Traumatic Brain Injury Centers

Hundreds – soon to be thousands – of public schools around the country are using the active video game Dance, Dance Revolution in Physical Education classes to get kids moving.

And the kids are eating it up. Why?

Children don’t often yell in excitement when they are let into class, but as the doors opened to the upper level of the gym at South Middle School here one recent Monday, the assembled students let out a chorus of shrieks.

In they rushed, past the Ping-Pong table, past the balance beams and the wrestling mats stacked unused. They sprinted past the ghosts of Gym Class Past toward two TV sets looming over square plastic mats on the floor. In less than a minute a dozen seventh graders were dancing in furiously kinetic union to the thumps of a techno song called “Speed Over Beethoven.”

Bill Hines, a physical education teacher at the school for 27 years, shook his head a little, smiled and said, “I’ll tell you one thing: they don’t run in here like that for basketball.”1

My initial reaction is: Duh.

P.E. was a combination of embarrassment, awkwardness, boredom and humiliation.

As a child, my experience with P.E. was a combination of embarrassment, awkwardness, boredom and humiliation.  Traditional Phys-Ed revolves around structured activities that are either competitive, “educational”, or both.  For example, dodge ball, baseball, kickball, crab-ball, basketball, etc.

How are they embarrassing?  HELLO!  Don’t you remember getting picked for teams?  I wasn’t always picked last, but no one was fighting to have me on their team.

Awkward?  Yep, for me, I was not a “natural athlete.”  I didn’t come out onto the field with innate coordination and skills.  I had to learn them my own way.  Eventually, I developed pretty good skills at Racquetball, golf and tennis.  Notice that those are NOT team sports?  That leads me back to boredom and humiliation.

For any Attention Deficit child, traditional PE activities are boring.

For my, and I think for any Attention Deficit child (ADD, ADHD, whatever), traditional PE activities are boring as standing in a hot field waiting for someone else to swing a wooden stick at a little ball on the off chance that it might come my way.  I mean, where is the stimulation?  Compare even Pac-Man against waiting in line for your turn at ONE KICK in kickball, and it is obvious why kids prefer video games!

Now to humiliation.  Yeah, there’s always that picked last phenomenon.  Harbor no illusions that the anxiety around being picked last is reserved for the bottom three or four kids.  Only the natural athletes, the kids everyone knows will be picked just about first, are exempt.  Everyone else worries about it.

But getting on the team doesn’t make you safe…now it’s worse!  Every aspect of your performance will be analyzed by your team AND the opposing team.  No mistake will be forgotten; they need to know so that next time they WILL pick you last!

So, I’m glad to hear that schools are only twenty years behind the times at making fitness interesting.  P.E. classes aren’t the end-all, be-all when it comes to obesity prevention, but they can make a difference.

Good Luck,

Allen

From NYTimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/health/30exer.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Remember those achievement tests you took in Elementary School? Well…

It turns out that those achievement tests you took in elementary school may have a lot to do with where you are right now. Researchers gave I.Q. tests to adults in their mid-40s and compared each person’s score to their elementary school achievement test scores. Over 40% of their I.Q. scores could be accounted for the achievement tests. That is a high correlation.

But wait, there’s more.

IQ and achievement test scores also predicted income, occupational status and the education level of these 40-somethings.

The livescience.com report (http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070416_achievement_iq.html) raises an important issue, namely how school influences accomplishment. “People seem to be locked in to outcomes at early ages,” said Douglas Detterman, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. “It means we don’t know very much about education and optimizing education for particular individuals.”

Say that again, please. “It means we don’t know very much about education and optimizing education for particular individuals.” Wow, that’s a mouthful.

So here’s today’s True-False question for you. “Optimizing learning for each student is what education should be all about.” True or false?

The multiple intelligence model encourages and even demands that we begin the task of learning optimization for each student.

I say “True.” The multiple intelligence model encourages and even demands that we begin the task of learning optimization for each student.

As Dr. Dettermen says, “People seem to be locked in to outcomes at early ages.” I remember reading The Night is Dark and I am Far From Home by Jonathan Kozol many years ago. The theme was that the education system indoctrinates students with myths, ideologies and lies and turns out not good, ethical people but good citizens.

“People seem to be locked in to outcomes at early ages.”

Well, for so many students currently attending school, that night is still dark and they are far away from ever purchasing or even renting their own home.

Parents bring their elementary school students to Sparks of Genius http://www.sparksofgenius.com with labels like ADD, LD, ADHD and PDD. We focus on identifying and nurturing the many ways they are smart. Students get lots of attention training and cognitive training. They also learn to be more responsible for their learning. To defy labels. To move beyond limitations set by others.

The education system indoctrinates students with myths, ideologies and lies and turns out not good, ethical people but good citizens.

The noted pediatrician and my mentor, William Crook, told me the key to helping students become more successful is “psychological vitamins.” This was 35 years ago and he was right. Achievement tests do not make kids happy. I.Q. scores do not make kids happy. Labels do not make kids happy. Igniting their sparks of genius makes kids happy.

–Dr. Rohn Kessler

I am often asked about multiple intelligences, and how many there really are. I have no idea. The reason for adding a ninth intelligence now is because I have decided to combine two of Dr. Howard Gardner’s “candidate intelligences” – Existential and Moral- into a 9th intelligence, which is Spiritual Intelligence or “soul smarts.”

Look at today’s headlines and the one thing that stands out is the arrogance of prominent adults.

Why? Look at today’s headlines and the one thing that stands out is the arrogance of prominent adults. Today it’s Don Imus and Paul Wolfowitz. What do they value?

What if the fundamental purpose of education was to teach students to continually refine…their character?

I have been in the education business much of my life. What if schools made it their mission not to domesticate students but to inform and enlighten them. What if the fundamental purpose of education was to teach students to continually refine and upgrade their character; to become a mensch, a real human being?

Wikipedia defines a mensch as “a particularly good person, like “a stand-up guy,” a person with the qualities one would hope for in a dear friend or trusted colleague.” Link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensch.

“The three foundations of menschhood are helping lots of people, doing what’s right, and paying back society….” -Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start

Menschhood is so important a quality that Guy Kawasaki devotes an entire chapter to it in his classic “The Art of the Start.” Guy writes that “The three foundations of menschhood are helping lots of people, doing what’s right, and paying back society—simple concepts that are hard to implement.” Link is http://www.guykawasaki.com/

At Sparks of Genius we strive to help all our students (ages 6-82) identify and nurture their sparks of genius. The multiple intelligence model helps us to do that, as does the Multiple Intelligence Developmental Assessment Scale (MIDAS) developed by Dr. Branton Shearer. Link is http://miresearch.org/.

But there are only 8 intelligences there now, and we need the ninth – to become more soul smart. Part of spirituality, the 9th intelligence, includes character refinement —becoming more a more compassionate, responsible, joyful, grateful and giving human being.

At Sparks of Genius we’re in the learning achievement business and fully committed to helping our students (ages 6-82) becoming fully human. The 9th intelligence is an important part of the 9-5-4 equation. Link is http://sparksofgenius.wordpress.com/2007/02/07/what-is-the-sparks-of-genius-9-5-4-program/

This week’s headlines feature Don Imus and Paul Wolfowitz. Who will it be next week? One thing is for sure: arrogance will part of the picture.

-Dr. Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

Two elderly women have played bridge together for many years, and naturally, they have gotten to know each other pretty well.

One day, during a game of cards, one lady suddenly looks up at the other and says, “I realize we’ve known each other for many years, but for the life of me, I just can’t bring it to mind … would you please tell me your name again, dear?”

There is dead silence for a couple of minutes, and then the other lady responds, “How soon do you need to know?”

Moral of the story: Take your time, make your best effort, and smile.

Neuroscientist Dr. Michael Merzenich informs us that memory becomes less stable with age because 1) we’re no longer doing activities we previously did to keep ourselves mentally sharp and 2) all of our brain operations become slower and slower.

It is possible to train your brain for success.

At Sparks of Genius, everyone “works out” with a Personal Trainer. Everyone learns to maximize several of their intelligences. It is important that everyone love learning and be happy while learning.

It is possible to train your brain for success. With consistent training, various computer programs can help children, adults and seniors to improve attention, memory, listening and central processing speed of the brain.

Adults and seniors need to reach beyond and master something new.

A “roll with the punches” attitude will not work. Our Sages teach us that “A happy person can learn more in one hour than a depressed person can learn in many hours.”

It is important for all of us to know that we can train our brain for success. Attitude is important. I leave you with the following story.

“When I moved to Florida, I became friends with an elderly woman who was very active, kind, and strong. She was doing something all the time, but not busy just to be busy.

One day after as especially busy day, she came home exhausted and was rocking on her porch when I arrived. I said to her something like “Maybe you overdid it today.”

She replied without missing a beat. “Honey, I would rather wear out than rust out.”

-Dr. Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

News Item: “The Israeli Brain Vitamin”

“Americans looking for a natural way to improve memory and mood now have a powerful tool at their disposal. The FDA has authorized an Israeli-made product called Lipogen to be used as a food additive.”

Link: http://israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1598&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Health&

What? Another natural that improves brain functioning children and adults? It’s phosphatidylserine (PS), which regulates neuronal signaling. Found in fish, green leafy vegetables, soybeans and rice, PS reportedly improves both memory and mood and delays symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Is there research to substantiate this claim? A few places to get started include:

http://www.vrp.com/art/1765.asp?c=1172003763453&k=/det/2193.asp&m=/&p=no&s=0http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2007/feb2007_report_cognitex_02.htm

Is it safe? “Although phosphatidylserine is generally safe and well tolerated, it may increase the blood-thinning effect of heparin, and therefore should not be used with medications that thin the blood without consulting a physician.”

Of course, the main momentum today is the pharmaceutical industry’s drive to discover and market new drugs to solve this problem. There are now over 5,000,000 American’s with Alzheimer’s disease. Almost 8 million are expected to have the disease by 2030, and by 2050, the number could reach 16 million.

But there may be another way, and that is through learning. Learning?

To give you some more food for thought, what do you think of the idea that learning may act as a potential vaccination against late-life neurodegenerative diseases of the brain? Dr. Paul Nussbaum, a clinical neuropsychologist who specializes in aging, has proposed this very idea.

In other words, learning is actually a health-promoting behavior!

Ideally the” learning vaccine” should start in early childhood via learning how to learn and developing a passionate love of learning, and continue throughout the lifespan.

The good news is that there is software that trains the cognitive skills essential for learning, such as attention span, memory, and central processing speed of the brain.

At Sparks of Genius, children as young as six and adults in their Eighties can strengthen their cognitive skills by working out” two to three hours a week on a home computer.

Dr. Joseph Sandford, developer of some of the software, explains that computerized cognitive training programs provide an enriched learning environment to physically promote brain health. Medication, he suggests, is like putting a CD disk into the computer (the brain). So long as the disk is in, the drug may help, but eject the disk and the effect is gone. And, there are always the side-effects, right?

Can a brain vitamin pill be part of the solution? The company claims research showing significant memory and mental improvements in comparison to the placebo groups. There is also evidence that dietary supplementation with PS can play a vital role in supporting human cognitive functions as we age. Among the numerous studies conducted with PS, most were concerned with subjects already experiencing noticeable declines in judgment, abstract thought, memory, behavior, and personality.”

We owe it to the 5,000,000 plus with Alzheimer’s disease, the boomers behind them and to the generations behind them to look for all possible solutions to preventing dementias

Learning, especially enriched learning and cognitive training, merits much more consideration and research. Who knows, perhaps learning is not only health promoting but also a potential vaccination against late-life neurodegenerative diseases of the brain. Wouldn’t that be something!

-Dr. Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.