Archive for: April 2008

Gifted or learning disabled?   Can a child be both?

Inside the human brain are one hundred trillion connections most of which are still unmapped.  Mapping the human brain has been the domain of scientists except in the case of one extraordinary woman.   Barbara Young born with an asymmetrical brain made the discovery that allowed her to invent the treatment that transformed her life.     Today she runs the Arrowsmith School in Toronto where children with learning disabilities are literally building themselves a better brain.   Incredible as it sounds the human brain can change itself. 

Children at this school who were formerly taught using compensations are engaged in a form of mental olympics where exercises strengthen the weak areas of the brain as if it were a muscle.   After completing the program they are reintegrated into their public or private school at the appropriate grade level.

This astonishing discovery that the brain changes its own structure and function through thoughts and activity is called neuroplasticity.  The brain can change its own structure and perfect new circuits, when one part fails other parts take over.  Understanding neuroplasticity allows us to change the thinking that limitations and disabilities need not be lifelong handicaps.

Imagine the possibilities in applying this thinking for schools.  Rather than labeling children as learning disabled assessments like those used at the Arrowshmith School could be utilized to look for weak areas of the brain. Learning disabled and gifted do not have to be on opposite sides of the continuum.   The paradox is many children have both, creative talents alongside weak areas of the brain. 

Evidence like this will continue to improve society.  Scientists believe we will learn more about the human condition in the next two decades than was learned in the past millennia.  Developing evidence-based teaching will require a paradigm shift for schools.   Educators need to raise new questions, consider new possibilities, and to look at old problems from a new angle.   We all need to push harder for a system that can adapt and apply this new information. 

The Priaha are a tiny tribe of Amazon natives that live on the banks of the Marci River in Brazil.   This tribe of 360 is in danger of extinction.  By our standards they are undeveloped and primitive.  They have no real language, members of the tribe whistle to communicate.  Although they have one of the strangest languages in the world the Priaha have mastered the essence of cooperation.  To survive this small group must cooperate with each other.  

In this tiny society there is no competition.  Anthropologists who lived with this group attempted to organize a field day, but the Piraha upset the games.  In a footrace when one fellow would get ahead of everyone else he would stop and wait until the other runners could catch up.  The idea of winning was not only novel but also unappealing.  For the Piraha it’s we cross the line together or we don’t cross it at all.  To have a great time everyone had to win.

Unselfish cooperation might be the key to our future. Schools can be the best place to promote this type of cooperation.  Cooperation that not only feels good but also is good because it fosters the best environment for learning.  Cooperative learning results show that students who are given a chance to work collaboratively learn faster and feel more positive about school.   In a cooperative group every student has a specific task, everyone must be involved in the learning project.  The success of the group depends on the successful work of everyone.

There are five elements of cooperative learning.

1. Positive Interdependence (sink or swim together)

·      Each member’s efforts are required for success

·      Each member has a unique contribution to make

2. Fact to Face Interaction (promote each other’s success)

·      Teach each other

·      Discuss concepts being learned

·      Checking for Understanding

3. Individual and Group Accountability (no loafing)

·      Keep the group small

·      Give individual test to each student

·      Observe the group

·      Students must teach what they learned

4. Interpersonal and Small Group Skills- Students learn

·      Leadership

·      Decision-making

·      Communication

·      Conflict-management skills

5. Group Processing

·      Students learn to evaluate and access themselves

Every classroom is its own tiny society with its own culture.   Creating a culture of trust and respect can be achieved with cooperative learning. The greatest purpose of school is to unlock, release, and foster this wonderful capability.

In the news recently there was a very unsettling report about six high school cheerleaders who filmed the beating of another girl.  The beating took place in a private home and lasted thirty minutes.  At one point in the film the victim was knocked unconscious.  This beating was posted on You Tube for the sole purpose of entertainment. The six girls were arrested and could possibly be tried as adults (all are under the age of 16).   None showed any remorse at the time of their arrest instead expressing frustration at missing a cheerleading practice.

As unsettling as the story was a psychologist made an even more disturbing comment.  She suggested that the six teenage girls who did the beating are typical, claiming any teen is capable of crossing this line.  One has to worry if this is true or just speculation.  Our culture has a powerful impact on young people.  The most influential people in their lives are not their parents; it’s their peers, their neighborhood, their school, and the media. The standard is a high stakes quest for popularity and acceptance and the result is a loss of innocence.   It’s in this destructive atmosphere of compete, compare and win at all costs that educators are striving to provide some type of character education, some framework to teach core ethical values.

Character education must be done well and early to put students on the right path, to give them the moral courage to know how and when to walk away from risky and dangerous behaviors.  But not just walk away become the model that others strive to be.  Become better.

Teaching character requires a holistic approach.  You can’t just talk about character you have to model it so that it reflects back and creates the kind of attraction that is impossible to ignore.   Public schools were founded not just to educate but also to create citizens capable of contributing to the common good.  It’s a greater challenge now.    Teachers have a powerful role they can promote this positive development in several ways.

·       Build caring and supportive relationships in the classroom.  The environment should show safety, trust, respect and concern for the welfare of others.  This is the essential foundation

·       Model positive behavior.   Walk the walk just don’t talk the talk.  Students are attuned to their teacher’s behavior and will reflect what they observe.

·       Become a democratic environment where students can make decisions, act on them and reflect on their results.

·       Teach essential social and emotional skills like listening, recognizing and managing emotions, disagreeing respectfully, and resolving conflicts.

·       Involve students in moral discourse.  Discussion about morals is the essence of educating children to be moral individuals.  Teachers can further this understanding with teachable moments, themes in literature and the media to create a dialog.

·       Make learning meaningful and relevant.  Look for ways to show how learning particular subjects is important to helping them achieve their personal goals.

This approach can be part of preventing the occurrence of a wide range of social problems among our youth helping them avoid the pitfalls of life and develop into caring and responsible citizens. 

Human birth is an astonishing natural phenomenon.  There are approximately 130,000,000 births around the world every year.  Despite all the measures modern medicine has acquired some percentage of these births are destined to end badly.   In the 1950’s one in thirty newborns died at birth, the same odds as a century before.    Then a doctor named Virginia Apgar  had a simple idea that transformed childbirth.  She developed a score that has become universally known as the Apgar score.  This score allows nurses to rate the condition of newborns on a scale of one to ten and intervene accordingly.   Over the years this rating system has had hundreds of adjustments and has produced dramatic results improving infant mortality rates.

Virginia Apgar is a positive deviant.   Her work made a worthy difference in the world.   Virginia Apgar had no authority to challenge the medical system so  she took a less direct approach and broke away from the norm.   She looked at the situation for infants and made up her own system to improve things.  

To become a positive deviant you have to change how you think.  When you do this new ideas emerge and you discover new ways to solve problems.  To create this paradigm shift it’s necessary to practice new habits by doing several key things.

1. Improve relationships.  Be a model of respect and kindness for your students.  Know your students; ask questions, listen and work to be a light instead of a judge.
2. Stop complaining.  When you gather with co-workers fight the natural pull of the conversational gravity to complain. Complaining doesn’t solve problems. It sets you up to be in a permanent state of against, this thinking will also contaminate other areas of your life.   Ideas and innovations come from interesting informative conversations.
3. Count something.  Become a researcher in your own classroom.  Keep your own statistics about student learning.   You will discover information that can improve your own teaching.
4. Write something.   Share your thoughts with others, keep a blog or a  journal about you observations.  Don’t underestimate the contribution you can make to improve things.
5. Change.   Become an adopter.  Don’t be attached to any one method, seek out the best solutions and be willing to recognize your own inadequacies.

Doing this makes you  a powerful proactive agent.   Instead of feeling like a clog in the machinery you become a person of influence.  Ultimately it’s those who influence who lead and make something better!