Brain Development / SES / Poverty

"Family income, parental education and brain structure in children and adolescents"

Nature Neuroscience and Nova Next (PBS), Allison Eck, 3/31/2015

NovaNow Link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/stress-from-poverty-decreases-child-brain-sizes-even-at-birth/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=pbsofficial&utm_campaign=nova_next

Nature Neuroscience Link: http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.3983.html#access

I believe this article is a very important reading for educators! This article points to the issues of brain development and socioeconomic status (SES). The researchers have found and argued that brain development is affected by the SES of the person. This research may point to more importance and need in prenatal and early childhood development focus among those families of poverty.

Here is a quote from the journal: "Among children from lower income families, small differences in income were associated with relatively large differences in surface area, whereas, among children

Need for More Arts Integration

"New Report Cites Need for More Arts Integration"
by Jenna Zwang
eSchool News
Posted Online on May 6, 2011
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/05/06/new-report-cites-need-for-more-arts-integration/?


Jenna Zwang's article states something most of us already know: that the arts help students learn AND it assists in students learning in the core achievements that are being tested.  The research she cites to back up her premise is a new federal report by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the article states it is the first federal analysis of arts education data in a decade.  The reports recommendations are:

1. Build robust collaborations among different approaches to arts education.
2. Develop the field of arts integration.
3. Expand in-school opportunities for teaching artists.
4. Use federal and state policies to reinforce the place of arts in K-12 education.
5. Widen the focus of evidence gathering about arts education.

Of course the irony of this report is our testing is doing the exact opposite of what this report states.  To add to the irony is this quote from the person most pushing the testing, Education Secretary Arne Duncan:  "To succeed today and in the future, America’s children will need to be inventive, resourceful, and imaginative.  The best way to foster that creativity is through arts education.”

From what Zwang quotes from this report there are really no negatives to strengthening schools' arts programs.  Unfortunately with all of the budget cuts occurring around the nation the arts are the areas that are seeing the most cuts.  Schools, parents, administrators, politicians, conservatives, liberals and moderates alike need to understand that in cutting the arts program what is actually happening is you are cutting the learning of our children.

Reading Boosts Brain Pathways

"Reading Boosts Brain Pathways, Affects Multiple Disciplines"
by Jenna Zwang
eSchool News
Posted online on May 3, 2011
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/05/03/reading-boosts-brain-pathways-affects-multiple-disciplines/?

This article not only discusses the importance of reading to the brain development in children, but also about how important it is to talk with your kids.  It all comes down to the importance of language in a child's life and how that relates to other areas of a child's brain.  In fact, reading and talking with your child strengthens the connection between the left hemisphere and frontal lobes of the brain that not only kids to do better in reading, but also in social studies, math and science.

They tested this theory on illiterate adults in Brazil by teaching them to read and here were the astonishing results:    
“Lo and behold, their brains changed dramatically in the same way the literate adults who had read their whole lives changed. Their visual perceptual skills improved, their auditory listening skills improved, and their ability to drive this whole left hemisphere symbolic problem-solving way of syncing changed..."

And how is this important to educators?  “The reason [that it's] so important for our educators to know [this] is that educators change brains. They don’t just teach content, they don’t just improve the brain that I already have by giving me information that I hold on to. They actually change the way that the human brain processes information..."  See how important our jobs are?  That is really cool!

And this article is important for all people as it really demonstrates that reading and language are the key to unlocking our learning.  If those skills are not there, then it is really difficult to master other areas.  I remember an old program where reading was being promoted and the catchphrase was "Readers are Leaders".  Its point was people who actively read are going to be the ones who lead the world in doing better things.  Based on this article's information I would say that is pretty true!