{"id":4202,"date":"2019-01-28T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=4202"},"modified":"2019-01-19T14:48:46","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T19:48:46","slug":"big-hairy-audacious-education-proposal-of-the-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/big-hairy-audacious-education-proposal-of-the-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Hairy Audacious Education Proposal of the Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Medina’s books have been a gateway drug for many a brain-focused teacher.<\/p>\n

\"parenting<\/a><\/p>\n

(Like so many others, I myself was introduced to the field by his book Brain Rules<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

His most recent book, Attack of the Teenage Brain!<\/em>, joins a growing list of very helpful authors focused on adolescence and adolescents. (For instance: Sarah-Jayne Blakemore<\/a> and Lisa Damour<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Medina offers many suggestions: you can read about them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One in particular stands out for its combined wisdom and audacity: educating parents<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Follow the Logic<\/h2>\n

Medina follows a straightforward logical chain to his audacious proposal. It goes like this:<\/p>\n

To succeed academically, high school students need extra high doses of executive function<\/em>\u00a0(EF).\u00a0 Sadly, because of the neurobiological tumult of adolescence, the various neural networks that allow for EF struggle to get the job done.<\/p>\n

All that myelination, all that blooming and pruning: it can add up to a cognitive muddle that we call “teenage behavior.”<\/p>\n

Given a) the importance of executive function, and b) the difficulty of EF during adolescence, what can we do to give our teens a boost?<\/p>\n

Sidebar: Defining Executive Function<\/h2>\n

Because we hear so much about EF, you might think that everyone knows what it is.<\/p>\n

In fact, you might have noticed that everyone’s list of executive functions is different — and worry that you’re the only one who doesn’t understand why.<\/p>\n

Don’t fear; it’s not you. Definitions of EF vary widely.<\/p>\n

Medina boils executive function down to three key features: working memory, self-control\/inhibition, and mental flexibility. (That last one creates all sorts of room for definitional variety. So: planning, organizing, task-switching, prioritizing, strategically postponing<\/a>…you get the idea.)<\/p>\n

To strengthen executive function, we can’t really improve working memory<\/a>. But, we might be able to help with self-control and mental flexibility. How might we do so?<\/p>\n

Parenting Matters: So, Try Educating Parents<\/h2>\n

Medina devotes chapter 4 of\u00a0Attack<\/em> to research on parenting and EF.\u00a0 We have all sorts of research to show that the right kind of parenting boosts executive function, and the wrong kind undermines it.<\/p>\n

If good parenting enhances EF, we might improve high school learning by promoting the right kind of parenting. His big hairy audacious suggestion: “a night school annex for parents.”<\/p>\n

As Medina writes:<\/p>\n

“The argument for creating such a program is rooted in a blunt observation: most adults are woefully unprepared to rear children.” (p. 105)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Simply put, the “right kind of parenting” can indeed be taught. It’s called “authoritative” parenting — contrasted with “indulgent,” “indifferent,” and (unhelpfully) “authoritarian” parenting.<\/p>\n

Medina’s parenting annex would teach authoritative<\/em> parenting, thereby improve teens’ EF, and thereby enhance their learning.<\/p>\n

Objections, and Answers<\/h2>\n

Objection #1:<\/strong> who are you to define “the right kind of parenting”? Is my parenting wrong just because you say so?<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/strong> Medina walks his readers through lots of research on this question. The short answer: “the right kind of parenting” results in healthy and effective adults.<\/p>\n

“Permissive” or “authoritarian” parenting isn’t bad because Medina (and Laurence Steinberg) say so. It’s bad because children parented that way struggle as adults.<\/p>\n

You might not agree with their answer, but that’s what they say.<\/p>\n

Objection #2:<\/strong> A night school annex for parents? Let’s be practical: how on earth would that work? The money. The time. The curriculum. The headaches.<\/p>\n

I mean, really?<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/strong> Medina has a curriculum answer, but leaves the other questions for another day. If we as a society ever agree to tackle this problem, we’ll find the money. We’ll fix the headaches.<\/p>\n

In brief: when we decide that educating teens calls for educating parents, we will get the job done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Medina’s books have been a gateway drug for many a brain-focused teacher. (Like so many others, I myself was introduced to the field by his book Brain Rules.) His most recent book, Attack of the Teenage Brain!, joins a growing list of very helpful authors focused on adolescence and adolescents. (For instance: Sarah-Jayne Blakemore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67,64],"class_list":["post-4202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-executive-function","tag-parents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4202"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4209,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions\/4209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}