Turns Out You Really Do Think Brilliant Thoughts in the Shower

Scientific American says: 

Because such processing occurs largely outside a person’s awareness, it is all or nothing—a fully formed answer either comes to mind or it doesn’t. This hypothesis is supported by EEG and functional MRI scans, which revealed in previous studies that just before insight takes place, the occipital cortex, which is responsible for visual processing, momentarily shuts down, or “blinks,” so that ideas can “bubble into consciousness”. As a result, insights are less likely to be incorrect. Analytical thinking, in contrast, happens consciously and is therefore more subject to rushing and lapses in reasoning.

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Mental Health Break

RADIANCE from Lake Superior Photo on Vimeo.

Homework is wrecking our kids

This reflects well the the state of the research. It is also mirrors what I have been saying for years. I wrote an op-ed in the Lincoln Journal Star some years back when I was a community columnist saying that homework should have no bearing on grades since I knew that the research said that it has no influences on elementary children's achievement and cultivates resentment of academic work and the people who assign it. It also excuses poor teaching and infringes on family life, sending the ineffective teachers' work home.  I got a lot of hate mail for that.

Here is what Heather Shumaker says:

A child just beginning school deserves the chance to develop a love of learning. Instead, homework at a young age causes many kids to turn against school, future homework and academic learning. And it’s a long road. A child in kindergarten is facing 13 years of homework ahead of her. Then there’s the damage to personal relationships. In thousands of homes across the country, families battle over homework nightly.

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Education Recruitment Day

Go to: http://www.unl.edu/careers/education-recruitment-day

Brains

There is no such thing as a male or female brain.