Teaching With the Brain in Mind

Teaching with the Brain in Mind
Increase the appropriate use of music,
including singing, listening to music, and playing
instruments.
Increase the richness and variety of student
options in the environment through, for example,
seating, lighting, and peripherals.
Two rules come from the field of brain research
and enrichment. One is to eliminate threat, and the
other is to enrich like crazy. Before we understood
the collective impact of an enriched environment,
it may have been acceptable to justify a minimalist
classroom. Gone are the days in which any teacher
could justify a barren classroom with one-way
lecture as the only input. Today, the evidence is
overwhelming that enriched environments do grow
a better brain. In addition, the early developing
brain grows fastest and is the most ready for
change. That opportunity must be seized.
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While the case for enrichment is strong, what
happens if we don’t enrich? In “teenage” rats, a
boring environment had a more powerful thinning
effect on the cortex than did a positive, enriched
environment on thickening the cortex (Diamond
1998, p. 31). Boredom is more than annoying for
teens—it may be thinning their brains! Fortunately,
studies show the shrinkage can be reversed in as
little as four days (p. 31).
Considering that schools provide a forum for
an average of 6 hours a day, 180 days a year, for
13 years, that’s a potential exposure of over 14,000
hours. Thus, educators have a significant moral
and ethical responsibility for enhancing or limiting
the lifetime potential of a human being. Will those
hours be spent nurturing a better brain or literally
narrowing the boundaries of that potential? The
answer is easy. Let’s all enrich like crazy.