I would recommend developmental neuroscience should tackle childhood anxiety. Anxiety destroys the ability to learn and retain. Anxiety has skyrocketed in kids today. If the mind is not relaxed it can’t learn and retain. We need to find ways to introduce in the classroom techniques that reduce anxiety.
Perhaps "inhibiting intuition" is not the best way to go about it; rather, building previously counter-intuitive ideas into one's intuition will lead to better results. There are fun models to teach a boy that the world is round--- without negating his own experiences. I did like the idea that teachers should have a better understanding of how learning works in the brain, however. It would be nice to have teaching styles that are supported by empirical evidence. I think this would be especially helpful in improving special education.
You can get kids into scientific thinking by early exposure to scientific jargon and associating the things they like with science. For example putting scientific terminology in videogames and paying popular media people appealing to young people to speak on scientific news.
It’s likely no coincidence that science requires the suppression of intuition and we end up with a scientific community that lacks creative imagination.
I don’t think it’s wise to suppress anything. That is a dangerous precedent. The example he gave about being taught the world is a sphere compared to the child’s experiences on the flat football field can easily be resolved by showing the child the horizon while standing on the football field. Science requires hands on experimentation and day to day examples to demonstrate a scientific truth. Suppression only turns people into drones.
Ride Alone I agree. This notion of inhibiting intuitive ideas is more than a little creepy. Do we really want children just to be compliant little knowledge workers? I would much rather encourage the child's curiosity, using the imagination to go behind intuition e.g. If the world is flat as it looks, then what lies at the end of it, or does it go on forever? Instead of 'Here be Dragons', you introduce the magic of the earth being round. And then of course the Dragons lie in another direction - upwards.
Green Trees I think we understood. But for me it all began to sound a bit creepy as soon as he declared the aim was to "turn out good citizens for the economy". I'm not saying that's not important, but on its own it is a very narrow approach to life (and education.)
Green Trees I think we understood. But for me it all began to sound a bit creepy as soon as he declared the aim was to "turn out good citizens for the economy". I'm not saying that's not important, but on its own it's a worryingly narrow approach to life (and education.)
I understand your point, and believe me, I am no advocate for turning children into drones. However, in my opinion the ''turn out good citizens for the economy" comment was more of a reference to helping people lead successful lives as opposed to... 1984.
