learning

We have two possibilities, and the full continuum in-between: a brain that is nourished with rich sensory experiences from birth forward, one that integrates and therefore understands, with true intelligence, what it experiences with balance and harmony - and a sensory deprived brain, a brain that is constantly at war with itself.

Brain growth and everything it implies is ‘experience dependent’. The last decade of research reveals a reciprocal dynamic between the brain and the environment. Change the environment and your change the brain. In many ways our modern life style is deficient in body touch and body movement – and this impacts the brain.

If we want to become good cooks, we play, practice, try new things. The same is true or parents and the people who care for children.

Parents must reinvent themselves, in different ways, right along with their children. But they don’t.

We are either growing or dying. There is no middle ground.

A case for investing at least as the same attention and resources to inspire and mentor adults, parents and childcare providers, as we no give to the care and education of young children.

This is about media and the so called ‘digital culture’ or as Mark Bauerlein, English Professor Emory University describes in his new book: The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future.

TTF board member, Andrew Papageorge, a world leader in large system innovation, recently interviewed Michael. Together they explored what it means to be creative and innovative, both critical topics in our brave new world of accelerating challenges and change.

Words are symbols or triggers that stimulate a subtle replica of the original experience within the brain.

In subtle but profound ways the brains of our children are different from ours. The way
they access and process information has changed.