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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (43715)	11/23/2007 7:56:20 PM
From: koan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 540882

Very good post Iktome! Re early childhood development. I remember from years a go the Peabody experiment in Mississippi? They took pre school African American children and fed them breakfast and worked with them in a Montesori/head start like situation. They said in many families they only spoke 24 word a day? I recently met a southern girl who said here dad told here there was a 2,000 word limit to talking each day? Anyway, to make a long story short, with just that little extra help they had no trouble competing with other kids when they entered kindergarten. Head start is the greatest social program ever conceived. Yes, we need to get the kids young and teach them how to think (one is not born knowing how!)--sequential logic if you will. PS, the left brain is involved in sequential logic and the right brain ( I love this one-lol) is involved the in the simultanous juxtapositioning of things).

To: epicure who wrote (43715)	11/24/2007 1:09:23 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 540882

Hi Ikt. I'm sure that you're right. We can all "strengthen" our brains by asking them to do things. The more we ask the more neural pathways they develop and the more abilities they have. And I'm sure it's true that in many homes there are many more left brained activities and demands on young brains. All of those impacts need to be studied but we also need to examine whether there are genetic tendencies that are in play. We do aptitude tests so that we can put people in touch with their talents and we should do similar studies to find out what kind of learning techniques can work for different students. We should do that for all students. My point, however, was that if there are, in fact, genetic factors that make one racial group more right brained than another, and if certain schools tend to have student bodies that are peopled on racial lines, then we'd better take a look at that factor instead of simply attributing their chronic under performance when performing left brained tasks to socio-economic factors, poverty or poor teachers. One of the things that might indicate that is, in fact, happening is that when it comes to right brained activities many of those schools are extremely successful. That too, of course, has many alternative possible explanations but my point is simply that it's an easy thing to research so why not do the research? John's position is that he hasn't seen any research that shows a racial tendency to be right versus left brained but I really don't think the question has been carefully examined. I think I know the reason why; if, in a staff meeting, you stood and stated that African American and Native American students might have a race based tendency to be right brained and thus a tendency to do less well academically, would you feel comfortable? Would you expect to see some of the teachers vigorously question whether raising the question was "racist?" In my circle of friends and family, I'd expect to see that gut level resistance immediately, and I have seen it. And the question really is uncomfortable because it's reminiscent of hate group rhetoric and it could add fuel to the bias and hatred of those who view different as "inferior." The only reason I even raise the issue is because, if it is a truth, it may be an important truth to recognize as an essential step toward educating all of our children in a way that allows them to succeed. And, ultimately, as Koan has implied, left versus right brained isn't a matter of good or bad or better or worse, it's simply different. Our left brained society should have plenty of room for right brained thinkers and right brained talent. So I think we might need to stop evaluating and educating right brained students utilizing a primarily left brained scale because one of the most harmful things you can do to a young mind is to tell it that it's not smart. That's the message right brained thinkers get when they're given left brained tests and they can't compete successfully. Ed