was depressed, often overslept, and failed to get to my first-period class several times per month. In Texas, the school roll was taken in 1st period, and in missing that class, I was costing the school $3500/semester.

They dragged my parents in for conferences, and threatened them with legal action, if I didn't go to school, my parents would be criminally charged and, after an expensive legal battle, potentially convicted.

Eventually, I was force to go to 'alternative school' a kind of 'Juvenile Hall' for delinquents and truants. We were forced to sit behind glass eight hours per day, in isolation booths, and do our school work. I think it was the only time in 3 years that I was actually ahead on my class work.

As soon as I got out of that place, I dropped out of school. Disgusted with a school system that didn't respect the student, and didn't ask for their buy-in, and failed to teach, I choose to leave rather than suffer. I was more competent than the school administrators, and smarter than my teachers and parents. That high-school was a toxic place for anyone with an independent mind and the intellect to question authority. They failed to 'educate' me, but I still achieved my education, the problem is that I never got the credit for what I achieved, and they never got the blame.

When we seek to teach, the first step must be a willing student. School exists, not for the school administrator to make his quarter-million dollar salary, but for the student. When we fail to acknowledge that underlying premise of education, we fail to teach.

Teach, with Tony Danza

Here is a great new reality TV show about our Public Education System.

I want to see Edison Elementary School in San Diego

Edison teachers embrace examining scores as a way to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Principal Bustani even videotapes classes with especially good results to show other teachers how they taught a lesson. This gentler take on data seems to be working. Scores at Edison have soared.

"They hold themselves accountable. They'll say, 'Wow, your kids did so well on this — what did you do?'" Bustani said. She rarely steps in. "I don't think it's helpful to say, 'Your class scored low.'"

Every class-room should be video-recorded and all parents and educators should have access to the live-video-feed. Student's wouldn't be disruptive or cheat (as much) because they would be caught. Teachers would be supervised by parents in the public. Administrators could be held accountable for failing to train and educate their teachers. It's an easy, cheap, technology fix. Students could even watch lessons over again to re-enforce learning.

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