Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn

by Cathy N. Davidson (Viking 2011)

Usually I finish a book before writing about it, but in this case, I will have to put off finishing it until I get my own copy (I was sneaking a peek into a copy I bought as a gift). Still, I figured that given my propensity to forget what I’ve read as soon as I’ve read it, I decided to write my first impressions here.

I have read the Introduction and Part One (which deals with the science of how we pay attention and what we pay attention to) and begun Part Two (which focuses on education: what it is, and what it could become if we could loosen up a bit and apply what brain scientists have learned about attention and learning).  In the debate over multi-tasking (can the digital natives really do those things at the same time?), Davidson comes down squarely on the side of Yes, they can. She explains that neuroscience has shown that neural pathways are constantly changing as the environment causes the brain to re-invent itself.  Educating kids in the 20th (and 19th) century style (one size fits all and everyone has to achieve the same result at the expected time or they are considered to have failed) results in a lot of bored students, frustrated teachers, and schools that cannot meet their quota of satisfactory test scores under No Child Left Behind.

This book has resonated with me on a number of levels. It connects to what I’ve read and seen before (the gorilla experiment, which I first read about in Temple Grandin’s Animals in Translation; mirror neurons, which I learned about from Blakeslee and Blakeslee’s The Body has a Mind of Its Own; even those TV ads for Cymbalta, which my daughter’s doctor has suggested for her but which terrifies me. (I actually do focus on the droning list of unpleasant and dangerous side effects when I see that ad. What does that say about my brain?). Sometimes I wished Davidson would focus a bit more on what happens when the brain does not develop in the normal way, but that is due to my own interest in learning disabilities and the autism spectrum. And she does mention these–just not as often as I might like.

Davidson writes about complicated stuff in a way that is engaging and easy to follow (reminiscent of her wonderful memoir of falling in love with Japan, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which is one of my favorite books). But I wish the publisher had chosen a slightly larger font–I find myself straining to read.

I’m looking forward to continuing the book soon.

Okay, it’s now a few weeks later and I have finished the book. After making what to me was quite a convincing case for reforming education, Davidson turns in Part 3 to the world of work, where she describes how the 21st century workplace has changed (at least for those working in offices, it has; but I kept wondering about all those people who work in retail, allied health fields, sanitation, restaurants…. you get the picture. Those people aren’t telecommuting, surely.) She suspects that we were never all that good at focusing on only one thing at a time, even before multi-tasking became fashionable, and claims that left to its own devices, our brain ceaselessly changes focus (Just ask anyone who has attempted to meditate!). She reminds us that prior to the industrial age, which created the boundaries between work and leisure, there were no such boundaries. If we end up bringing more work home while also taking unscheduled breaks at our desks to check out Facebook, listen to the latest TED talk or watch a funny video shared by a friend, it is not very different from how work and rest co-existed peacefully before we all started going “out” to work in offices, stores, schools, and the like.

Part 4 urges us to jump into the brave new world of the Internet to forge new connections with people near and far.   She concludes by saying, “With the right practice and the right tools, we can begin to see what we’ve been missing. With the right tools and the right people to share them with, we have new options. … The changes of the digital age are not going to go away, and they are not going to slow down in the future. … It’s time to reconsider the traditional standards and expectations handed down to us from the linear, assembly-line arrangements of the industrial age and to think about better ways to structure and to measure our interactive digital lives. … Right now, our classrooms and workplaces are structured for success in the last century, not this one. We can change that.” (p. 291)

From Blogs to Bombs

by Mark Pegrum

Australian educator Mark Pegrum sees the brave new world of web technologies through technological, pedagogical, social, socio-political, and ecological “lenses” or perspectives.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time

by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin, 2006)

This book has been on the Washington Post‘s bestseller list for 141 weeks as of this writing, which is mind-boggling but totally understandable. Since it was first published four years ago, Mortenson has collaborated on a young adult version, a picture book called Listen to the Wind, and a sequel, Stones Into Schools (all of which I have read and enjoyed).  This is a life-changing book, one I have given as a gift to several people and to my daughter’s school. It is a book which shows just how much one person can do to change the world, if s/he tries hard enough.

The story of how Greg Mortenson failed to reach the top of K2, the world’s second-highest peak, and stumbled instead into a remote Pakistani village and there found his life’s work, must be pretty well-known by now.  The villagers saved Mortenson’s life, and he in turn promised to build a school for their children. This he managed to do, and he then went on to build (as of now, over 135) more schools, not only in Pakistan but in neighboring Afghanistan as well, as director of the Central Asia Institute, which he established with money donated originally by Jean Hoerni, who also gave the money to build Mortenson’s first school in the village of Korphe.

What is really amazing is that Greg Mortenson is still alive, considering how he constantly puts himself into harm’s way in some of the most dangerous places in the world for Americans to go.  Somehow his love of the cultures and peoples of Central Asia and his honest desire to help educate the children there, especially the girls, have resulted in his being surrounded by Pakistanis and Afghans who manage to protect him from those who would harm him…so far.  His is an incredibly inspirational story, as are the stories he recounts of the people who help him and the children who have been educated in the schools he has built.

SOME LINKS

Official book site for Three Cups of Tea

Official book site for Stones Into Schools

Pennies for Peace is an organization started by Mortenson to raise money in America’s schools, a penny at a time.

Here is a link to Wikipedia’s article about the book.

Music video of the song “Three Cups of Tea”, performed by Mortenson’s daughter Amira

From Emotions to Advocacy: The Special Education Survival Guide

by Pam Wright and Pete Wright.  Harbor House Law Press, 2006 (2nd edition).

Pam and Pete Wright are the founders of Wrightslaw, a website devoted to special education, advocacy, and the relevant laws.  They also have a free online newsletter and have written several books to guide parents of children with special needs through the legal intricacies of IDEA and NCLB, including Wrightslaw: Special Education Law, which I own and also recommend, From Emotions to Advocacy, and others, as well as DVDs and other websites.  I wonder when the Wrights have time to do anything else; maybe they don’t.

For me, the most important benefit from reading Special Education Law was actually reading the law for the first time.  The Wrights stress the importance of reading the statutes and regulations for oneself.  This was how I first realized that schools are obligated by law to prepare children with disabilities for independent living (insofar as possible) and employment — not only to educate them in the traditional sense of the three Rs.  I had been led to believe that skills not directly applicable to education (math, reading, writing) were not the responsibility of the school to enhance.  Wrong!

Legal language is difficult to read, but the Wrights explain and clarify, giving plenty of examples.  They use the same strategy in From Emotions to Advocacy (in fact there is quite a bit of overlap between the two books).  In this book, I learned how to collect all the reports, IEPs, medical records etc. that had been languishing in 30 different folders and organize them into a chronological master file.  (They recommend using a large 3-hole binder to keep the documents–I already have three!)  I am now in the process of creating the index for this file.  It has been very educational for me to go back and look at these documents again, and the Wrights point out that in order to be an effective advocate, a parent must become very familiar with the contents of the file, because no one else is ever going to read through all of it!  There are useful chapters in both books about keeping a written record of all communication with the school and how to write effective letters that will serve as solid evidence if there is a dispute or due process hearing.  They assume that school systems may need legal coercion to provide FAPE (a Free Appropriate Public Education, guaranteed by IDEA), so the books are geared toward preparing a strong case.  I hope I will not need to use my Master File for this purpose, but if I ever do, the Wrights’ books and websites will certainly provide excellent guidance in how to proceed!

Nonverbal Learning Disabilities at School

Educating Students with NLD, Asperger Syndrome, and Related Conditions, by Pamela Tanguay. London and new York: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2002.

How I wish I had read this book years ago, when my daughter was struggling in elementary and middle school and I couldn’t figure out how to help her! How I wish her teachers had read this book! I would like to give a copy to each of the schools she has attended (seven now), to help them to recognize NLD in other children before it is too late.

Pamela Tanguay, of NLD on the Web, has written a very practical book for educators (but good for parents also). Included in the eleven chapters are an entire chapter on “Arithmetic and Math”, one on “Reading, Spelling, and Vocabulary,” one on “Penmanship, Writing, and Composition” and one on “Organization, Study Skills, and Homework.” These give very specific advice on how to teach, and how not to teach, children with NLD of different ages. There are also more general chapters on the school environment, teaching strategies, social and emotional functioning of the child with NLD, and spatial and psychomotor challenges.

The book is probably way too idealistic. The kinds of accommodations Tanguay recommends are so far-reaching that I doubt they could ever all be put into place. It would require teachers to teach whole classes as if all the children had NLD! It would also take far more time than teachers have. Tanguay warns that every accommodation and strategy that is not used places a road block in front of the NLD student, setting her up to fail. (I wonder how actual NLD students who manage to graduate from high school and college and even go to graduate school succeed, because they surely did not have all of Tanguay’s recommended accommodations!)

Still, some of her advice would not be too difficult to implement, and certainly every teacher who has a child with NLD should read this book. If it does nothing else, it may convince the teacher that the child is not being lazy or noncompliant when she cannot do what she is told. Tanguay reminds us that since these children are fluent talkers with large, often precocious vocabularies, people often assume that they are smart in other ways as well, or could be if they just tried hard enough or paid attention. Tanguay explains, for example, that people with NLD cannot attend to two modalities at once, so if the teacher demonstrates something as she explains it, the whole lesson is wasted on the NLD child. The teacher must first explain verbally, and only then demonstrate. You can see how this would be awkward and time-consuming to implement in a real classroom–especially if only one child requires it. Yet it explains much about the struggles of these children.

Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

by Edward O. Wilson (Vintage 1999, copyright 1998)

This book has been on my “to read” list for several years. Written by the famous biologist who said, “If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos,” it is about the search for the unity of all knowledge (the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, ethics and religion…). It’s pretty dense going; I am aware as I read that I am missing a lot. It seems related to Robert Pirsig’s ideas about classicism and romanticism in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Both Pirsig and Wilson strive to stress the connectedness of human experience.

Chapter 6, on the mind and its relation to the brain is very interesting. Wilson contrasts art and science: “Science explains feeling, while art transmits it…. Art is the means by which people of similar cognition reach out to others in order to transmit feeling.” (pp. 127-128) Then, considering the self, he writes, “The self is not an ineffable being living apart within the brain…. The self and body are…inseparably fused: the self, despite the illusion of its independence…, cannot exist apart from the body, and the body cannot survive for long without the self.” (p. 130) About scientists, he says, “In their ethos it is better to have begun a great journey than to have finished it, better to make a seminal discovery than to put the final touches on a theory.” (pp. 132-133)

…I finished Consilience yesterday. Although not an easy read, I can say it is a very interesting one. Chapters 9-11 explore how the social sciences, the humanities, and ethics and religion can take their place in the unity of knowledge Wilson is seeking. Chapter 12, “To What End?” talks about climate change and environmental devastation. Wilson writes, “In ecology, as in medicine, a false positive diagnosis is an inconvenience, but a false negative diagnosis can be catastrophic” (p 314). This is the same argument made by in this video. In the same chapter, Wilson discusses the Rwandan catastrophe of 1997, calling Rwanda “a microcosm of the world.” When a country (or a planet) becomes overcrowded and its resources are exhausted, its citizens will fight for survival. They don’t care who else is hurt. The way humans are reproducing now ensures a global disaster like that which took place in Rwanda.

I hope it is not too late, but I am afraid it is. How many people in a position to make changes will read Consilience or The Ravaging Tide?

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

by James W. Loewen, audio CD narrated by Brian Keeler

Norton 1995

This is a really amazing book!  Loewen, a sociologist, analyzes 12 high school textbooks about U.S. history and finds them both boring and inaccurate.  He points out that although truths about Columbus, the Pilgrims, the plagues that killed Native Americans (leaving an essentially empty land for Europeans to take over), Woodrow Wilson, Helen Keller, various US-led coups d’etat, Vietnam, etc., are well-known to historians and are routinely taught at the college level, high school texts still present American history as continual progress toward an ideal.  History is presented as a list of political events controlled by (mainly) heroic presidents; Columbus and the Pilgrims make up our “creation myth”.

Although I was already aware of many, if not most, of the ugly facts presented here (such as the ugly history of our relations with Native Americans and the US involvement in the assassination of Salvador Allende and Mohammed Mossadegh), the pattern that is created by all of them considered together is a sad and even frightening one.  Like many college-educated Americans, I never took an American history course after high school.  It is astonishing how distorted a picture of our history is created in books such as the 12 Loewen discusses here.

Lies My Teacher Told Me was originally published over 10 years ago; perhaps there have been changes for the better due to its publication.  My daughter’s 8th-grade history text, Creating America, published in 2005 by McDougall Littell, seems to present the facts fairly objectively  (for example, I’ve noticed that it presents the British side of the “road to revolution” with some sympathy, while making the American colonists seem somewhat shrill in their continual outrage against any form of control exerted by England).  It also emphasizes racial and gender diversity, focusing on Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and women.  So perhaps Loewen’s book has had an impact.

I think every American should read this book.

Click here for James Loewen’s website.