Think-Thank-Thunk

What do you get when you cross a science nerd with a jazz saxophonist? Apparently, a researcher with enough curiosity, talent and intelligence to actually video, in real time, the brain functions of people at their most creative.

A friend of mine recently pointed me to the story of Charles J. Limb, M.D., a researcher and jazz musician at Johns Hopkins University.

Using advanced MRI scans, Limb and his pals have recently taken some pretty cool pictures of the human brain during intense periods of creativity. Their mission: To measure the difference between a brain in a normal state and one rocking out during a jam session.

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, so this is what it’s all about.

Like many, when I was younger I thought the world was my oyster—probably because it was something my teachers or parents told me. Today I understand that the world is nothing like a slimy mollusk. In academic circles we call this type of thing an “idiom.”

Still, we all want our children to have confidence. So, as a member of civilized society, I think convincing kids that the world is an oyster is good practice. Nothing bolsters the courage of developing children as much as confusing them with obscure idioms. Plus it’s fun to do with a grand sweep of the arm. Like this:

Civilized Parent: (sweeping arms dramatically), “Kid, the world is your oyster.”
Child: “My oyster?”
Civilized Parent: “Yep.”
Child: “Don’t you eat oysters?”
Civilized Parent: “Um . . . sometimes.”

Hint to Parents: At this point I’ve found that if you keep flailing your arms in an enthusiastically encouraging manner, kids will normally just take your word for it and move away—especially when with playmates. Which brings me to my next point.

Parent competition, or My kid is smarter than your kid

When my youngest daughter, Nora, who is five, gets together with her cousins, they always have a good time. But as an unbiased-impartial-civilized-parent-observer, I’m often struck by how different the kids are. Though very close in age, one of them seems strikingly more intelligent. She listens better to instruction, speaks more clearly and has a much greater vocabulary.

And since (again from totally unbiased perspective) the smarter kid belongs to me, I am drawn to this logical conclusion: I am obviously the better parent.

Recent scientific research, however, suggests that all this has much less to do with my parenting skills (and use of oyster idioms) than I thought. Nora and her cousins are the same age, but what I failed to realize is that in order to make a fair comparison, they also must be the of same species, and since Nora’s cousins are from Mars, obviously, they are not.

Nora’s cousins are boys.

Sure their anatomies are different, but their brains? C’mon.

The science (and thus teaching and parenting) of brain based gender differences is a very new field of study, but the research is piling up. Obviously, we all know that boys and girls are different, but we have only recently begun to discover just how very different they are. For years, schools (and parents) have been teaching boys and girls the same things in the same way, partially because we fear that to do otherwise would give one an unfair advantage in the battle of the sexes. We’ve been fooling ourselves.

Study after study has shown now, beyond a doubt, that boys’ and girls’ brains are very different. They use different areas for different tasks (language is just one example). They receive and interpret sensory input differently (girls hear certain tones a staggering 10 times better than boys). They develop and mature at different rates (brain scans of 5-year-old-boys look similar to those of 3.5-year-old girls). Their brains float (as it were) in different hormonal and chemical soups.

For 16 years Dr. Jay Geidd has been using advanced MRI imaging processes to map the development of kids brains.

“In general,” Geidd says, “we think the girls’ brains are maturing a bit faster than the boys’ brains.”

But not in all areas.

“Certain parts of the brain involved in mechanical skills or projectile estimations actually mature somewhat faster in boys,” Geidd says.

But What does this mean?

Dr. Leonard Sax, a psychologist and author of several books on the topic of gender differences agrees.

“Both boys and girls are being shortchanged as a result of the neglect of hard-wired gender differences,” says Sax. “By the age of 12, the geometry area of a girl’s brain looks like an eight-year-old boy’s brain. They’re four years behind. But the language area of a boy’s brain is three-to-four years behind the language areas of a girl’s brain.”

“Girls and boys differ profoundly in how they hear, how they see, how they respond to stress –and those differences are present at birth.”

said the night wind to the little lamb, “do you hear what I hear?”

To illustrate this point, Sax points to a study by Janel Caine at Florida State University that documents the benefits of music therapy for premature babies. What she found was that preemies who were played soft music in their hospital cribs grew faster, had fewer complications, and were allowed to go home sooner than those that were not played music.

But the most interesting part of that study comes to light only after you break the data down by gender. Do this and you find that baby girls who received music therapy in their cribs went home an average of nine and a half days earlier than those that did not. Boy babies, however, left not a single day sooner. Music therapy was great for girls, but did nothing for boys.

Similar studies have confirmed and clarified this information by documenting that for a 1,500 Hz tone (the range of sounds critical for understanding speech), the average baby girl has an acoustic brain response about 80 percent greater than the average boy. It’s no wonder girls seem to learn language skills sooner than boys!

“Patience. you have much yet to learn young grasshopper, er, I mean oyster.”

Yes, yes, I can hear you saying, but what does any of this have to do with oysters or idioms?

The trick for parents and teachers is this: Resist the urge to compare. If we are to have half a chance of convincing our children that the world is their oyster, we have to understand that each child has his or her own unique strengths. These strengths will develop in their own time. Because we love our children and want the best for them, sometimes this schedule may not match up with our developmental expectations. This is often disturbing or irritating. The answer, I think is to remember what oysters do with irritants—they create pearls.

A couple of weeks ago I read an amusing column by Joe Soucheray in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In it he wrote about how the educational system we’re pouring billions of dollars into is failing because it continues to crank out idiots who (among other things) don’t understand that you can actually die from drinking too much water.

Refreshingly, Soucheray’s conclusion wasn’t that teachers aren’t doing their jobs. It was that people are just dumber than they used to be. He wasn’t sure why, but based on how easy it is to find examples of stupidity today, he was quite sure people just don’t have the brains they used to.

He did make some interesting points. If you stop to think about it, initially, it does seem like the number of dumb people is on the rise. Indeed, late night TV talk shows have been ahead of the curve on this one. Except for terrible singers, nothing’s funnier than stupidity. What a great country. Where else is it possible for a society to capitalize on it’s own weaknesses?

It certainly is an easy argument to make. As Jay Leno has shown us, it’s really not that hard to find stupid people these days. Be it history, geography, literature, grammar, current events or mathematics, millions of Americans should know more than they do. This is something I think we can almost all agree upon. It’s why we, as a nation, are always so concerned about the state of education. I mean, when was the last time you heard someone say, “Boy our schools sure are great. Kids today are smarter than ever.”?

But if this is the case—if, for some reason, Americans are indeed getting dumber—logically we should begin to see a drop in the productivity of U.S. workers. Right? But we’re not. According to the U.S. government, worker productivity has been on the rise since the early ‘90s and has accelerated dramatically in the last five years.

According to a recent article in INC. magazine, just one example of this rise in productivity can be found in the insurance industry. On average, in 1991, a worker in insurance contributed $85,000 in revenue to his or her company. Today it’s $250,000. So I guess the only conclusion we can make now is that stupid people (and bad singers), while funny, are still great for the economy.

The problem with the argument that schools are failing or that people are dumber is that they both contain faulty assumptions—that we know what people today should know in order to be productive members of society. Or better yet—we can know.

Children in kindergarten today will be graduating from high school in the year 2019. We don’t know what the world will look like in five years. What are the specific sets of facts or skills that are going to be valuable in the year 2019 and beyond? Will it be important to know where Edmonton is? Should everyone in that graduating class be required to know about John Smith and Pocahontas? How about the capital of
Rhode Island or the elements of the periodic table?

Maybe we should be asking Jay Leno these questions.

Our current educational model was built to meet the needs of industrialism. As such, it is assumes that you should know certain things, and you should be afraid of making mistakes—just like you should be afraid of your boss and to make mistakes on the job. Tests are given so that we know that you know certain things. But let’s face it. Some kids are rebellious. Some kids just don’t care about tests. And sometimes, try as we might, we simply can’t make them afraid.

So today, understanding the complex interplay between all of the issues surrounding society and education, American politicians have devised a system called No Child Left Behind–so that others can be afraid for them. And I think it’s working. Administrators, teachers and school boards across the nation are wringing their hands over test data, devising complex and thorough systems to identify children at risk, and redoubling their efforts to differentiate instruction to fit the unique learning styles of each student.

Thankfully, however, educators aren’t fighting this battle alone. Drs. and pharmaceutical companies are also doing their part by creating and distributing drugs that help fidgety kids stay focused.

“Every educational system around the world has the same hierarchy of subjects,” says Sir Ken Robinson, an expert educator and Senior Consultant for the Paul J. Getty Trust. “At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and at the bottom are the arts. And even within the arts is a hierarchy too. Art and music are usually given a higher status than drama and dance. There isn’t an educational system in the world that teaches children dance every day the way we do mathematics.

“Truly what happens as children grow up is that we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads—and slightly to one side,” he says.

Robinson concludes that the whole purpose of educational systems around the world is to produce university professors. What he advocates we do instead, is to cultivate creativity.

In 1934, Gillian Lynne’s teachers thought there was something wrong with the eight year old because she couldn’t sit still. She couldn’t focus and wasn’t getting anything done. So they recommended her parents bring her to a Dr..

After the initial examination, the Dr. asked her mother to step with him out of the room, leaving the young Gillian on her own. But before he left, he flipped on the radio. Outside, the Dr. simply asked Gillian’s mother to watch her through the window.

“Your daughter is not sick, Mrs. Lynne,” said the Dr.. “She’s a dancer. Take her to a dance school.”
Luckily, she did, and Gillian Lynne excelled. Eventually she met Andrew Lloyd Webber, and has since composed for some of the most successful musicals in history– including “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera.” She’s been extremely successful in her career, contributed greatly to society and culture, given pleasure to millions and is a millionaire many times over.

But I wonder two things:

1. Wouldn’t she have just been better off with some ADHD medication, and
2. Does she know that drinking too much water can kill you?

For a child, losing that first tooth is a significant event. It marks the beginning of the end of “Babyhood,” and can even be viewed as an early of Rite of Passage. For all of those reasons, we will always remember the evening that my oldest daughter, Emma (who is now nine), lost her first tooth. But for us, it also marks the night we received the first of what have so far been seven mysterious yet fascinating letters.

Emma finds them (along with a small amount of money) under her pillow the morning after offering her latest tooth. I think these letters are significant because, for reasons I have yet to discover, the Tooth Fairy has begun to confide in Emma by sharing secrets that, for centuries, have been kept from from the human world. More to the point, the Tooth Fairy has begun to gently pull back the curtain on an incredible world in which magic is a little more complex and interesting than I ever imagined.

Truth be told, I’m not sure the Tooth Fairy would want me posting these letters. But the way I see it, if not, she should have known better than to share magical fairy secrets with a blogger’s daughter.

About a year ago I posted on my personal blogthe first of seven letters we have so far received. Originally I was surprised that the simple little post generated so much interest. But I guess I shouldn’t have been. It’s not every day a person gets the opportunity to learn fairy secrets. And I guess letters from one as famous as the Tooth Fairy are pretty unique.

So here goes. What follows is a copy of each of the seven letters (in chronological order of course) that Emma found under her pillow. I remember that she also found some money, but really, that’s nothing compared to this:

Tooth Fairy Letter #1, Found December 23, 2004

12/23/04

Dear Emma,

Congratulations! You finally lost that tooth!

What a relief. Do you feel any different now that you’ve lost that first tooth? Loosing teeth is a sign that you are growing up. It sure was a long time in coming. I know that most of your friends have already lost a few teeth. Don’t feel bad because you’ve only lost one so far. There are three things that make teeth valuable to me—and this tooth has all three of them. This is a very magical tooth and I’m glad to have it. Do you want to know what those three things are?

1. Age—the older the tooth the better, because it has a longer time to soak in all of the good magic that you create.
2. Health—a good, strong, white, pearly tooth always gives more magic than ones that are starting to decay.
3. Goodness—a tooth from the mouth of a good child always has much more powerful magic in it than a tooth from kids that are naughty. Your tooth is super duper strong and has lots of magic in it.

Emma, I’ll explain more about the magic, and what I do with your teeth later (probably next time you loose a tooth) but for now just understand that you are a very special girl, so you have very special teeth. The teeth that you give me really help me a lot.

So keep on being that wonderful, unique girl that you are. Keep taking care of those teeth. I love you very much. And thank you for letting me have your first tooth. It’s very special, and very magical.

Sincerely,

The Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy

Tooth Fairy Letter #2, Found May 28, 2005

5/28/05

Dear Emma,

Congratulations! You finally lost that second tooth!

And you pulled it out yourself this time! That was very brave. I guess you don’t need anybody (like your teacher) to bump into you anymore. You can take care of this stuff yourself.

Emma, I just have to tell you that I love your teeth. They have such powerful magic in them. It sure is taking a long time for me to get them. But it is so worth the wait. They are so Magical! Can you keep a secret? Don’t tell your friends this, but just one of your teeth has as much magic as 10 of the teeth I normally collect from kids.

Remember what I told you last time about what makes a tooth magical? Age, Health, and Goodness? Well your teeth are so magical because they are high in all three of these things. Keep up the good work!

Emma, let me tell you a little bit about what I do with the teeth I get. A lot of people get confused about this. Some people think I use them like bricks and build magical white castles. Some people think I just collect them in jars and save them. Well I don’t do either of those things. I grind them up.

Yep I grind them up into a really fine powder. Actually I grind them up so much that I make dust. Tooth dust. It’s pretty cool. but also pretty worthless. Worthless, that is, until I add a special secret ingredient that I get from some friends of mine. I’m running out of room here, so I’ll just say that the two ingredients alone don’t have much magic. But when mixed together . . . WOWY ZOWY and PRESTO! MAGIC FAIRY DUST!

If you’re a good secret keeper, I’ll tell you the other ingredient next time. But for now, just keep being the wonderful little girl that you are. You are truly a magical, wonderful child. And I love you.

Sincerely,

The Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy

Tooth Fairy Letter #3, Found September 11, 2005

9/11/05

Dear Emma,

Congratulations! You finally lost that third tooth! And your first top tooth. That’s always fun. Plus now you get to have your second grade picture be special. You’ll have to remember to smile big so the camera can get a good look at that big space in front.

And again you pulled it out yourself ! Well sort of. Actually, lots of kids loose their teeth when brushing them. But here is something that I bet you didn’t know: When a child loses a tooth while brushing, it makes the tooth 10 times more magical. That’s because brushing makes healthy teeth. And you remember the three ingredients for powerful magic, right? Age, health, and goodness.

Emma, I just have to say again how much I love you’re teeth. They have such powerful magic already, but since this one was lost while brushing it’s sure to be supercharged.

Are you keeping my letters, Emma? I only ask because last time I wrote I told you what I do with the teeth that I collect every night from girls and boys all over the world—grind them up into magical fairy dust. But I also said that tooth dust by itself was pretty worthless. Worthless, that is, until I add another super secret ingredient I get from some special friends of mine. I usually don’t tell anybody this, but I feel like I can tell you because you are giving me such powerfully magical teeth.

Well my special friends are bees. But not just any bees. A special group of bees. I’d have more time to write but you lost your tooth right before bed (which is another way to make a good tooth more magical—because I get it when it’s still ultra fresh).

Anyway, I’ll tell you more about my special friends next time, but for now, do you think you can guess the secret ingredient? I’ll give you a hint: It’s very dusty. Good luck! You’re such a smart girl, you’ll probably figure it out lickety-split. But don’t worry if you don’t. I’ll tell you the next time I write—the next time you loose a tooth. Just keep being the wonderful little girl that you are. You are truly a magical and wonderful child. And I love you very much.

Sincerely,

The Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy

Tooth Fairy Letter #4, Found September 17, 2005

9/17/05

Dear Emma,

You must think I‘m magic or something. I mean, you go to bed at 10:00 and still think that I have time to get organized, collect teeth from children all over the world and write you a letter?

Well, you are right—I am magic!

And you sure are cute without those two front teeth.

Have you guessed the secret ingredient yet? Yep, it’s pollen. Each type of pollen and combination and mixture of magic tooth dust creates a different type of magical fairy dust.

Pretty cool, huh.

Well, more next time. I really have to get going—before the sun comes up.

Sincerely,

The Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy

Tooth Fairy Letter #5, Found January 23, 2006

1/23/06

Dear Emma,

Well, it’s been awhile. Do you remember the last time I made a visit? That was way back in September. A lot has happened since then. You are really growing up fast! This is the fifth tooth you’ve lost already. And the sixth one isn’t far behind!

The last letter I wrote to you had to be pretty short because you got to bed at 10:00. This one won’t be much longer. You got to bed at 9:30! But I know that your mom and dad played volleyball last night. So it wasn’t all your fault you got to bed late.

Anyway, awhile back I was beginning to tell you about the secret behind my magic fairy dust. Do you remember the part about how children’s teeth are magical, and I grind them up into a fine powder? But then I also need a special secret ingredient to release the magic. Remember, Emma, that I said it had to do with bees?

Well, this is the secret ingredient—bee pollen! And there are all different kinds depending on the recipe you (or more precisely) the bees make. Do you know what bee pollen is Emma? Do you know where it comes from?

Well, I don’t have time to tell you right now. But unlike everything I’ve told you about the magic, the mystery of bee pollen is not a secret. Just look it up in a book (I know what a good reader you are), or ask your teacher. Your parents probably know too.

Well, until next time, keep being the truly wonderful magical girl that you are. You really are special. You can do anything that you decide to do. All you have to do is try! You are so smart and talented. But another thing that you are is (don’t tell anybody) magic! Yep. You didn’t even know it did you. Some people have real magic in them. Some don’t. But you do! I can see it! It helps you to do the things that you try to do—even when you are a little afraid to do them! Actually the magic helps you the most when you ARE a little afraid to try something—but you try anyway. I’ll explain more about that next time. It’s time for me to fly.

Sincerely,
The Tooth Fairy
The Tooth Fairy

P.S. I hope you can start to stay in your own bed soon. I know you really want to. The magic works much better for you when you do. Plus it makes it easier for me to find you and leave you these messages. When you move around, I kind of loose sight of you.

Tooth Fairy Letter #6, Found January 24, 2006

1/24/06

Dear Emma,

Well, I think that was one of the quickest turn arounds I’ve ever done! The second night in a row! Geez! That’s pretty cool. The sixth tooth. Wow that was fast!

Well, tonight was another night that you went to bed late. Isn’t 8:00 supposed to be your bedtime? Well, I know that it wasn’t your fault again. You do such a good job of helping to get your sister ready. That really helps. And remember, every time you help out, it makes your teeth that much more magical.

Last night you asked me what my name is. It’s Aibell. That was a very good question. I think you have a beautiful name. Emma Dawn. I love that.

I don’t suppose you had enough time to ask about bee pollen yet. That will be your assignment for next time.

I do have a little time to talk about about how your magic works. There is so much that you can do that you don’t know about. Here is the first rule about your magic: You don’t even have to believe that you can do something. To use your magic, all you have to do is to try. Isn’t that amazing? Sometimes believing is hard to do. But trying is easy. Remember when you were afraid to go sledding? You didn’t think you could do it. All you ever had to do was try. It’s like that for lots and lots of things. It’s magic. But you’ll never get to use it until you try to do things that you are a little afraid of doing—like riding a bike, or downhill skiing or roller skating. You don’t even have to believe. All you you have to do is try.

Just one more word about your magic. Don’t go trying to fly out your window or anything like that. Just remember, if your parents say you can do it, you really can! Whether you think so or not.

Sincerely,

The Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy

Tooth Fairy Letter #7, Found March 16, 2006

3/16/06

Dear Emma,

It sure has been a busy year for you and me. This is your seventh tooth already.

Emma, do you know what a Golden Tooth is? No, it has nothing to do with the color. Have you ever heard of a Golden Birthday? That happens when the date of the month is the same as the age that you are turning. So, for instance, if somebody has a birthday on September 10th, their Golden Birthday would happen when they turn 10 years old.

Get it?

Well, a Golden Tooth is very similar to a Golden Birthday. It is created when the number of the tooth that is lost matches the age of the child that loses it.

This is your Golden Tooth! Congratulations. It is very special. And you guessed it, Golden Teeth have a very unique type of magic hidden deeply inside of them. I work with them very differently than all the other teeth I get.

Sometimes one child can give me more than one Golden Tooth. Can you figure out how that might happen? It is possible that you could give me two Golden Teeth. Considering the rate that you are losing teeth this year, it probably won’t happen. But it is possible. Not probable, but possible. I don’t think anybody has ever given me three Golden Teeth.

I really love your teeth, Emma. You are such a wonderful kid. You are growing into a very loving, caring, and patient girl. I can see absolutely amazing, fantastic, and exciting things in your future! Enjoy every minute you can today. After all, you are only a kid once.

Sincerely,

The Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy