Lack of movement connected to poor learning.

I was telling my mom today that we are researching schooling options for our kids. She pointed out a good series of articles she had read in the Toronto Star. Check out the Atkinson Fellowship Series of articles, and watch for the marshmallow test.

We all want smart kids, and these articles discuss how well education systems help to reach this goal. As parents though, self-esteem is of more concern – we feel being smart is a by-product of children feeling secure physically, emotionally and otherwise. We are concerned that the public system is archaic and too stressed for resources to provide teachers with what they need to educate our children well.

Allana Mitchell writes: ”[Teachers] are having a biological influence on children that is in scale akin to a baby’s growth in the womb. No other profession has this sway over the fundamental cellular structure of so many human beings.”  We need to value our teachers more.

Neuroscience is changing how we look at our children and their development. It is exciting to see teachers taking inspiration from the growing field of brain sciences. We have a boy and a girl. This week I’ve talked with friends who have boys in the public system, which is not serving them because boys learn differently and learning is designed more with girls in mind. With our daughter, we are concerned about her self-esteem and how competitive environments are shown to quash a child’s long-term self-motivation. It saddens me that we may have to look to private options and that we are so far behind in Canada. But despite all the hurdles the system will face if it is to change, there does appear to be light at the end of the education tunnel.

The Fear of Having Stupid Children

The Globe and Mail has some words of caution in What’s So Wrong With Raising Little Einsteins.

Written By: Nicole LeBlanc Charlwood