[Springboard] from Bill Alerding

[William Alerding]

Mary,  If you and Cyprian want to train  teachers you should contact 
David Lazear (whom I believe is living in Hawaii) about all his great 
work on the multi-intelligences of Dr. Howard Gardner. Teachers badly 
need to know how the human brain learns. Too many are trained 
in"talking to" the students who usually have their bodies trapped in a 
desk. The teachers then try to educate the brain as if it is 
disembodied. Yet the best learning not only uses the 
multi-intelligences but gets the body involved where our long-term 
memories reside.  Long memory-type approaches bore the students to 
death, have the left-brain screaming in protest, and shutting off the 
neurotransmitters in the brain that enhance learning.  When students 
are interested, having fun, using their many intelligences, their 
brains release chemicals that allow long-range learning to take place.

However, the school administration must also buy into this approach. 
They have a nasty habit of punishing creative teachers and either 
driving them out of the profession or just forcing them to give up and 
die inside. You MUST get the administration involved. Teachers need 
their support!

Good luck!

Bill Alerding