Greetings, GreenMount Community,
Have
any of you ever experienced “phantom pocket vibration syndrome”? Sure you have. This is when you think that your cell phone
in your pocket is vibrating when it actually isn’t. If you have experience this more than a few
times you are probably part of the “Net Generation” or an older “Gen-Xer”. You
have become very dependent on your cell phone and the social connections that
you must have in order to survive.
Have you ever
driven more than five miles back to your house when you discover that you left
your phone at home? Yep, you’re hooked!
In my day we drove until we saw a phone booth (remember those?) along
the side of the road to make a call. And
I can count on half of my hand the number of times a phone call was important
enough for me to pull over at a phone booth.
Today, phone booths - when you can find them - serve a different
purpose. This past summer, in London, my
wife wanted to take a picture of me in one of those famous English phone
booths. I complied, but holding my
breath – phew!
Our
AIMS conference yesterday turned out to be very worthwhile and
informative. In addition to the workshop
on how different generations are using technology that I attended, we heard a
great keynote from Dr. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist and Director of the
Laboratory for Perception and Action at the Baylor College of Medicine. His presentation was a fascinating look at
how our brains mature and how educators can use this awareness to help students
use their capacities to their fullest.
He talked a lot about the “plasticity” of the brain and how we can train
it to be more receptive and creative.
Indeed, our staff has done some research on teaching creativity and you
have also done a lot to hasten your children’s curiosity and creative
nature. He said that unless we intervene
in the brains of our students, their brains will always take the path of least
résistance. I am sure you can read a lot
into that statement.
But Dr.
Eagleman talked more specifically about how our brains are wired and how we can
make them function better by forcing them to create different pathways between
neurons. I do not have enough allotted
space in this newsletter to talk about specifics (and I can’t remember most of
them – my myelin sheath is deteriorating), but I was struck by some notable
similarities between what he said and what we do here at GreenMount:
- We must use provocative, creative questions in
our discussions with students – we do that
- We must have students experience ideas and situations – we do that
- We must allow students to delve deeply into
subject matter – we do that
- We must stimulate emotional engagement with
subject matter – we do that
- We have to create an enriched environment for learning – we do that too.
It is always nice to hear experts
validate our philosophy, isn’t it?
I also attended a workshop (allude to to
in my opening paragraph) delivered by Dr. Larry Rosen from California State
University. He has done a great deal of
research on technology and how it affects different generations. His main point is that we have to deal with a
generation of students who are ultra-dependent on social interaction through
technology. I have noted that if I call
my daughters on the phone, I may never hear back from them. Conversely, if I text them, they reply in
seconds - really?
Dr. Rosen’s fear is that our children
are not developing FTF interactions. (I’m
sorry, that’s “Face-To-Face”.) He says
that students today cannot go more than 15 minutes without some form of
technological communication, and that children are even sleeping with their
cell phones on vibrate. Once again, I
see GreenMount students and families as outliers here. I do not see our middle school students
suffering from anxiety because they haven’t had time to text someone. Whatever you are doing to foster human
interaction, keep doing it. Help us to
keep our students from suffering from FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)!
Cheers,
Steve
