Brain-Based Learning: Pushing Children to Learn Faster—Why?
There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.
~ Erma Bombeck (1927-1996), American author and humorist.
Brain-based learning promotes the idea that children learn faster if they are taught differently. But why push children to learn faster than ever before? Why turn children into adults before they are ready? What’s the purpose?
What right do educators and parents under the spell of indiscriminate brain-based learning hucksters have to destroy childhood? Here is the definition of brain-based learning on the Glossary of School Reform:
Brain-based learning is motivated by the general belief that learning can be accelerated and improved if educators base how and what they teach on the science of learning, rather than on past educational practices, established conventions, or assumptions about the learning process.
This finding—that learning effectively improves brain functioning, resiliency, and working intelligence—has potentially far-reaching implications for how schools can design their academic programs and how teachers could structure educational experiences in the classroom.
Science of learning? No Child Left Behind used the word “scientific” all the time to push Brain-Based Learning: Pushing Children to Learn Faster—Why?: