Multitasking Brains Going Where?

Continuing on the thought line of the multitasking electronically oriented students we now have: One thing I HAVE noticed is that most of these students do very well coming up with factoid information. They see it and know it very rapidly.... when they are interested. Yet, therein lies a problem. It is an overcomable problem, but one which rarely IS overcome.

We'll use a closet as an analogy. It is as if they have a closet full of clothes, and they have put them on hangers, but the hangers/clothes are laying on the floor of the closet. It takes a long time to find what you need because everything has touched almost everything else. Using the facts well requires a skill which they are greatly missing. They have no rods.

The large accumulation of facts, represented by the clothes, each has only one "tag" associated firmly with it, represented by a hanger. For example, John may know that the capital of Australia is Canberra, but he hasn't a clue where Australia is in relationship to the United States or even if Australia belongs to the United States, so why care about that relationship.

What is missing is any sort of linear association, represented by the rod. The hangers need to be put on the rod. John cannot figure out how one fact relates to other facts. In truth, he usually doesn't even realize that he needs to relate them. He can tell you about the slaves in the Civil War, but cannot tell you what was happening in other countries in regards to slavery (how England managed a non-violent transition away from slavery, for example). John is not even sure when the Civil War occurred. In fact, his education on slavery ended up with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's, and thinks, "Weren't the slaves in the '60's?" He actually believes it is the same '60's, not realizing that the Civil War was 1860's, while the visible Civil Rights Movement was a hundred years later. {I've actually heard this multiple times from students from all venues of education.} Thinking he has it all down, John doesn't even question the lack of cohesion in those factoids.

Some of this comes from the current design in textbooks and children's books in general. Some comes from the electronics and especially the Internet. Current textbooks, in order to grab student's attention, have all sorts of facet boxes, and incongruous graphics inserted in illogical places. The graphic of Superhero Sally flinging stars down the page dominates an article on adjectives in writing. There is a vague connection, I suppose, in giving the students something about which a truckload of adjectives can be produced, but what the student remembers from the page is the tight suit and sparkle-star in Sally's eye, not the material on correctly using adjectives in writing. The assumption in the facet boxes is that John has stopped reading the grammar material and must be grabbed back. The problem is that, at the end of the blue box, he has to figure out where the next layer of text is, and, if the blue box came in the middle of a sentence, which it usually does for some reason, he probably comes back into the back half of sentence whose beginning he no longer remembers, and so the train of thought is derailed.

The internet is ripe with this type of activity. How many times have I gotten on-line to do something and been diverted by an interesting headline or odd picture? Sometimes, this continues for 30 minutes, and I sign off just to remember what it was I wanted to do. Then I have to sign on and risk being diverted yet again. Sometimes, however, it will be an hour after I've signed off before I realize I never did get the info I had gotten on-line to get.

What's missing is the step by step process. Do A, then B, then C. Now you have it all. Wisdom created a sequence that led the learner to an end, Aristotle style. But now he's a dwg, so we don't care how he did it. He couldn't possibly be right.

The consequence of learning to think without the rod is that you can only think shallowly. After learning 300 non-related factoids, you see no relationship to the past, so why care about it? You see no relationship to the future, so consequences don't make sense. In fact, there are now no consequences for any thought, idea, or action. You know things, but can't explain what you know to someone else. You can DO that thing with your phone, but can't show mom how to do it, because that requires wisdom, not knowledge, so you do it for her. You live in a 5-6 year box of what is important as determined by how it makes you feel. You CAN do it today, because tomorrow doesn't exist. And so we end up back with hedonism, another dwg idea.

So what now? Not being one who can ignore consequences, I have to ask that. We have to realize the value of the new electronic thinking as well as its limitations. We have to show these students how to overcome those limitations. I know your car will only go 240 miles without gas, but I am going to arm you with the wisdom to plan for that event. I will give you the benefit of my wisdom and my way of thinking to show you how to look for a gas station, when to look, how to be prepared to pay for it, what to do if you forget to refuel on time, and other things about which one needs to "think ahead." I can tell you who to trust (factoid) or I can use wisdom to show you how to know whom to trust and how far to trust them as well, so that --- as your circle of acquaintances changes --- you can make good decisions for yourself in regards to relationships.

I'll try to find ways to let you learn things your way, and then I will help you understand how to put all the facts together to form a unified whole, which is a deep well upon which one can draw for the unexpected events and changes that will certainly occur in the future. You learn for the moment; I give you the past and the future to go with it. Scriptures are full of sayings like, "Get knowledge but with her, get wisdom." and "Wisdom is the key." You help me learn to think and do faster, and I will help you learn to think deeper. Working together, respecting each other's strengths, and partnering to lessen the impact of each of our weaknesses, we'll make it and enjoy the journey all the while.

Lunging Through Life

This past year has been one of the hardest years of our homeschooling experience. Nothing seemed to go completely right, or even somewhat right. Everything was a struggle.

I asked my daughter the other day, why don't we just decide to work as hard the first six weeks as we have to do the last six weeks of school, then do it one more time, and we can then have 10 months off. She's actually considering it.

Passionate people sometimes have trouble doing things step by step. We do things lunge by lunge instead. I don't know that it is bad; maybe it is just a different way. There must be some advantages to doing things in this way, or some careers where this is a great thing.

I try to remind parents with whom I talk that the annoying things their kids do are probably a misdirected gift. For example, a stubborn child is just determined in the wrong direction. The child needs redirected, not crushed. When that child grows up and finds his or her cause, they will not be able to be deterred. And that IS good.

So, now I have to figure out what the advantage to doing things lunge by lunge is. Then I can justify it, right?

Onwards & upwards!

Changing Brains

I've had the pleasure of homeschooling 3 kids all the way up to college. The first 2 were relatively close in time, while the 3rd was ten years after the 2nd. As an educator, it has been a fascinating experience. The newest generation, you see, is so very different from the other two. While part of it is personality, some of it is her generation's time. Tech savvy beyond belief to me. Multitasking. Doesn't learn like I did or like the others did. Not worse. Not better. Just different.

This means I'm having to learn a whole new way. What I've done in the past often doesn't quite work the same way. I'm having to rewrite curricula and lesson plans. And all this means I'm also growing. I'm hoping this is God's way of allowing me to know how to help this 2nd generation of homeschooled children and their parents.

Now, I've done some checking. I've talked with an expert, and this brain change has been noted in all sorts of research. It means we have to find a different way to educate the kids. What we used in public schools didn't work with the first generation of homeschoolers, and what we did with the first generation of homeschoolers probably isn't going to work with the 2nd generation. Are they better than us? No, just different. We need them, and they need us. I used to say, "Live and learn." I think now I'll say, "Learn and live." There IS a difference.