There is an adage by memory experts that if someone comes into their office worried about memory problems, there is probably nothing to worry about. However if their son or daughter brings them in, and the person denies that there is anything wrong, it is very likely that there is a problem.

How can we help the aging brain?

“My 83 year old mother is showing signs of forgetfulness” Nola asked me at a family celebration. “You’re the memory expert. Tell me the quick version, ‘Memory 101, what can we to do for her?”Nola is not alone in her concern. Most memory loss is noticed by family members. How can we help them?

I heard a story on NPR about an experiment where rabbits were either fed in cages or at feeding stations in the woods, and these stations were regularly changed. So those rabbits in the wild had to use their brains to figure out where dinner was coming from. When they autopsied their brains, the wild rabbits had many more neurons that the caged bunnies. It was as if every day our brains produce new neurons wanting to get to work. So if we use these new neurons, we can compensate for age related memory loss.

Novel and Stimulating Environments

One of the best ways that we can create new neural networks is to create novel and stimulating environments. This can be as simple as doing a mental games or as elaborate as going on a trip to China. How we do this is limited only by our imagination and our funds, which is why Dr. Paul Nussbaum suggests that having money is a good defense against memory decline. (http://www.paulnussbaum.com/ )

Dr Gary Small has some interesting insights into mental games.

http://www.aging.ucla.edu/memorybible.html. He suggests that we need to include both left brained functions and right brained functions. Left brained functions would include logical analysis, information sequencing, language, mathematics and symbol recognition. This would include crossword puzzles, scrabble, sudoku, anagrams and word scrambles Ordinary activities like making lists of pros and cons or planning out your vacation are also helpful.

Right brained functions involve spatial tasks, musical and artistic abilities, face recognition, depth perception, emotional perception and a sense of humor. This would include taking that water color class, learning to play the piano, visual brain teasers or studying yoga. Planning different routes to get to your usual destinations are also great. Instead of just taking mom to a new medical appointment, give her the Google map and let her give directions. (Of course, the success of this experiment depends both on mom’s degree of memory loss and your sense of direction.)

Exercise, Exercise, Exercise

The brain is very greedy, and it gobbles up most of the oxygen that we take in. This is why when the body is deprived of oxygen, one of the first symptoms is mental impairment.

One of the best ways that we can get more oxygen to the brain is through physical exercise, which is why it is so important to stay active to the extent that we can. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17662247/site/newsweek/) This doesn’t mean that you have to climb Mt. Everest any time soon, although if you did you would have the additional benefit of being in a new and novel environment. A thirty minute brisk walk would do it. It even helps to park farther away from Nordstrom’s at the mall. Which gets into another way to keep your brain young – have fun!

Computer Based Brain Training Exercises

I could go on and on about the other thing that you can do to decrease memory decline – eating a healthy diet, minimizing alcohol (although a glass of red wine can be good), no smoking, stress reduction, treating depression, using the new medications that are coming out to slow cognitive decline – but this is memory 101, not a doctoral thesis. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the computer based brain training exercises that we are doing at Sparks of Genius (www.SparksofGenius.com ). Using games that are specifically designed to improve different areas of mental functioning, our clients have already been able to slow down, stop and reverse mental decline, and we have just started to work with people long distance.

So Nola, that’s Memory 101. We can empower ourselves and our loved ones to decrease age related mental decline and dementia.

By Ninah Kessler, LCSW
Life Coach

1. Mandated exams take away from limited teaching time.

Don’t just count the time required to actually take the exams, include the time to prepare students for the logistics, endless faculty meetings, time to take practice exams. SAT and ACT testing takes place on Saturdays…so why not FCAT (Florida’s Big Test) testing, too?

2. The Tests do not provide the intended measure.

What each test measures is how well a student took that particular test. Period. Claims that the exams measure reading ability, math mastery or science proficiency are all disputed.

Here in Florida, we have a huge immigrant population who speak English as a second language. Since the government must acronymically label everyone, these students are referred to as ESOL – English Speakers of Other Languages.

What’s the problem? These students must take their exams in English, not in their native language. Thus, their exam grades reflect a combination of their English Mastery and the subject matter. Imagine having to take a Science test in French. They can’t win. If I had to take a reading test but in Spanish, they’d say I was illiterate, too!

3. Exams are skewed by culture.

The standards, questions and priorities are all set by primarily middle-class white people. They assume a certain set of background knowledge that is common among middle-class white folk, and since the impoverished, minorities and immigrants have a different background, they are penalized.

4. High-performing schools are penalized.

An ‘A’ rated school will have a tough time showing any progress or improvement. They may have the ‘A’ but the law of diminishing returns increases the difficulty and expense in terms of resources to push scores even higher.

5. Poor schools are penalized.

If we are going to make an apples-to-apples comparison, we can’t ignore the impact of having the right, and enough, tools for the job. If there are not enough teachers, text books, classrooms, or computers at a particular school, learning achievements will naturally falter when stood side-by-side with an affluent school that has their own T.V. studio. That problem is doubly compounded when you consider that students at those poor schools are poor themselves and thus face the socioeconomic disadvantages that come with that dilemma.

6. “Improvements” are baloney!

How can you tell if a school improved? Compare this year’s score with last year’s, right?

WRONG!

The students who took the exam last year are not the same students who take it this year. They are different people. It’s an entirely new student body! Think how this might apply to real life. At work your boss sends group 1 to a leadership seminar, then he sends group 2 to the seminar. Everyone then takes a quiz on the material covered. Group 2 scores higher…the seminar must have improved!

There is–maybe–a way around this: the growth model. Under the growth model, reported by the NY Times, schools are evaluated at least in part by how individual students progress on exams. So little Susie is no longer compared to Johnnie, who is a year behind her. Instead Susie as a fourth grader is compared to Susie as a 7th grader. This makes more sense, but still won’t save us.

7. Exams ignore student effort.

This won’t be popular, but let me be honest for a moment: some kids fail because they don’t make (enough of) an effort. You can’t teach the unwilling. Why they are unwilling is important yes, but is a completely separate issue from school/teacher efficacy. Again, poor students are prone to find school useless.

There are students with Christmas tree attendance, who drop out to sell fruit and run cock-fights, who have to miss two weeks to watch their siblings while their parent is gone, who live with a distant cousin because mom and dad are stuck back in Haiti. They can’t make enough of an effort. They’re just trying to live. But standardized tests insist on cramming them into the middle-class white mold in which they so obviously do not fit.

8. Testing decisions are made by unqualified bureaucrats.

We’re talking about government agencies from the White House, Department of Education, State Government, School Districts, Administrations and advisory boards and committees. The government is the body which cannot deliver your mail on time and buys $800 hammers, remember? Why would we trust that they can deliver high-quality education?

Elected officials and appointed officials have their own agendas. Academics have their own agendas. Teachers have their own agendas. Yet the more contact, training and experience with students one has, the less influence one has on the big decisions. This guarantees that education is used for political gain, with education taking a back seat.

These people decide when, how, who, what, and where testing takes place. They decide what is on and off the test. They call the shots, and most have little or no experience actually teaching.

9. Testing ignores parental involvement.

Along with hundreds of additional factors that impact student performance, parental involvement is completely ignored. On one end of the spectrum are the parents who are in regular contact with teachers, who hire private tutors, who help with homework and maintain a great learning environment at home. At the other end is an unrelated guardian who demands that the student drop out and get a job so they can help pay the bills. That has a real impact, as do all the intermediary positions, yet are totally ignored.

---

I’m sure you can come up with dozens of flaws I missed. But all hope is not lost! Next time I’ll be writing:

Why Standardized Testing Is So Desperately Needed!

Good luck!
Allen Dobkin