What are the motivating factors to the fantastic success of the Giants at their World Series playoffs: experience, leadership, athletic skill? The one angle that is not being addressed has to do with the function of the players’ brains when concerned with the perception of winning or losing. For example, [...]
Every generation has its challenges. In the '30’s and '40’s it was the Great Depression. In the '60’s, it was the Vietnam War. For today’s generation of students it should be global warning and not just global warming. Unfortunately, global warming is something long term and not in your face [...]
One of the greatest problems confronting parents and teachers in dealing with your child’s learning brain is the array of choices one faces when dealing with underachievement and/or a learning disorder. Intensive tutoring, medication and/or various other therapies may be tried with little success. Ultimately, these parents come to me, [...]
A recent commercial sponsored by Research Now called “throw like a girl” describes how the loss of power (confidence, self esteem) can occur when a girl reaches puberty. According to the commercial, when the interviewer asked girls who had reached puberty to demonstrate what it is like to “throw like [...]
We will learn in a year or so whether or not Common Core Standards is a successful program. Particularly, we will discover whether it lowers the consistent (high) school drop out rate, which can run between 45 and 55% respectively (inner city) or if the program has raised the drop [...]
One of the least discussed yet critical causes for student success in school is the ability of a child to experience what brain scientist’s call the leisure brain. This condition of the brain occurs when a student’s brain can breathe in a relaxed manner, taking in impressions with no pressure. [...]
The recent suspensions of several Sonoma County middle students should be a wake up call regarding zero tolerance as a viable school discipline program. A zero tolerance policy imposes automatic punishment for infractions of a stated rule, with the intention of eliminating undesirable conduct. The middle school students were reprimanded [...]
The proliferation of cellphone use while driving which caused the unspeakable, recent tragedy on Highway 12 could happen to anyone and at anytime. Someone needs to take action. What we need is for a politician to step up and identify cellphone use while driving as punishable as a DUI. A [...]
In order to understand why certain students underachieve in school, we need to have a basic understanding of what major brain centers are associated with achievement and your student’s learning brain. The left and right sides of a student’s brain must work together for effective learning to take place. Unfortunately, most [...]
The Obama administration’s recent press release concerning the elimination of a zero tolerance discipline philosophy in American public schools is long overdue. Zero tolerance is a tool that became popular in the 1990s, supporting uniform and swift punishment for offenses such as truancy, smoking or possession of a weapon. Violators [...]
