BuildBetterSchools
Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of several books on child development, stated in a 1998 interview:
“The first thing I would say about any true educational system is that it is not founded on the notion that we are preparing a child for life. The theory we are preparing the child for life, or for the future, is a terrible travesty which betrays every facet of the human being. We don’t prepare for life, we equip the child with the means to live fully at whatever stage they are in.
The idea we’re going to train a child at seven to get a good job at age twenty-seven is a travesty of profound dimension. It makes for a world where every 78 seconds a child is attempting suicide, as is true today. It is this kind of terrible despair we breed in our children when we don’t see the difference between preparing and equipping our children to be present to life…”
More of note, but worrisome :
“Most people involved in educational reform are speaking of curricular programs when the truth of the matter is the children they are dealing with now are, by and large, damaged past the point of educability in any real sense. The public has yet to recognize this is so.
The clearest indications of such damage recently came out of Tubingen University in Germany with a twenty year study of four thousand people. It shows three significant findings as a result of the failure to furnish appropriate sensory stimulation for growth.
First, there has been an average of one percent per year reduction in the sensory sensitivity of the human system and the ability to bring in information from the outside world. Compared to children twenty years age, the children we are looking at now are comprehending or registering information from their environment at eighty percent, which simply means they are twenty percent less consciously aware of where they are and what is happening around them.
Secondly, the kind of stimulus that does break through the reticular activating system in the ancient reptilian brain, the brain stem, is only highly concentrated bursts of over-stimulation. That is, the only signals they’re really bringing in from their environment are those bursts of stimuli which are highly charged.
If it’s sound, it must be a loud sound. If it’s touch, it must be an impact. If it’s visual, it must be intense. Subtleties cannot catch their attention because they are not sensitive to their environment. One comparison is that twenty years ago a child or young person was able to differentiate 360 shades of red, and today are down to something like 130 shades, which means the subtleties are lost to the pure, heavy impact of red now necessary to penetrate the reticular system. Once we look into the whole developmental system, the implications are profound.
The third finding of the German study is that the brain is maladapting on a level which seems almost genetically impossible. That is, the brains of these young people are not cross-indexing the sensory systems, so there is no synthesis taking place in the brain.
Sight is simply a radical series of brilliant impressions which do not cross index with touch, sound, smell and so forth. There is no context created for sensory input, each is an independent, isolated event. It explains why so many kids get intensely bored unless they are subject to intense input.
Source: Starting over with education
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5 Responses to Why many more kids get intensely bored
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I heard something very worrisome from my daughter who had observed a 4-yr-old child visiting at a friend’s house. The boy was verbally retarded; hardly spoke a word. He just wanted to play his Wii game and was extremely impatient while the parent untangled the cords to set it up. He was screaming “Now! Now!”.
When he was playing, he was completely focused on the game, ignoring any external stimuli.
What must it be like for teachers to deal with such kids in school? How can teachers be held accountable for the lack of learning in such a child?
Dr. Bruce Perry makes it clear that brain circuits are readied long before the child enters school and if certain circuits are not stimulated, they are culled, lost for good! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vak-iDwZJY8)
It’s going to get worse as technology marches on. I ache for the young children held by the hand by a parent who’s busily chatting on a cell phone, even when they are at the playground!
Parents and teachers should read Endangered Minds by Jane Healy. It’s sequel could very well be “Extinct Minds”!
Enlightening, but profoundly depressing. As an educator, I have too frequently observed these behaviors in my students and struggle daily to connect them emotionally to meaningful learning.
I appreciate your comment and what you are trying to do for your students. I wish there was a way to make school learning more meaningful and developmentally appropriate for children. My own two kids (now adults) were lucky.
They attended great preschools. My daughter was lucky to go to a kindergarten in Germany from three through five. We had her skip the American DoDD school’s kindergarten. Save for third grade those three years were the very best of her school days! So rich with experiences and activities!
Our son was slated to go also, but we got orders and moved to Las Vegas, NV where he then attended Clark County Community College’s lab school. That was a great experience too; almost as good as the German kindergarten.
From early age our kids were also exposed to nature and its wonders. I wish all kids could be. I am convinced it would help them become better learners, and wiser grownups.
Have you heard about http://www.saveourschools.org? Check it out and sign the petition to president Obama.
Also, check out http://www.uniting4kids.com
When You Get Bored
-Dawn Marie
When you get bored
Find a patch of grass and look.
Don’t ask me where
The one you search for and find will be perfect
When you get bored get a magnifying glass
Don’t ask me what you should do if you don’t have one
Figure out from the alternatives available to you
When you get bored close your eyes and touch, listen, feel or smell
Don’t ask me which
Trust your senses
When you get bored jump on it
Don’t ask me what to do if your foot hurts
Come to your own intelligent decision
When you get bored
Take off your shoes and walk on it
Don’t ask me what to do if the ground is muddy
Analyze your own situation and make a rational decision
When you get bored
Imagine
Don’t ask me what
Draw on your experience
When you get bored
Get something to sketch with and come back
Don’t ask me if you have to draw or if you can paint, sculpt, or take a photo
Create something
When you get bored
Get something to write with and come back
Don’t ask me if it has to be in pencil or how many paragraphs or if it has to be
Look back to my past directions, predict and move forth
When you get bored
Find another patch of grass
Don’t ask me if it has to be a patch of grass
Decide for yourself
Very nice! Thanks for sharing.