A friend sent a link to a New York Times article about technology in the classroom – NOT.

The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home.

Appropriate Use of Technology in Education

The overarching insight in neuroscience the past decade is:

‘Brain and environment are one, interdependent, reciprocal dynamic process. Change the environment and you change the brain.'

The human brain created Technology that changed the environment that is now changing the brain. In the mid 1800’s Emerson, cautious of the industrial revolution, noted; the weaver becomes the web.

We have been deeply conditioned to believe that others, the experts know what is best. We assume that the FDA is looking out for ‘our’ wellbeing and best interest. That the foods we gather from the super market are safe. It is our responsibility to be informed and make healthy decision about the quality of life we experience.

Thirty years ago I took a nutrition course from a certified chemist, pharmacist, nutritionist, three disciplines. Referring to the cereals we feed our children, Cheerios, Wheaties, CoCo Puffs, he said eating the box would be more nutritious than its contents; at least one would be getting some fiber. In the United States we pay far more for packaging at the market than what the wrapper contains.

I love social media (sometimes) because it helps us see that we are not alone and crazy. Others are as concerned as we are. What we need to do, each and every one is to pick a cause, get upset and get involved. Each of us must become pro-activists, passionate and skilled at creating nonviolently the world we know is possible, one driven not by books, religious-political propaganda and dogma, not by fear and greed, by the flowering of innate human kindness, creativity and values.

Regarding our recient newsletter:

We are attracted to experiences that feel good and turn away from those that hurt, pleasure and pain. Both are driven by millions of years of natural intelligence.

“The addict’s reliance on the drug to reawaken her dulled feelings is no adolescent caprice.
The dullness is itself the consequence of an emotional malfunction not of her making.”

Gabor Mate, MD, Author,
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Close Encounters with Addiction

More on Pleasure, Pain and the Developing Brain

The development of each new human being involves the complete evolutionary process of life on the planet. Native traditions recognize and honor this fact. Western civilization, driven by an anti-feminine passion for male intellect does not, thus the classic mind-body split. One self-world view nurtures the deep ecology that we are, the other attempts to dominate and control nature, including our own.

In each of us is the entire process of creation, what Joseph Chilton Pearce calls Evolution’s End. Each stage of development anticipates the past and creates the necessary foundation for the next unknowable leap forward to unfold. The developing fetus in the liquid world of the womb, for example, has no use for lungs and yet creates lungs anticipating an oxygenated environment it ‘knows’ nothing about. The entire spectrum of human development implies this unfolding anticipation and unknowable expectation.

What is bonding, the very heart of species survival or a nice sentiment? Are the experiences we call bonding or attachment the same today as 100 years ago, before commercial interests made it shameful to breastfeed, fetal monitors and surgical-cesarean births? What is the relationship between nurturing and bonding? Do stronger bonds result in greater nurturing? Is reduced bonding a prescription for generational cycles of neglect and abuse? Critical questions are being raised by visionaries in the field of human development. What are the consequences of interfering with bonding and nature’s expectation for nurturing?

Given the ‘state of the nation’ our founding fathers, those who authored the constitution and signed the declaration of independence, would be called rebels, unpatriotic, terrorists. The police state, FBI and CIA would have them under surveillance. There is no doubt about that. The men who pined their names to the declaration of independence were hunted down, many hanged, their homes and families ruined.

Some say, don’t’ be negative, don’t be cynical, color between the lines, accept it – this is the way the world is and has always been. Don’t cause trouble. Smell the flowers. Pet the cat.

A trick question:
When is waking up from a bad dream bad?

Sure, there are many reasons to go to college. Getting a good job is not one of them. 50% of 2010 graduates are unemployed and the prospects for 2011 grads are similar. We have been told/sold that doing ‘good’ in school is the road to the good life. Good education = a good job and secure future. Not true. The costs of a college education continue to rise. Student loans (which use the same predatory Wall Street scams that burst the housing bubble) are greater than credit card debt in the US!

The costs of so called higher education pimped with false promises of ‘the good job and better life’ keep going up, funded by the same predator banking schemes that caused the housing bubble and well-crafted depression. Student debt is larger than credit card debit. Education is big business. The truth is, many PhD’s are flipping hamburgers. We each have a choice, freedom or trying to reform the system.

The forces that created NCLB (no child left behind) are larger than education. 9/11, as controversial as JFK’s regime change, was a prelude for increasing Fascist policies in the US, (Fascism being corporate-government). Habeas Corpus, the right of every prisoner to challenge the terms of his or her incarceration in court before a judge, has been tossed out. The US engages in routine torture. Police forces throughout the country have been militarized.

The Orwellian-Double-Speak-Patriot-Act allows corporate-government, against, not for the people, search without warrant or probable cause, not just ‘hypothetical’ terrorists but every US citizen. Surveillance, metal detectors, routine searches, police presence are common schools. There has been a systematic dumbing down of curriculum with a pretext of improving education, more Orwellian rap. Articles and essays have been written about our schools becoming more detention camps and prisons than sanctuaries for learning.