Vision and Practice
Child development is dependent on adult development
This simple statement shifts our focus, values and priorities from the sprout to the soil, from the child to the adult model-environment. The next frontier in education focuses on adult development and upon that foundation - child development.

Two projects remain at the of our priority list.

The Nurturing Project
Our vision is to revolutionize the way local communities mentor parents and the people who care for children. Temper tantrums, drugs, poor grades – Kids are Not the Problem. Attention deficits, premature sex, lack of respect, autism, violence – Kids are Not the Problem. Change the environment and you change the brain.

“The last decade of brain research has converged on the realization that the environment and the brain are two sides of a complex interacting system. Experiences with the world alter the brain’s structure, chemistry, and genetic expression, often profoundly, throughout your life.”

Steven Quartz, PhD
Director of Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Terrence Sejnowski, PhD
Regarded as the world’s foremost theoretical brain scientist

The environment shapes the brain and our behavior. For children the environment means adults and the culture created and controlled by adults. If something isn’t going well with kids look at the environment because Kids are definitely NOT the Problem.

It Takes a Village
Translation: It takes a community to mentor and support parents and the people who care for children. Government can help but it can’t meet this challenge (and that’s a good thing). It is up to local communities to mentor and support young parents, to inspire them, help them to not feel so alone, and to provide the best science, the best childcare and educational models available, locally, week after week. Business and service organizations can help by contributing heir problem solving and community networking skills in ways that help meet local needs with local resources. All this (and more) must be done at no cost to parents or providers. The next frontier in education is building this new extended family and support network, neighborhood by neighborhood, all across the land. It’s already begun and coming to a neighborhood near you.

See Projects

The Origins of Love and Violence
Most everyone knows that early “formative periods” of brain development establish systems that last a life time. Each part of the brain, sensory motor, emotional (limbic) and later the cortex needs specific stimulation to open and develop that brain system’s innate potential. When stimulation appropriate to each system is provided all goes as nature intended. When the developing brain is deprived the nurturing it needs during this sensitive period brain growth is stunted. And upon this stunted foundation a lifetime of capacity unfolds. James W. Prescott, PhD began his carrier researching sensory deprivation (a form of torture) for the military. Later he focused on the impact sensory deprivation has on the developing brain during this sensitive-formative period from birth to approximately age two. The Origins of Love and Violence gathers and makes available in DVD and print formats fifty years of research on early brain development and recommends two simple things most every family can do to insure that their baby develops the capacity to love instead of violence.

See Bonding or Violence

Essays by Michael Mendizza
Michael explores The Next frontier in Education in a series of essays.
To download click the link.

Parenting Taboo
Creativity and Innovation - Interview
Sensory Deprivatin and the Developing Brain
Pleasure Bonds
Everyday Abuse
Transpersonal Parenting
They Cut the Very Best Part Off - Circumcision
The Next Frontier in Education
Kids are NOT the Problem
Just say NO to Baby Einstein
Raising Shameless, Free, Responsible Young People
Sacred Playgrounds for Parents and the People Who Care for Children
The Genius of Childhood Rediscovered
Living Fully Moment by Moment
Enlightenment Now, because our lives depend on it.
Reality Isn’t What It Used to Be
Political Media Literacy with Jerry Mander, Part One
Political Media Literacy, Image vs. Issues, Part Two
Political Media Literacy, Deregulation & Misinformation, Part Three
Propaganda, Dirty Tricks and the Erosion of Democracy