To Do list

Check out the last three posts on play, exercise and diet to see the three best things for parents (and school administraters) to address if they want to help kids achieve academic excellence.

I almost said 'simplest' instead of 'best' in the first sentence. It is not the simplest - very do-able but not easy to do, given how our lifestyles have been geared to the fastest and not necessarily the healthiest way of doing things.

Our brains are capable of wonderful things. We need to feed them well, exercise lots and get lots of down time'/processing time. We totally underestimate the impact these three things have on academic excellence.

Change your diet for your...

OK, if you read my last post on exercise and the brain you probably had a hint. "Heart"? Good answer but "brain" is just as good an answer - and important for parents and educators to know.

You can check out more video (be sure to watch the second part)and an article about an Alternative High School in Appleton, WI that saw BIG changes with a healthy diet. Granted they also did some other things like the exercise thing but I'm personally convinced that diet is just as important as exercise in being healthy AND ready to learn.

Exercise for your...

Most of us would finish that answer with "heart". Good answer. But much current research indicates you could answer that with "brain". Exercise for your brain.

I just watched a 15 minute video from CBC in Canada called Brain Gains, about a small, alternative High School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Exciting academic results from simple - but strenuous - exercise. The teacher got the idea from a Harvard MD, John Ratey. Treadmills in the math classroom made a huge difference in academics and behavior.

The video is definitely worth the time.

Kids and Play

Another great post from MediaWise and their blog on children and play. All the research I've seen agrees with this post. Kids need down time/play. In addition to the fact that physical activity is good for the brain due to increased circulation, the brain needs time to process. Things just need to simmer a bit and while we are 'doing nothing but play' the brain is busy making sense of the input it has recently experienced.

Middle of summer. How are your kids doing in the play department? How are you doing in the play department? Same thing goes for adult brains too! And the same thing goes for school settings. Input all day long is not helpful. Time for processing is necessary.

I think it might be time for a break...

Thinking and feeling

Excellent article in Fast Company Magazine - "In Defense of Feelings". It talks about an experiment by Chen-Bo Zhong in Toronto that put subjects in interaction with anonymous partners where they had two options: treat them fairly or lie to them. They were 'coached' to either a) think rationally or b) go with their gut. When advised to think rationally the subjects lied 69% of the time. When advised to base their decisions on gut feelings they only lied 27% of the time.

It is interesting that, even though the study shows we'd be treated better by people who trust their feelings we are leery of them. When given a choice, 75% chose the rational partner.

Reminds me of the account in Genesis 3 of the first temptation. The serpent knew to appeal to the brain ('you will know good and evil and be like God') and the 'gut' sounds a lot like our God-given conscience written on our hearts.

The article goes on to make application to the financial meltdown we just experienced, especially with mortgages that should never have been given. When the 'deliberative processes' took over, many used odd logic to justify what they were doing. They used historical data that made no sense. The article uses parallel logic: "I've never gained more than 2 pounds in a year, so let's go for all the Ben and Jerry's I can get my hands on".

And also an interesting story from Alcoa. When Paul O'Neill became CEO in 1987 he said: "No more deaths due to accidents". They had a pretty decent safety record as a company but O'Neill's gut said no deaths were acceptable and that is our ruler. He walled off the same 'deliberative processes' the experiment focused on and told his team: "If anyone ever calculates how much money we're saving by being safe, they're fired".
They went on to become one of the safest companies in the world even with the dangers inherent in the aluminum industry.

The brain and the emotions/feelings/our gut - an interesting combination.