with Douglas Gerwin, Ph. D

Life of the Child Conference 2012

We are excited to offer this glimpse into contemporary research that underlines the need for holistic education. Recent discoveries in neuroscience have completely changed our picture of how human beings learn. Neither blank slates nor computers that are “hardwired,” we seem to have extraordinarily flexible brains that make and re-make neural pathways throughout our lifetimes. And yet within this flexibility there are distinct windows of opportunity for developing and strengthening certain parts of the brain. The implications for learning are great: can we even imagine letting go of a standardized schooling model and educating to support the way our brains actually work?

See the lecture here!:

What Modern Brain Research Says About How Children Learn

Douglas Gerwin, Ph.D., will review the ground-breaking brain research which sheds new light on how—and for how long—our brains develop. This research suggests our brains behave less like computers and more like a dense network of trails in a forest, in which new paths are continually appearing and old ones fading away. The shift to a new metaphor for how our brains function can help us re-enliven our understanding of education and adolescence, and brings us to the heart of two vital questions for our time: what exactly is "intelligence," and how can we foster it in our children in a healthy way?

The Evolution and Art of Thinking

Parenting an adolescent is quite different from raising a grade school child. What in the developing younger child was outwardly apparent may now become more inward and invisible, meaning that what once could be read “like an open book” becomes more of a mystery. How can we educate so that the inner life, the core of a young adult's being, is nurtured and helped to shine forth from within? Dr. Gerwin will discuss how parents and teachers can support a child’s emerging capacities of thought, a source of strength and balance in the teenage years ahead.